JAGUAR'S ascendency in the world of performance cars is underlined in the most dramatic terms by a drive in the XKR-S, the most powerful and fastest series production car the company has ever built.

I thought that the quest for the stars in this respect ended with the XJ220 supercar back in the 1990s but the company's new owners the Tata Group and gifted designer Ian Callum had other ideas and crafted the company's swish XK sports saloon into a high performance car in the same league as Ferrari and Porsche.

Using a supercharged version of the Jaguar AJV8 Generation III 5.0-litre petrol engine with a 550ps output, this arrow of a car can zip from 0-62mph in an astonishing 4.2 seconds and go on to an electronically limited 186mph. It is no secret that without the limitation this car would be faster.

And when the your foot goes down it screams like an F1 racer hot off the grid thanks to the acoustic delights of an active sports exhaust with four tailpipes.

But Jaguar has played a clever hand by tempering such classic British performance with a surprising degree of practicality.

For instance, the company kept it at under £100,000 and the CO2 emissions read out at 292g/km, making it the only car in its class to emit under 300g/km.

Adding to the car's capabilities is the strong, lightweight advanced aluminium body architecture of the XK range adapted with suspension changes front and rear for ultimate precision, control and driver appeal.

And in addition to all this the car has immense stopping power - well, it has to with such power on tap.

Driving it on some winding Welsh roads it provides the full Jaguar XK experience but with the gloves off.

It goes far to capture that great Jaguar characteristic of duality - the ability to transport the driver to the fabled Nürburgring in total comfort and hushed silence, and yet still able to deliver a sub-eight minute lap time and then return home with total ease.

The XK series was the first Jaguar to be designed totally under the aegis of Ian Callum and if the XKR-S is anything to go by there are exciting times ahead.