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Jaguar's V8-powered XE looks to take aim at the BMW M3

It seems that Jaguar's littlest sedan is about to get one of the company's biggest engines. One of our spy photographers caught the company testing a disguised XE. While most people's first instincts would be to dissect the car, our photographer paid some extra attention to the number plate, and looked up the car's registration. He says the registration reveals that this little car is packing a 5.0-liter V8. The only sort of 5.0-liter V8 Jaguar makes is supercharged and makes 550 horsepower or more. So what we're probably looking at is a future 550-horsepower XE R. On the car itself, there appear to be larger intake vents on each side of the front bumper, likely for cooling off a much bigger, hotter engine. And of course a more aggressive appearance. The V8 theory is further backed up by the quad-tip exhaust that clearly needs more development. Aside from these changes, this XE looks pretty similar to the sportier models in the current range. It has the same side skirts as the XE R-Sport and XE S. It also uses the same wheels as the XE S. We can safely say that at least the wheels will be different when the V8 model reaches production. As for when that will be, we'd say don't expect to see a revealed production model for at least a year, and possibly more, since there appears to be a decent amount of development left to do. Related Video:

Jaguar names its 3 Series-fighter XE, packs it with Ingenium engines

Jaguar is committed to emerging from the fringes of the luxury car market and into the mainstream. Just take a look at where it was a couple of decades ago and where it is now: In the 1980s, it had essentially two product lines, the XJ sedan and XJ-S coupe/convertible), and now it's got the XK coupe and convertible, the XJ sedan, the XF sedan and wagon and the F-Type coupe and roadster. But it's not about to stop there.
Coventry knows that if it's going to take on the German and Japanese heavyweights, it's going to need a compact sports sedan, and it's not about to repeat the mistake that was the X-Type. To that end, it's long been rumored to be developing a rival to the likes of the BMW 3 Series and Mercedes-Benz C-Class - it just hasn't given us much to go on. But that changes right here and now.
At the Geneva Motor Show, Jaguar has confirmed the imminent arrival of its new sports sedan, and along with the teaser image above, has given us some juicy details. For one, it'll be called the XE - fitting nicely alongside its big brothers the XF and XJ in Jaguar's growing sedan lineup. For another, it'll hit markets overseas in 2015 and arrive here in the United States in 2016.

We drove to the Grand Tour Lapland taping in a British beater

In October, it was revealed that the Great British Motoring Show That Is Not Top Gear was going to be filming an episode somewhere in Finland. I happen to be Finnish, which meant I immediately applied for audience tickets, and then waited for the phone to ring. It never did, but a friend of mine got two tickets of his own. By that time it was announced that the filming was going to take place "somewhere in Lapland", and more precisely hundreds of kilometers north from the Arctic Circle. Excellent! We knew just how to get there. This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings. Last summer, we spent GBP1000 ($1230 as of the publishing date) on a running and driving, British Racing Green Daimler Six on eBay and drove it home to Finland the long way, via Scotland. (In America, this car is known as the Jaguar XJ Vanden Plas.) It was still a little bit road legal in early November, as we had attempted to get it through Finnish import inspection. It failed on the grounds of the rocker panel welds being a bit crusty, but the following one-month grace and repair period meant we could still drive it on temporary sticker plates. So, after buying a set of Nokian winter tires the previous week, we set off from Helsinki the day before the filming. This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings. There is nothing quite like driving the entire length of Finland in a right-hand-drive four-liter rebadged Jaguar in one day – still on British plates, albeit taped over. We clocked up over 1100km in the comfort of the leather interior, whisked away by the four-liter six's oomphy torque and ambient thrum; every now and then stopping for fuel, swapping drivers and wiping the headlights clean from accumulating highway muck. As we passed Rovaniemi and the Santa's Village, roads gradually got so slippery the Nokians really proved their worth. Reindeer flocked on the road, along with foxes and the single white rabbit (he did not have a pocket watch, as far as we could tell). It was not the lack of sleep doing us in, even if the hotel bed was sorely needed after finally reaching the village of Saariselka in deepest Lapland. After a celebratory beer while watching Finnish karaoke, of course. But the show! The next day we spotted the Fisker, the Boxster, and the Saab 900 driving back from taping the show's localized intro.