F-Body Europe

Jeremy isn’t exactly a massive fan of diesel cars. But he does like Jags and screaming around race tracks. So we came up with a simple challenge for him. Take the new Jaguar S-type diesel to the legendary Nurburgring circuit in Germany and complete one full lap in less than ten minutes. This was no small task, bearing in mind that even a full-on hypercar like a Porsche Carrera GT needs a talented driver who really knows the track to get below eight minutes, and the Jag was saddled with a) a lot less power and b) a middle-aged man with a dicky hip and a hangover behind the wheel. Nonetheless, the result was extraordinary.

* Many of the tracking shots around the Nurburgring were filmed from a Jaguar S-type R. It was one of Jag’s development fleet which lives permanently at the company’s new testing centre just next to the circuit.
* Some people noticed that in the brief shots of the Jag’s wheel going round the brake callipers seemed to be a different colour. Hands up on this one - we cheated a little bit by bolting a camera to the S-type R chase car, which had fancier brakes than Jeremy’s diesel.
* Normally when we film a car on a track, we use a second ‘chase’ vehicle, laden with cameras to get lots of interesting shots. We wanted to do the same at the Nurburgring while Sabine was doing her laps, but there was a problem. We couldn’t keep up. In the end, Jaguar lent us its chief test driver and local racing legend Wolfgang Schubauer to drive the chase car. The result was some of the fastest tracking footage you’ll ever see.