Gear Sports

At its most extreme weather can be terrifying and overwhelming. It is not surprising that artists have tried to capture the power and drama of raging seas and electric storms. From the 18th century artists increasingly attempted to exploit the awesome, terrifying and thrilling aspects of nature (what they would have called the ‘Sublime’). Doing so is not easy, our experience of wild weather is not principally visual: torrential rain blinds you, gales buffet you and thunder roars in your ears. The paintings in this section show artists trying to evoke the sensation of extreme weather in a variety of ways: Etty concentrates on the human emotions of those at the mercy of the weather. In contrast Martin and Danbyuse scale to show ant-like humanity overwhelmed by meteorological chaos. Turner applies swirling paint to recreate the feeling - rather than the appearance - of a sea-storm.

The 2007 Jaguar XKR is going to change the way an entire generation thinks about Jaguar.

The R upgrade
The newest XK in standard coupe and convertible versions debuted in late 2005. Forget frequent flyer programs. The R is perhaps the world’s greatest upgrade of all time. For a mere $11,000 premium, here’s what you get:

• An extra 120 horsepower and 103 pound-feet of torque — to 420 hp at 6,000 rpm and 413 lb-ft of torque at 4,000 rpm from a supercharged 4.2-liter double-overhead-cam V8
• Specially tuned suspension calibration
• Bigger brakes with huge 14-inch discs and tougher cast iron rather than aluminum pistons
• Bigger 19-by-8.5-inch wheels
• Bigger 245/40ZR19 front and 275/35ZR19 rear Dunlop tires

Our particular test car, a convertible with a base price of $92,500, had several options including the premium sound package ($1,875), adaptive cruise control ($2,200) and 20-inch aluminum wheels and gigantic 255/35ZR20 front and 285/30ZR20 Dunlop SP Sport Maxx J tires ($5,000) which pushed the sticker to over $100,000.

How does it go?
For that much money, you should expect a lot — and the XKR delivers. Go back through our previous road test archives and you’ll find that the XKR is not the quickest, not the fastest or the absolute best in handling among the cars in its class. But you know what? Throw the numbers out on this one. This is a case where the total package is what counts, much more than any individual quantitative track test statistic.

Suffice it to say that with a 0-to-60 time of 4.9 seconds, the quarter-mile in 13.4 at 105 mph, braking from 60 to zero in 115 feet and 0.88g on the skid pad, the XKR will not embarrass you in any street confrontation you may encounter. That’s more than a second quicker to 60 mph and through the quarter-mile than the run-of-the-mill XK convertible. Still, in an all-out, light-to-light drag race you will be taken by a Bimmer M6 or the odd SL65 AMG. And how many of them do you cross paths with on your daily commute?

If you do run into one, get into the six-speed automatic transmission steering column shifter paddles. They are step one in extracting max performance out of this powertrain. Lots of performance cars have Formula 1-style shifter paddles on the steering column these days. But the XKR’s transmission is one of the few automanuals that incorporates a computer program that automatically heel-and-toes for you.

Flick the left paddle to downshift and the computer perfectly matches revs with the throttle, then shifts down a gear with no lurch. You find yourself pulling up to lights going down through the gears just to hear the engine blips. It’s one of the coolest things about this car. Conversely, upshifts with the right paddle bang off right now under full throttle. The only thing missing is rubber in each gear.

Yamgo TV is streamed over both 2.5G and 3G services to mobile phones and provides access to extreme sports entertainment at any time and in any place. Consumers have shown a strong appetite to watch mobile TV and video clips and Yamgo TV provides instant access to extreme sport videos 24 hours a days. Shaun Ellison Yamgo’s Operations Director commented “Yamgo has specifically optimised video clips to fit the small screen of mobile devices, resulting in a high-quality mobile TV experience, especially when combined with the superior delivery technology of the ROK platform.” Commenting on the partnership with Yamgo Bruce Renny, ROK’s Head of Global Marketing, stated “Yamgo’s extreme sports has the ‘wow’ factor mobile TV viewers want and we’re sure this channel will prove very popular as we roll out mass-market mobile TV services worldwide.”