IN THIS FEATURE The worries of the world Beating new rivals Rather testing circumstances A more sporting outlook The snarling cat is here

Jaguar is a company with the worries of the world on its shoulders. Its cars are not selling in anything like the numbers it would like and, for the past four years, the marque has been haemorrhaging cash. Closing the Browns Lane plant and terminating its unsuccessful adventure in Formula 1 have helped stem the flow but what Jaguar really needs are cars to make its customers fall in love with the brand once more, just as they did when the E-Type first stunned the world back in 1961. And it hopes that this, the all-new XK8, is the first of those cars.

We meet in the worst possible conditions: not only is the weather around the Nurburgring race track doing its best to create floods of biblical proportions, the car itself is a tired and battered prototype whose short life has been a litany of cruel abuse and torture. Just as well it doesn't know of its upcoming encounter with a crusher that will soon bring its existence to a premature end.

XK prototype covered in scars and disguise

Yet despite the scars - not to mention the acres of disguising duct tape - this XK prototype still looks good and, as I will discover, it is more than up to demonstrating just how different a car it is to its predecessor, and how much more capable it is, too.