I'd like to think it was my devilish good looks and roguish charm that got me that long, lingering look from the beauty in the péage booth above Monaco, but the brutal truth is it was probably the Jaguar. Her smiling blue eyes turned me inside out, but for the last 1500 miles the lanceolate XK8 Convertible had turned heads and invited comment in five languages. I was outclassed. The car wasn't just a babe magnet, it was a people magnet.The journey had begun north of London five days earlier when I'd pressed the start button on a journey this 2+2 seemed made for: a European Grand Tour in the old tradition, touching France, Spain, Italy and Switzerland. Three thousand miles of motorway and mountain pass, sun-kissed coast and sunflower-lined lanes lay ahead of me.At this halfway point, my love affair with the car was born of a growing trust and respect. Everyone else's was born of its heart-squeezing looks and heart-stopping sound. And I mean everyone from elderly ladies to small children. I watched a racing driver grin as I pulled slowly out of his drive, my B&B landlady in the Loire valley dream of past adventures in an E-Type, a retired German police bodyguard get his camera out, and a little kid near La Rochelle just stand and gape in silence at its nose. This car was acting as a bridge to other people and I loved it for that.I loved it for much more than that too. This latest reincarnation of the XK leapt onto the market earlier this year with a 300bhp 4.2-litre V8 petrol engine, capable of pulling the 1.6-tonne sportscar up to 60mph in six seconds then up to an electronically limited 155mph top speed. It's more powerful than the outgoing model, and greater use of aluminium in construction means it's lighter. That means it's quicker and more agile.It uses an upgraded version of Jaguar's famous J-gate auto/semi-automatic gear shift to stuff the power to the rear wheels through a deselectable traction control unit and it was held firm on the road by the latest version of the company's Computer Active Technology Suspension (CATS).That's the science, but there's something very special about the way that all pulls together on the road.For ten days I followed the same rituals with the car and every time they made me smile. I'd approach the Jaguar each morning and, thanks to the Smart Key in my pocket, just pull on the door handle to unlock and open it.Swinging into the leather driver's seat, a stab of the red Start/Stop button brought a throaty growl from the engine, like a big cat warning that if you come any closer it'll have your leg.Holding a rocker switch for about 18 seconds drew back the black fabric top and folded it into a trough in the boot. It encroaches on the luggage space but I got a suit carrier and a 90-litre rucksack in there and still had room for a bits and bobs. A few stabs at the touch-screen multi-function control panel brought up the sound system and the sat-nav map, and I was ready to roll.And what a way to roll. Over 3000 miles the car never once missed a beat. You'd expect it to do motorways well at ridiculous speeds, and long loping trunk roads to slip under the wheels with the minimum of fuss, but it was out in the countryside where it really showed its sporting pedigree.Unclassified roads snaking through vineyards and sunflower fields, scarred with poorly treated wounds in the tarmac, tested the suspension to the max. The 19" alloys skipped lightly through the ripples on the straight, yet the CATS, working independently on all four corners to stiffen the dampers, held the big car almost flat round the curves.The only time it showed any twitch was on the no-grip metal expansion joints in the curving motorway bridges above Nice and Monaco - but twitch is literally all you could feel.Up in the Pyrenees it really came alive. Most of the time I'd driven in automatic, but on the switchbacks and bends up through the tree-line to the high mountain passes, I worked with the paddle-shift. Keeping the revs up and skipping slick and quick between gears two and three, the system did what I asked, when I asked it.Rising up through the gears I was playing orchestral crescendos on the twin exhaust pipes, then listening to them bark as I'd drop a cog for the bends. The grin lines have been etched into the tan on my face.Almost all of the journey was done with the roof down and all I got was a ruffling of the top of my head and enough light airs around the cabin to flip the pages of my map-book. The one place I did put it up was in the St Gotthard tunnel in Switzerland. Tunnels are as noisy and smelly as the inside of an exhaust pipe, but with the roof up and the air-con on it was quiet and relaxed.After touching five countries in ten days I can happily say the XK8 is the perfect grand tourer. It's quick, it's beautiful and, despite my enthusiasm in the mountains and high speed mile-eating on the toll-roads, by the end of my roof-down trip the car's computer registered an amazing average of 28.8 miles per gallon.To mere mortals, the £66,000 price tag is not light, but there's simply nothing else out there for that money with this blend of heritage and performance, universal appeal and long-haul practicality. I can see motoring purists getting excited about the more powerful XKR, but if you want to tour hard, turn heads and not burn your wine money on petrol, you can't beat the XK8. Every time you sit in it you'll smile, and every time you get out of it you'll glow with pride. Engine 4196 cc, 8 cylinders Power 300 bhp @6000 rpm Torque 310 ib/ft @4100 rpm Transmission 6 speed semi-auto Fuel/CO2 25 mpg / 269 g/km Acceleration 0-62mph: 6sec Top speed 155 mph Price From £64621.00 approx Release date 16/03/2006
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