THE very public growing pains of Jaguar's S-Type mid-size luxury car have been fascinating to observe. The debate over styling, the car's mechanical links to less glamorous Fords and the disastrous original Australian launch which used shoddily built pre-production cars were all setbacks for the British marque so intent on challenging the likes of BMW and Mercedes-Benz in their heartland. However, 140,000 S-Type sales worldwide tells you Jaguar didn't get the original all-wrong - indeed far from it. But the gritty Poms took the criticisms onboard and in 2002 they've introduced a vastly uprated S-Type which has won significant praise worldwide. At the top of the family pack is this car, the new S-Type R. With its combination of abundant supercharged V8 power, luxury and grace, this is a hero car of Superman proportions - truly in the league of BMW's M5, the traditional king of the Euro sports sedan heavy-hitters.