All Entries Tagged With: "JAGUAR"
Economist Marks Impending E-Type Anniversary
by Gunnar Heinrich ::: img via Jaguar E-Type Net ::: Jaguar E-Type (XKE) 50th Anniversary
MARCH, 2011 marks the 50th Anniversary of the Jaguar E-Type (XKE); Jaguar’s sexiest of sexy roadsters and aerodynamically slippery 2+2 hardtop GTs. All these years on from the 1961 Geneva début, the E-Type remains a timeless icon whose significance in automotive design cannot be understated.
The Economist, mostly a political publication, is taking note of this significant automotive milestone. But rather than highlighting the E-Type’s sexual revolution; the paper focuses instead on Jaguar engineer Malcolm Sayer’s many innovations including the E-Type’s independent rear suspension, disc brakes, and wind-tunnel prototype testing, among others. A great read.
Jaguar Losing Its Way With Wagon & CUV?
by Gunnar Heinrich ::: img via IMCDB ::: Jaguar XJ-S
THERE‘S a scene in Clint Eastwood’s 1997 Savannah-based whodonnit Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil where the main characters, Jim William (Kevin Spacey) and John Kelso (John Cusack) take a ride into the night in a Jaguar XJ-S V12 coupe to seek guidance from a black-magic witch doctor named Minerva (Irma P. Hall). Why do they seek out voodoo medicine? At this juncture in the movie, our leading characters feel like they’ve lost their way. Perhaps the same can be said for Jaguar execs…
Jaguar: No AWD, But We Do Have Winter Mode
by Gunnar Heinrich ::: img Jaguar ::: Jaguar’s Winter Mode
ABSENT all-wheel drive models in its US lineup, Jaguar’s making a point of marketing the “Winter Mode” setting on its 2011 models in advance of that slipperiest of seasons. From Jaguar.com:
“Now every 2011 Jaguar car is equipped with Winter Mode, so you can drive with confidence all year long. At the push of a button, the engine, transmission and Dynamic Stability Control join forces to deliver maximum traction and increased control. “
Pretty sure that the “TRAC” button on my mother’s (X300) XJ6 did a similar trick. More to the point: Audi, BMW, Benz, Volvo, etc. have sold Winter features for some time. Even on their all-wheel drive models.
Jaguar Design: C-X75
by Gunnar Heinrich ::: img Jaguar ::: Jaguar C-X75
“JAGUAR’S always been about elegant engineering,” Jaguar Head of Advance Design Julian Thompson says about the C-X75, “and you can’t get much more elegant than a micro-turbine [engine].”
The ultra-modern C-X75 celebrate Jaguar’s 75 years and fills a 20 year halo void with an array of hyper technological, if not purely original, ideas about automotive propulsion.
To wit: electric motors at each wheel would be powered centrally by a mid-engine gas fed twin turbine engine that produces 708 hp and would propel the C-X75 to 62 mph in 3.4 seconds and from 50-90 mph in a scant 2.3 seconds. On paper, this represents an exciting prospect.
But Jaguar whose history is linked more to the organic passion of performance and sex appeal is, right or wrong, pitching technology and engineering as its platform for the future. A stretch considering that rival Mercedes-Benz has a $4 Billion annual R&D budget.
The design team supports this premise by penning sleek, sterile, curved metal forms accented with cool, cobalt blue lighting. We’ve seen this with the C-XF right on through to the C-X75. And there is a great sense of theater and drama and movement to their work.
In its time, the XJ220 wasn’t a beautiful car, per se, but it was as Jaguar’s Design Chief Ian Callum might say, “evocative.” The C-X75 for all its “muscled” arches and “crisp” lines is evocative. It’s striking even, though, a touch more reserved than Lamborghini’s latest works.
But the C-X75 is not beautiful. Not really. At least not as it appears in highly photo-shopped pictures. Beauty requires an organic element that Jaguar – indeed – much of the auto industry seems all too ready to forget.
Mr. Callum is right when he says that the C-X75 is a design statement about the future for Jaguar. The C-X75 is also as much a statement about the way the world sees contemporary design – which is to say dynamic, interesting, futuristic, and alien.
Jaguar Gets Geared Up For The World Cup
by Gunnar Heinrich ::: img Jaguar Cars
YES, it would seem that even Team Jaguar is getting geared up for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.
Their marketing department has even created a special logo and a kind of award series called the “Jaguar Academy of Sport” designed for recognizing British athletic success stories.
Slick as the concept is, it leaves little doubt as to which country Team Jaguar supports which might not suit their Indian parent corporation.
But pounds sterling trumps nationalism, so hopefully this bit of patriotism (rare these days of multinational firms) will play well for Jaguar’s UK sales somehow.
