Jaguar XJ Testing

More British luxury news today! Bentley, Land Rover and now Jaguar. Jaguar made big waves with it's London debut of the XJ sedan on July 9th. With style drawn heavily on the C-XF Concept that previewed the XF (but was designed after it), it has proven to be the best expression of Jaguar's design language yet.

Until now though we haven't seen any live shots of the sedan out on the road. Over at Autoblog, KGP Photography has taken some shots of the XJ testing in California's Death Valley.

I've travelled through the California desert, and practically the only thing interesting about the trip is seeing test vehicles. I've seen a few but I'm always hoping to catch something really special - hasn't happened yet though. Automakers love to test out in the desert for a variety of reasons.

The excruciating heat for one, but also the open spaces for acceleration/speed testing, and the remote location that makes the car less likely to be captured (and not to mention makes it more expensive and monotonous for spy photographers). Brave spy photographers, risking their lives to bring us the latest and greatest - err, something like that.

In the majority of the pictures, the XJ was taken showing a color that I don't think does much for the car at all. It still looks excellent but for instance the black car that was caught also - a stunner. I look forward to seeing the XJ in person soon. Nothing quite replaces seeing a new vehicle in person! You'll want to check out Autoblog's XJ Gallery in the meantime though.