All Entries Tagged With: "ian callum"
What Makes a Jaguar, “A Jag-u-ar”?
- The essential elements of Jaguar design
- Ian Callum’s team should avoid Germanification
- Keep the sex please, Jaguar’s British
By Gunnar Heinrich | IMG Jaguar Cars
NO, seriously.
What makes a Jaguar a “Jag-wharr” “Jag-u-ar” or a “Shagwharr, baby, yeah!” ?
Coming down from the summer’s high of witnessing the troubled Brit car maker launch something – anything – that could be considered exciting, fresh, and new, yours is compelled to pick up a fresh blogger’s grenade, pull the pin and…
Can’t throw it. Won’t.
The world needs Jaguar now more than ever. We need a car company that promises to deliver what we’ll call the “everyday exotic”.
“Everyday” meaning a car that’s produced in some volume with a wide range of engine and trim options that inevitably includes a low-spec variant that has a euro-zone friendly diesel engine and an interior trimmed in velour.
By “exotic”, I refer to an automobile that makes your hand stand on end or at least prompts a second, lasting glance.
Neither BMW, Mercedes, or Lexus are in the business of building everday head-turners.
The latest generation 5er, E-Class, and GS and their higher and lower stablemates are quite doomed to automotive anonymity thanks in large part to their ubiquity and that they share the same design elements from like-minded studios.
Jaguar’s team, led by the talented Ian Callum, is badly tempted to follow this terribly efficient Teutonic trend. They’re prepared to sacrifice the marque’s quintessentially British heritage by playing ze Germans’ game; borrowing heavily from Audi’s middle-of-the-road German aesthetic while pitching an emphasis on technology.
Technology isn’t sexy. Sleek, lean, power and grace is. Which brings us nicely back to our nugget: what makes a Jaguar, a Jaguar?
It’s sex appeal, ladies and gentlemen.
Time’s up. Throw the grenade!
Family Ties? Picture of XJ, XF, XK Boots Shows No Relation
- All three cars are Jaguars
- Could you tell?
- A call for some cross lineup continuity
By Gunnar Heinrich | IMG Jaguar Cars
ASIDE from all three Jaguars – XJ, XF, XK – sharing obvious features like, well, similar trim, LED tail lights, exhaust pipes, faux-chrome badging, and a gentle lip that acts as a spoiler to nature’s air currents, what common element(s) announce these three cars as Jaguars?
From this carefully composed shot: nothing.
The XJ’s lofty boot lid with vertically slatted LED lamps seems borrowed from the Lancia Delta. Likewise, the XF horizontally generic lamps with broad chrome strip seem to reveal a Brit interpretation of the cleaner Audi A6.
The XK, sadly, with its busy mishmash of fat and skinny lines, complicated rear lighting, and Aston-like shape is the closest to casting ties with Coventry’s past. But that, too, is approximate at best and features nothing that carries over to the newer saloons.
Not even the circular, quad-pipe exhausts enjoy cross-marque continuity. The XJ features the same dual, plastic, horizonal bumper vents that we find on the Lexus LS.
Allowing for continuity is key to crafting an image. That’s fairly basic. And, to be fair, we can see more of something akin to familial ties when these cats are positioned differently and from a frontal aspect.
Ian Callum’s team should consider further integration going forward as Jaguar seeks to remodel itself into a hell-with-tradtion modernist luxury car company.
2010 Jaguar XJ Unveiled!
By Gunnar Heinrich | IMG from Jaguar Cars
JAGUAR has unveiled, at long last, the next XJ sedan.
Former Tonight Show host and car collector exemplar Jay Leno emceed the event gratis. Or at least that’s what he inferred when he joked that Jaguar was looking to him for money.
Tony O’Driscoll, Jaguar’s chief executive, provides proof to pudding that unless you’ve got the oratory skills of Ronald Reagan pitching GE Progress, corporate types should stay the hell off the stage lest you kill the carefully crafted buzz.
But it was Ian Callum, the soft spoken Scot who spoke of his Jaguar dreams as a youth – particularly his lust for the original ‘68 XJ saloon – who hit the ball out of the park. The audience was practically spell bound as the director of Jaguar design mouthed the words sensual styling, curves, and “you won’t forget me” in describing XJ style.
Indeed few will forget the new car. It’s different yet manages to retain a feline elegance. And while this new XJ seems to take some cues from Audi, Citroen, Lancia, and even Nissan, it appears nonetheless a car cut from an original swath of whole cloth.
With style, that most critical aspect of Jaguar’s sensual essence, confirmed as standard equipment in XJ’s going forward, everything else – including the 1200 watt, 20 speaker sound system- seems ancillary.
Coventry just hit a home run in London tonight.
Design With A Capital “D”: 2010 Jaguar XJ
Pay every attention to the man and his car behind the curtain!
By Gunnar Heinrich | IMGs from Jaguar Cars
JAGUAR is still taunting us with the panoramic trickle-tease release of its next generation flagship: the XJ sedan. So far, we’ve only seen a wide shot looking down at the saloon from above. In this video “Icon Reimagined”, we get a better taste of how the new cat prowls as it moves gracefully behind the veil of a silky curtain.
The 2010 XJ is to carry on the sexiest lineage of executive saloons known to man and is – according to its designer Ian Callum – a “modern car”.
In the video, Mr. Callum believes that a Jaguar should be, “very beautiful, very clear in its intent, but relevant for its time.”
Possible interpretation: the current XJ’s looks have gone stale and I recognize that and we’re amending. Mea culpa.
We, the Jaguaristi, wait with baited breath to see Mr. Callum’s interpretation of “very modern”. Jaguar’s set to unveil the new XJ on July 9th, 2009.
[Linked: 2010 Jaguar XJ]