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.
Join the debate
Norma Smellons
Way too heavy
Yet more JLR propaganda masquerading as exciting news. Four months for a spoiler, some paint and a sticker. And nothing whatsoever to tackle this car's absurd weight problem. Must admit, it's a great way of distracting people from the fact that the 911 cabrio is several hundred kilograms lighter.
Mr Average
This stupid nonsense about weight is getting BORING!
911 Carrera S Cabriolet Unladen weight 1,540 kg
F Type 3.0 Supercharged V6 Auto Unladen weight 1597 kg
(the V8 is 1665 kg)
How is the Porsche ' several hundred kilograms lighter'????????
philcUK
Mr Average wrote:911
It depends how manufacturers try to massage figures I guess - JLR are normally very coy about it to make things sounds better - for instance, using there own method, the F-Type S unladen weight is 'from' (DIN) 1,614kg's whereas the Porsche 911 Cabfrio S figure for the same spec is 1,465 kg. As Jaguar never actually publish figures that include drivers and passengers - is hard to compare it to the Porshe's weight you quoted that does.
Norma Smellons
1810kg
According to Autocar, the V8 S is at least 200kg heavier than the Porsche. That is ridiculously heavy for an aluminium two seater.
Worse, Jaguar can't really go down the lightweight "GT3" route with the F unless it uses an uprated V6. And that would make the V8 version totally pointless.
xxxx
pheww
It's been 24 hours since the last Jaguar news item, I thought they'd gone bankrupt!
Carry on AutoJaguar
typos1 - Just can’t respect opinion
marj
xxxx wrote: It's been 24
I know, we all wanted to hear about a car that you cannot buy and is irrelevant to the man on the street. I wait with bated breath for Tata's next press release.
peterover
The anti JLR brigade/sheep
The anti JLR brigade/sheep are at it already.
Please ignore them Autocar, they have already bumped off Rover and would love MG and JLR t o go the same way.
Beats the constant news/propaganda from the Germans.
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.
disco.stu
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.
www.TheCarExpert.co.uk
golathay
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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marj
golathay wrote: I am surely
I hope you are being sarcastic as JLR is about as British as RR and Mini.
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