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I am sure they heard me well before I even saw them. Politely, I make way for the cyclists huffing and puffing up the mountain roads, giving them an extra-wide berth. I have never understood it; it is sunny, the roads are mind-blowing, traffic is sparse as it is the weekend, and these guys are pedalling their respective posteriors away. What’s with the needless physical effort, I wonder. Considering I have added ten kilos over the last couple of years, I can keep wondering. But these guys are cool. In the midst of their exertions, a couple of them give me the thumbs-up, while the stragglers at the rear make a rotating motion with their hands: go for it! I oblige by depressing the loud pedal and the Jaguar XKR-S shoots off into the distance, taking along with it a sublime roar emerging from the quad tailpipes that echoes around the hills. What a car and what a place to drive it.
I am here in the Algarve region, in the south of Portugal, an incredibly beautiful place where the sun, the sea and the mountains meet to mesmerise tourists from all over. The roads are awesome, especially the sections which criss-cross the mountainside and pass through small, picturesque villages. Traffic is also generally light. So it is indeed the perfect setting to sample a fast, beautiful car. And the XKR-S is indeed quick and fast. As Jaguar says, it’s their most powerful and fastest production car. With a top speed of 300 kph, and a nought to 100 kph timing of 4.4 seconds, it is certainly blazing. Beautiful? Most certainly it is. It is a Jaguar after all.
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