Day: Oct 1, 2014

History Repeating: XJ40 Part 8

Picking Up the Pieces. 

1980_jaguar_xj_1
A tough act to follow – the Series III – image: Jaglovers

The early phases of XJ40 development centred around the battles played out to retain Jaguar’s identity. The third phase would be dominated by efforts to remove themselves from BL’s influence entirely. For John Egan, the first eighteen months at Browns Lane proved something of a high wire act. With morale in tatters, and unfinished cars piling up, Egan initially believed that Jaguar’s problems were marketing rather than production based, a notion he was swiftly disabused of. Continue reading “History Repeating: XJ40 Part 8”

Theme: Concepts – Introduction

What is a concept car? What was its past like and how did its future evolve? Why do we have concept cars at all?

1951 GM Le Sabre concept car
1951 GM Le Sabre concept car

We are late in the automobile era. It is ending as cars become banalities and as the illusion of mass personal transportation dissolves. Consequently, the car’s future might even be over already. In 1971 the future was staggeringly unlike the present. In a properly realised future all signs of the present are gone. Continue reading “Theme: Concepts – Introduction”