Unless you take the extra step of opting for the Portfolio special edition, this is the ultimate Jaguar XK. Take the "basic" car, add £10,000 for a supercharger and the extra bits needed to deal with it, plus a further £6000 for the convertible option, and there you have it - the ceiling of the XK range, at a price slightly north of £76,000.Is it worth that? Well, after a week behind the wheel I'd say it is, though I must admit I wasn't so sure at the start of this test. The defining moment came quite late on, when I had the opportunity to drive the XKR over 80 miles or so of more or less deserted country roads, with an almost unequalled range of corners from tight uphill hairpins to long sweepers.In this environment the XKR responds best to firm treatment. Not rough treatment, mind you - it won't stand for that. But you do need to drive it positively. A businesslike entry to the corner (easy to overdo since the steering is pretty light), a pause to let the suspension settle, a determined application of the accelerator at the right moment; that's what does it. That's what makes this a properly sporting car, a beautifully balanced delight.Anything less and it feels as if the jigsaw is missing a few pieces. The XKR is not a car that works particularly well when you're going slowly. It's not that it's fussy, or that there is any suggestion of it straining at the leash, more that it seems to be the wrong car for what you're trying to do.And that could be a bit of a problem if you happen not to be within reach of a really interesting road. In London, for example, you have to rely on the styling, and perhaps the conveyance of the message that you're the sort of person who can afford a car with the potential that this one has.In the matter of styling there isn't much room for argument. I prefer the Coupé myself, but the Convertible is still an entrancing-looking car. Pedestrians gaze at it fondly; other drivers can't resist a quick glance in its direction. The only time I managed to attract even more than the usual amount of attention during this test was when the roof was down and I gave Maria Sharapova a lift to the supermarket. (My lawyers have urgently advised me to clarify that this incident did not in fact take place, but you get the point.)But for all that I'm not a fan of the XKR in town. Shortly after the car arrived I gave a lift to a theatre director from the pub we had originally chosen as a meeting place to a quieter one a few blocks away. (This bit's true. The Maria bit wasn't, but this is.) "It's remarkably bumpy, isn't it?" he said, as we puttered down a reasonably well-surfaced back street at no more than 20mph.It is indeed remarkably bumpy in these conditions, certainly if you have the optional 20" wheels and 35-section tyres as fitted to the test car. The extra fuss and bother they create slightly overcome the sub-Coupé torsional stiffness of the roofless XK and set it shaking, though remarkably enough all this smooths itself out the harder you push the car.There does seem to be a fairly straight line on the graph relating speed to ability. At a middling performance level - out of town but not going particularly hard, for whatever reason - the XKR is moderately capable but it can still be criticised. Regardless of the details of engine and body style, every XK has an uncertain quality to the front end which makes it feel as if its shoelaces are undone. It doesn't exactly wallow and it doesn't quite rock and it doesn't pitch unduly, but it comes close enough to doing all these things to make it feel not quite right.It's only when you bring the back end into play - that wonderful back end which, as in all current high-performance Jaguars, heartily accepts the 4.2-litre supercharged V8 engine's 420bhp and wonders why it's not getting more - that the XKR finally achieves its full potential.I think it's safe to say that nobody would buy an XKR Convertible for its practicality. The old XK was shockingly cramped, but this one is outstandingly better, at least in the front. Owners of the previous car were asked if they wanted more room in the rear, and they said they didn't, so they don't get any; the back seats are so unsuitable for human use that it's a wonder Jaguar bothers to fit them.The fabric roof is a long way from being the best on the market. There doesn't seem to be much to it, and it lets in substantially more noise than a similar item built by, say, Audi would do. It folds away quickly, but not quite as elegantly as I would have hoped in a car costing more than £76,000, and once it's tucked into the boot it leaves a not very helpful 200 litres of luggage space. (Even with the roof up, the Convertible's boot can cope with just 283 litres, 17 short of what the Coupé provides.)Putting the roof down is the only way to achieve any half-decent rear visibility. In Coupé or in roof-up Convertible form, the XK is not good at this, but I know it was never part of the design objective. I grumbled about it to Jaguar designer Ian Callum, and his reply was, "That's what rear parking sensors are for!" Fortunately they're fitted as standard; front sensors are available as an option.So is a keyless entry system, which notices when the key is nearby and lets you open the doors and switch on the engine without actually slotting it into anything. That's the theory, at least - on a couple of occasions a message came up on the instrument display saying that the key hadn't been detected (even though it was sitting on the centre console) and I had to lock and unlock the doors to give the system a second chance of finding it.I liked the multiple adjustability of the seats, but not their lack of side support. That's odd for such a sporty car, and it's even odder that you can get much better seats in an X-Type costing £50,000 less. This is just one of several quirks that you have to accept if you want to experience what is in many ways a remarkable vehicle. Engine 4196cc, 8 cylinders Power 420bhp Fuel/CO2 22.9mpg / 294g/km Acceleration 0-62mph: 5.3 seconds Top speed 155mph Price £76,097 Details correct at publication date
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