Four months. Doesn’t sound like very long to me. But just four months before July’s Goodwood Festival of Speed, where Jaguar’s Project 7 made its debut, not a single stroke of pen had been put to paper. It wasn’t so much as a thought in a designer’s head.
And the more Jaguar chief designer Alister Whelan tells me about the project, the more four months doesn’t seem very long at all.
Now, I know what you’re thinking: four months to apply some blue paint and stick a fairing on the back of an F-type and punt it up the hill at Goodwood? We could all do that in our spare time, couldn’t we?
I dunno. The more I hear, the more I think it’s a fairly remarkable turnaround. Cesar Pieri, a Jaguar designer whom Whelan describes as "a total petrolhead" and who has only been at the company for a year, was making some sketches in March for a modern car with a nod to Jag heritage. His colleagues liked them, and they sketched some more. A couple of days later, they slid them onto the desk of design director Ian Callum and he liked them, too. So did everyone else to whom they showed the sketches. And they decided to put it together for Goodwood.
Getting it ready
And so followed three or four weeks of further sketches and computer models, three or four weeks of real modelling at Gaydon, including milling of a full-scale clay model, which takes a week. They spent two weeks getting the fillets around the D-type-inspired rear just so, placing silver film over the clay model and working the material so that shadows, highlights and reflections are perfect.
Then there's the carbonfibre front splitter, side skirts and rear diffuser. Each of these throws up issues. Attaching the front splitter meant getting the aero team involved to decide what angle the rear wing should be, because the carbonfibre at the front upsets the front-to-rear lift balance. Likewise, the rear diffuser, while an aesthetic rather than aero touch, necessitates finishing the exhausts with a ceramic coating to stop the diffuser from burning.
The windscreen had to be cut down but, because this is a working concept, rollover strength had to be retained. And following all that, because this is a working car, the chassis engineers wanted a week on the test track at Gaydon to set up the suspension. And the graphics on those tyres? Turns out no one in the UK can do them. So the team, by hand, scrubbed off the mouldings from the sidewalls, made up the vinyl templates and did it themselves. That takes a while.
I’m adding up the time in my head as Whelan goes through it and, even accounting for the number of people wanting to work on it – in the out-of-hours kind of way that this project was completed – I’m making more than four months. Busy work.
And all to send Project 7 up the hill at the Goodwood Festival of Speed – five runs over three days, of no more than a minute each, creating a stir that, I think it’s fair to say, has overwhelmed not just the Jaguar design team but everyone else within the company, too.
From hill to track
Hence, they’ve asked us to come to MIRA proving ground to drive it. So I do. And it’s raining, because it’s MIRA and it’s July and it does that sort of thing here all the time. Still, it’s the only chance we’ve got, because two days later Project 7 will be off to another venue. And Whelan is showing me around the car while blokes fiddle with a cover in an effort to keep the rain away from the cabin.
Mechanically, Whelan explains, Project 7 is pretty much an F-type in V8 S form. Or at least, it was when they started, and if mechanical things on it are not standard F-type, they’re pinched elsewhere from the Jaguar line-up.
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Its idiots like those above
Its idiots like those above that make these forums such a nasty place to be, bigots and idiots, people that have hate running through their veins, I am so glad I am not related to any of you, if I were i would want to get away from you all.
I pity all your families for your built in hatred of all things successful, I am sure that if one of your offspring were successful you would put them down in the same way.
I have been to many countried around the world, and each and EVERY ONE OF THEM produces motoring press and they all promoted the home grown products, its the way that things are done, and I bet ALL of you complained bitterly at the last 15 minutes of the last Top Gear which was all things British.
For all of your infomation as I am sure you all forget, to be classed as a Brit it needs to be built here, and in the case of JLR they are designed, engineered and most of the parts are produced in this country for each and every model.
And what the hell is all this crap about weights, its only you that cares, no one else does, your total fixation on weight is serious scary and you're definately in need of some sort of medical intervention, get it though you thick heads, NO ONE CARES, it is no issue for ANYONE.
Who goes into a dealer showroom and says "oh, sorry Mr Salesman, I am not buying your car because it weighs 3 ounces more than some Germanic peice of poo that has not changed its look in 50 years" cant you understand it doesnt rate for anyone but you.
NOW, lastly, because I am bored now, you are all the two faced bigots that these forums have come to reprsent, but like Saab and Rover before you all slag the company and products but then in the next sentence you state it's a shame they are gone, thats being two faced, and makes you all look more stupid than you do already.
JLR is successful, end of, it has taken decades to get here, and all your slagging off is a slap in the face for every worker that works for the companies, all their hard work, effort, time and input, from the factory team member to the board of directors, they have put so much time, effort and money into turning this once great company back into a great company, why cant you accept that, there is not one model the entire range that is not successful, and that has to be acknowledged.
But you lot wont, you will carry on making yourselves look stupid with your idiotic complaints and totally boggoted view, I dont hate, as hate is a harsh word, but I feel sorry for you, because you must have so little in your lives that you have to come here and slag everything off thats is successful.
jonboy4969 wrote:Its idiots
We are not crticising the product, indeed it is very good, but I personally prefer its German competitors. We are criticising AC's constant non-story articles about JLR, when more important stories from other (admittedly non UK) manufacturers seem to be forgotten about when their new car launches. Somehow a car that no-one can buy or an extra cup holder seems to be more important. Yes I agree there is a country bias to all motoring press, but AC recently have taken it to another level. They were not like this in the past and much more objective and quallitative in their reporting. Well done on promoting your own blog BTW.
marj wrote: jonboy4969
Just to reaffirm my point, new Honda - 339 words, this concept Jaguar - 1753 words. To have so little on a new car just isn't right. Whether it is a boring mundane estate or not.
thank for your post
I am surely not alone in enjoying every snippet of news on the last UK based car company.
Keep it up Jaguar Land Rover!
And thankyou Autocar, its this kind of stuff that keeps me buying your magazine and website
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golathay wrote: I am surely
I hope you are being sarcastic as JLR is about as British as RR and Mini.
3 articles on this car now...
Is it really necessary to rehash last week's article on this car?
And I'm still not sure why they are paying tribute to a fairly famous Ferrari 250 SWB.