A Friendly Reminder: Jaguar is 75.
by Gunnar Heinrich ::: img Jaguar Cars, Ltd ::: Jaguar 75 Years
SEVENTY-FIVE years. Don’t they go by in a blink?
Founded in 1922, the Swallow Side Car Company featured roadsters with model designations starting “SS” (i.e, SS100). During the war, Jaguar boss Sir William Lyons had the good sense to change the name of the company to “Jaguar”, deftly navigating round unpalatable connotations with the enemy.
In case you’re doing the math, Jaguar is marking 2010 as the 75th anniversary of the company using the Jaguar name. The historical milestone calls for a celebrations of sorts.
Jaguar’s brought the RSR XKR GT2 to the American track; racing in the American LeMans Series (ALMS). Jaguar also aims to make a special splash at Pebble Beach this year, too.
A right year for the Coventry cat then? With the launch of the next XJ, set against an aging S-Class, LS, and one-year-old 7er, good motor press clippings are likely to follow in the months ahead.
What better way to mark 75 years then?
Jag v. Dump Truck: Another Day on 95
by Gunnar Heinrich ::: Jaguar vs. dump truck ::: img via IMCDB
NEVER mess with the irate driver of a Jaguar.
Particularly if said driver carries a loaded weapon and uses both gun and Jag to carry out a vendetta against you -or – in this one instance on I-95 in Virginia, a dump trunk whose driver also suffered from an acute case of road rage.
Per the Washington Post:
[T]wo Woodbridge men [were] jailed and facing attempted-murder charges began with jockeying at a merge lane, escalated to demolition-derby-style ramming and ended with gunshots [...] four witnesses told [the police] that the dump truck “intentionally rammed the Jaguar” and that “the dump truck struck the other vehicle several times, pinning it against the guardrail on the right shoulder then against the concrete wall on the left shoulder,” leaving it with “significant damage.”
The driver of the M.Y. 2004 Jaguar pulled over, exited car, brandished piece and shot at the truck as many as 13 times across crowded I-95.
His fury not quite sated, its reported that the driver then got back in his Jag and went off to attack the dump truck by ramming into it until State Police pulled both vehicles over.
But here’s the real question burning our inquisitive minds – was the Jaguar an S-Type of X-Type? The Post didn’t say.
Oh, but they did report that there was a toddler riding shotgun in the car during the entire event.
On The Street: New York Jag
by Gunnar Heinrich ::: img Automobiles De Luxe ::: Jaguar MK2 3.8 Litre
JUST about everything in New York is dog-eared from hard use. Curbs, door frames, taxis, shoes…this 60′s MK2 Jag’s no exception. I found this aged cat – its ass sticking halfway into 26th Street, this side of 10th – diagonally across from a Tesla showroom.
Stoically, the cat sat as I took picture after picture. Like some British lion, its best years well past, there’s some aspect of this Jaguar – as with almost any Jaguar – that never lost its luster.
It’s something that’s neither really engineered nor fitted, but has more to do with an inert passion that’s espoused in every glint of chrome and every curve of line.
It’s why when I stopped to observe the black MK2 with wire rims, another pedestrian was compelled to stop, too.
She marveled for a spell and then took out her camera and capture one photo, then two, then three, then four. You see, almost regardless of condition, not only is the sex appeal of a vintage Jag universal – it’s addictive.
Cinema & Car: Vertigo’s Jaguar Mk VIII
By Gunnar Heinrich | IMG via IMCDB.org
VERTIGO is one of Alfred Hitchcock’s all time greats.
Shot in 1957, released in ’58, the film is a distant, surreal look at unrequited love, betrayal, and revenge. Vertigo envelops us in a San Franciscan fog of mystery. There’s little dialogue and each scene takes on the dreamlike, melancholic din of an Edward Hopper oil-on-canvas.
It’s said that Hitchcock dedicated months to story boarding so that every cinematic moment would symbolically transmit the plot’s (and perhaps his own) naked message of lust, vulnerability, and rage.
Our darkest conditions, in otherwords.
When I first watched Vertigo ten years ago, I discovered that part of this gothic work’s appeal is in how Hitchcock artfully implements automobiles in establishing scene and, of course, to transport the story. Herein the graceful Jaguar Mk VIII played a central role.
The casting was perfect.
Jaguar represented an exotic alternative in the American car market circa 1958. The Mark series presented the same upstanding chrome and burl inlay qualities of a Bentley but with the sporting forward lean of the Jaguar S-Type.
The big cat’s flowing fenders, shown in the above screenshot in three quarter, perfectly compliment the deportment of our mysterious, anglophilic lady (Kim Novak).
Notice how the car’s right fender is in direct line with the Golden Gate’s abutment and seems to point at the actress; framing the action that’s about to ensue. An artful confluence of automobile and cinema, no doubt.
And, ladies & gents, a stylish template for automotive product placement for years to come.
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!
