Jaguar XJ

Two standard Jaguar XJ All-Wheel Drives have returned successfully from a 2000-mile round trip journey to the coldest city on earth.

On December 19th, thermometers in Dawson City recorded -49ºC (-56F), reportedly making the gold-rush town in Canada’s Yukon Territory the coldest town on the planet – so cold in fact that if you threw a cup of hot water in the air, it instantly turned into a mini blizzard, freezing before it hit the ground. Perhaps the greatest North American drive in the depths of winter, the aim of the journey was to drive from the Yukon capital Whitehorse (1800 miles north of Vancouver, BC) to a point of perpetual sunset in the shortest daylight week of the year. The cars employed for the epic adventure were a pair of Jaguar’s recently launched AWD models, powered by the new 340PS 3.0-litre V6 supercharged petrol engine.

Jaguar Global Brand Director Adrian Hallmark said: “The cars excelled in conditions way beyond limits likely to be experienced even by owners in North America and cold weather climates such as Russia.  Deep snow, sheet ice, gravel and rutted frozen mud were underfoot the whole way. With this capability our XF and XJ saloons are perfect for the North American winter.”

The XJ AWD’s adventure has been captured in a film released today to coincide with the opening of the North American International Auto Show in Detroit.

The film follows the expedition into the Arctic Circle. Starting at Whitehorse, the capital of the Yukon and an important point of the Alaska Highway, the cars followed the mighty Yukon River north to Dawson City, scene of the gold rush in the 1890’s.  Dawson is located at the bottom end of the Dempster Highway, domain of the Ice Road Truckers, which runs past the Arctic Circle to the town of Inuvik in the Northwest Territories.

The US-spec cars only special equipment were Pirelli winter tyres. They were filled with original equipment Castrol Edge synthetic oil and other standard fluids.

Jaguar AWD at-a-glance:

  • The AWD system is powered exclusively by Jaguar’s new 3.0-litre V6 supercharged petrol engine in 340PS form driving through an eight-speed automatic transmission and featuring Stop/Start technology.
  • Jaguar AWD operates ‘intelligently’, continuously monitoring grip levels and driver inputs to both pre-empt and react to wheel-slip, enabling maximum traction in all conditions.
  • Feed-forward torque distribution allows the system to actively anticipate wheel slippage and prevent it occurring, therefore providing greater driver confidence and vehicle stability in low-grip scenarios. Torque split can be up to 50:50 front/rear.
  • At speed in normal grip conditions the AWD system delivers drive predominantly to the rear wheels, thus providing the dynamic driving experience all Jaguars are renowned for, while maximising powertrain efficiency.
  • Suspension and steering systems have also been reengineered in order for the AWD XF and XJ to match their rear-wheel drive counterparts’ acclaimed driving dynamics.
  • All-Wheel Drive versions of the XF and XJ saloons are available in selected markets from January 2013.
  • North America, Russia, China and continental Europe will account for the majority of sales for the new AWD models.
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Alan Stevenson-Galvin (Skii)
Racing games is where my love for cars started. Always wanting to play more and more realistic games until I was allowed to get behind the wheel. Combine this with my love for technology and that has made me who I am today. I love to see my two passions combining and see what technologies are being used in the latest cars.

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