Wednesday, June 28, 2017

Forza Horizon 3: Baby Jag born again

By the time you laid your hands on the Jaguar XE on Forza Horizon 3's Duracell Car Pack, you might start asking how in the name of all things bright and beautiful is this baby Jaguar doing here even though it comes with the similar supercharged V6 engine as the F-Pace you tried out moments ago. To explain what I'm on about, let's investigate what's it all about the rebirth of the baby Jag.



When Jaguar once made the X-Type in the last decade, they wanted to make a car that can compete against the BMW 3-Series but because of its Ford-derived platform and front-wheel drive, it was a disaster and they killed it. Fast forward to this decade and Jaguar's back in making a 3-Series rival in the form of the new XE. Launched in 2015, it was the first Jaguar to use a brand new platform that will be used in upcoming models for cost-saving measures. With this, the aluminum bodywork, and rear-wheel drive, the XE is the most important car in the Jaguar range. For the time being, the top-of-the-line model comes with the 3.0L Supercharged V6 engine derived from the F-Type. With the 8-speed automatic gearbox present, it produces 340PS of power and 450Nm of torque. 0-60mph takes about 4.9 seconds and top speed electronically limited to 155mph.



As you'd expect, the Jaguar XE is no X-Type on the contrary and because this car is surprisingly lighter than the Germans, it was no surprise that the XE handles like a Jag and despite having problems with that electric power steering in terms of handling sharply, you can really get hooked on this baby Jag as long as you want and because this is Horizon, you have endless possibilities to do with the XE as I shall now demonstrate.





See what I did to the XE? I've experiment with this car using a supercharged V8 because I just heard that Jaguar are doing some kind of experiment to inject their supercharged V8 engine for their limited-edition XE reserved for the privileged few so I reckon I can do the same thing...sorta. Apart from that, my test subject car is donning a special kind of design I made just for this. What? Don't know this face? That's Aikatsu Stars' Mahiru, now donning her sister's S4 uniform after claiming her sister's spot and become her successor. Anyway, long story short but this is the kind of thing I'm reflecting on this case study and with the test subject XE in question armed with the supercharged V8 and four-wheel drive, along with the very cute design to lure them to its trap, looks like its ready to spin its wheels and have a shot at it. Oh, and better get your headphones ready because I'm sure you're going to love it.



Man that noise is so cool, makes me want to listen to it over and over again but anyway, while the electric power steering upsets the 4WD setup on my test subject, unless you master limited-slip differential knowledge, it's a clear reminder that this kind of experiment with its howling V8 engine powering all four wheels is the kind of simulation that I expect from the folks from Jaguar and because it's ready to unleash their kind of XE to the public, nothing like simulating the future by creating one and looks like I'm looking forward to it.

In the meantime, let's look back at the XE. In its stock form, it wasn't so bad to drive but with the little creativity, just imagine how much untapped potential you can come up with that baby Jag and if you get used to your creation, you're going to get hooked with it over and over until it needs refining. The more you know and that's how you do with your new Jaguar XE in the Land Down Under only here on FH3.

No comments: