2000 Jaguar Xj8 L Sedan on 2040-cars

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Here's what a front-row seat looked like in 2014 Mille Miglia

From 1927 to 1957, the Mille Miglia was one of the great, romantic European road races of the golden era of motorsports. The cars were fast, beautiful and loud but also extremely dangerous and regularly claimed drivers' lives. After two fatal accidents in '57, the event finally had to reform and came back in 1977 as a historic rally held over the course of several days. That didn't make things boring, though, and Xcar found that out firsthand with a front-row seat to this year's race in a 2015 Jaguar F-Type R Coupe.
Xcar was actually following the Jaguar team this year that included Ian Callum and Jay Leno in an XK120, which we previously got a glimpse of when it was covered on Jay Leno's Garage. Where Leno focuses on a more personal story of competing, this one takes a more macro view. You really get an idea of how crazy the Mille Miglia still is, and while the F-Type is way too new to actually compete in the rally, it can still wear an event sticker and drive with the vintage racers.
One amazing fact about today's Mille Miglia is that if you're competing in the event, there are basically no rules. The roads are technically still open to traffic, but the police shut down intersections and provide a rolling roadblock. Xcar's F-Type alternated between following on the course with the classics and snipping off chunks of the route to watch the participants arrive at each stop. Check out the video to experience fantastic historic rally.

A car writer's year in new vehicles [w/video]

Christmas is only a week away. The New Year is just around the corner. As 2014 draws to a close, I'm not the only one taking stock of the year that's we're almost shut of. Depending on who you are or what you do, the end of the year can bring to mind tax bills, school semesters or scheduling dental appointments. For me, for the last eight or nine years, at least a small part of this transitory time is occupied with recalling the cars I've driven over the preceding 12 months. Since I started writing about and reviewing cars in 2006, I've done an uneven job of tracking every vehicle I've been in, each year. Last year I made a resolution to be better about it, and the result is a spreadsheet with model names, dates, notes and some basic facts and figures. Armed with this basic data and a yen for year-end stories, I figured it would be interesting to parse the figures and quantify my year in cars in a way I'd never done before. The results are, well, they're a little bizarre, honestly. And I think they'll affect how I approach this gig in 2015. {C} My tally for the year is 68 cars, as of this writing. Before the calendar flips to 2015 it'll be as high as 73. Let me give you a tiny bit of background about how automotive journalists typically get cars to test. There are basically two pools of vehicles I drive on a regular basis: media fleet vehicles and those available on "first drive" programs. The latter group is pretty self-explanatory. Journalists are gathered in one location (sometimes local, sometimes far-flung) with a new model(s), there's usually a day of driving, then we report back to you with our impressions. Media fleet vehicles are different. These are distributed to publications and individual journalists far and wide, and the test period goes from a few days to a week or more. Whereas first drives almost always result in a piece of review content, fleet loans only sometimes do. Other times they serve to give context about brands, segments, technology and the like, to editors and writers. So, adding up the loans I've had out of the press fleet and things I've driven at events, my tally for the year is 68 cars, as of this writing. Before the calendar flips to 2015, it'll be as high as 73. At one of the buff books like Car and Driver or Motor Trend, reviewers might rotate through five cars a week, or more. I know that number sounds high, but as best I can tell, it's pretty average for the full-time professionals in this business.

Jaguar details XE for North America

Jaguar is bringing the XE to North America next spring, and in advance of its arrival, the British automaker is giving us more details on its new compact sports sedan. The top engine choice is dubbed the XE 35t, which is a little misleading since its tried-and-tested 3.0-liter V6 is actually supercharged, not turbocharged. Regardless of the manner of forced induction, its 340 horsepower and 332 pound-feet of torque are claimed to propel the XE to 60 miles per hour in 4.9 seconds on its way to an electronically limited top speed of 155 miles per hour. Buyers looking for something more frugal at the pump may be more interested in the other engine option. The XE 20d adopts Jaguar's new Ingenium diesel, a 2.0-liter turbocharged inline-four good for 180 hp and 318 lb-ft of torque. That's quoted for a 0-60 time of 7.4 seconds and a top speed of 140 mph. Both are mated to an eight-speed automatic transmission. All-wheel drive will also be available on both versions, but come by default in rear-drive form. Buyers will also have the choice among three trim levels, staring with Premium, moving up to Prestige and on to R-Sport with satin chrome and gloss black trim, a rear spoiler and 20-inch alloys. Pricing is set to be announced closer to launch, but for now you can scope out the details in the press release below, and watch this space for our upcoming drive report to follow our earlier report. JAGUAR XE ALL-NEW COMPACT SPORTS SEDAN TO EXPAND JAGUAR U.S. LINEUP IN 2016 - All-new Jaguar XE sports sedan to arrive in U.S.