All Entries Tagged With: "XK"
Attention Grabber? Jaguar C-X16
by Gunnar Heinrich ::: img Jaguar Cars ::: Jaguar C-X16
UNVEILED before the unveiling in Frankfurt, the world (or the portion that cares) has had a chance to gauge Jaguar’s new sub-XK hybrid C-X16 sports coupé par excellence. Jumping the P.R. gun as is car makers’ want these days, one wonders the need to rent auto show floorspace at all.
But that’s neither here nor there for this discussion.
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.
ex. 1) Jaguar XK60 By London Eye
By Gunnar Heinrich | IMG by Jaguar Cars via CAR
NEW and old. Old and new.
The British are particularly adept, nay, downright Sisyphean at bringing history and environment into symbolic context.
How appropriate then, that London provided the stage for the launch of Jaguar’s XK60 last month; commemorating 60 years of sporting heritage under the XK nameplate.
In every sense Albion’s capital is where Yorkshire Pudding meets Chicken Tikka. It’s a curried, bloody and wonderful mess of the grandly historic forced alongside the ephemeral.
Mostly, Jag’s catfish XK sticks to tradition – XKE tradition.
Parked next to a rally ready XK120; a hallmark of late 40s/ early 50s GB motoring, the XK60 stands as sharply apart as the towering wheel that’s the London Eye (the base of which we see in the background) does next to the elegantly Edwardian London County Hall (also pictured).
How apt.
