If you recall, it was actor, musician and film-maker Idris Elba who took the Jaguar XE on its 750 mile (1,200 km) journey from London to Berlin, covering four countries in three days, and having fun doing it.
Naturally, we were especially keen on the mid-part of the journey where he took a 340 PS XE S on Spa Francorchamps with F1 legend Martin Brundle doing most of the driving. It looks like they managed quite well, despite the rough weather conditions.
However, this trip was more than just about driving the XE on an F1 track. It was about proving that this is not just a sporty car, but also a very efficient one.
Idris indeed managed to prove just that, achieving 65 mpg (4.3 liters/100km) in an XE 20d, despite saying that he “pushed it hard all the way to Berlin”. We’re not going to say that this number seems a bit exaggerated if he didn’t intentionally drive economically, because he would have mostly been driving on motorways, which means he had to stick to the speed limit – which will bring out the very best out of most modern eco diesel engines.
Idris also loved the in-car tech, saying “I’m a big fan of gadgets, and the XE was fully loaded in that respect too – I even planned my DJ set list as i drove”.
The Jaguar XE does feature loads of goodies such as smartphone apps, Wi-Fi, premium audio systems and so on. It’s a proper BMW 3 Series/Audi A4/Mercedes C-Class rival.
You can watch the recap of Idris’ Euro Road Trip here.
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