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Jaguar demanding customer data from reluctant dealers

Nearly every major business is collecting consumer data these days, and keeping that data secure has come to the forefront of many customer's minds. Jaguar Land Rover North America's decision to begin requesting more customer info from its dealer network appears unfortunately timed, however. If it had come a few years ago, it might have been ignored, but in today's climate of heightened awareness, a few dealers are pushing back. To put the showrooms in an even tougher position, JLR NA is threatening to deny quarterly incentives if they do not turn over the customer data, according to Automotive News.
JLR NA instated the nationwide plan, which it calls Single View CRM, on February 7, but according to Stuart Schorr, Jaguar Land Rover North America Vice President of Communications, the automaker has been negotiating with its dealers to institute the new program for over a year. Schorr tells Autoblog that no financial information is being shared, noting that such data is limited to customer details, including things like what vehicles they own and whether they have any pending service. The initiative is meant to "improve customers' and owners' engagement with the brand," he said. Also, the company is not accessing dealer data itself; instead showrooms are asked to enter the info into JLR's database.

Jaguar F-Pace, XE getting SVR treatment with supercharged V8

The folks at Jaguar Land Rover's new Special Vehicle Operations division have been fast at work creating new SVR performance models. And they're not about to stop now. Two new Jaguar models are currently in the works, according to Car and Driver, both packing the company's long-serving and celebrated supercharged V8. First up is the F-Pace crossover, which currently tops out with a 380-horsepower supercharged V6. Slotting the bigger engine in under the hood with more than 500 horsepower on tap would go a long way toward living up to the name that suggests both speed and a correlation to the F-Type sportscar. But that's not all JLR's new skunkworks department has in store. Car and Driver reports work is also under way on a more powerful XE to take on the likes of the BMW M3 and Mercedes-Benz AMG C63. The automaker is reportedly yet to give it the green light, hemming and hawing over its environmental image, but we hope hotter heads, in this case, prevail. Jaguar's V8 engine is one of its most enduring powertrains and is approaching double the output it originally offered. The 4.0 introduced in 1997 packed 375 horsepower. The latest version in the F-Type SVR (and expected soon to slot into the Range Rover Sport SVR) displaces 5.0 liters and produces 575 supercharged horsepower. With that much muscle, the F-Pace SVR would overpower the Porsche Cayenne Turbo S, BMW X5 M, and Mercedes-AMG GLE63, while the XE SVR would outgun the M3, Cadillac ATS-V, Alfa Romeo Giulia QV, and just about anything else in its class. Related Video:

Highlights from the Goodwood Festival of Speed, including the McLaren P1 and a Ford Transit running the hill

The sole purpose of this post is as a time-waster, and since you shouldn't have to work to waste time, we've done it for you. In the numerous videos below you'll find cars that have lately been in the news tramping all over the grounds of Lord March's estate in Goodwood, England.
There's the McLaren P1 heading up the hill, the Jaguar Project 7, then a casually-driven Porsche 917 followed by an even-more-casually-driven Porsche 956, topped off by a Porsche 936 that is anything but casually driven. The next round is the flame-spitting Peugeot 405 T16 Pikes Peak from Climb Dance, a camera mounted on the Peugeot RCZ R after it showing you what the whole, uninterrupted run up the hill looks like. For a real head-turner, we couldn't embed it but there's Andy Reid blasting up the hill in a Ford Transit Supervan with a Cosworth 3000 V6 engine.
The modern racing contingent has Allan McNish doing the hill in the Audi R18 e-tron quattro he used to win Le Mans and Lewis Hamilton making lots of tire smoke in the Mercedes-AMG Petronas MGP-W02. For comparison, that's followed by Nick Heidfeld's record-setting run up the hill in 1999 in the McLaren MP4/14 . The classic racing contingent is headlined by 71-year-old Giacomo Agostini on an MV Agusta.