Car makers usually aren’t that big on journalist visiting their testing facilities, but Jaguar kindly allowed the DRIVE channel crew inside their secret test center at the Nurburgring Nordshliefe track. For the first time ever you get to see how they go about developing and fine tuning their high performance models at the ‘Ring and learn many interesting facts.

Sadly we don’t get to see any of the secret projects in this footage, but hey, that’s asking too much.

Jaguar is clearly shaking off its old image as the maker of big luxury saloons with lots of fine leather and walnut wood, and wants to be recognized as a modern sports car maker. They have invested heavily in their Nurburgring test facility, which is a sign that more high-performance, hard-core models are planned for the future. Too soon to tell if that’s right or wrong, but we have to say, we quite like the first outcome of this new approach, which is of course the F-Type.