Friday, September 2, 2011
Citroen DS5
Friday, May 27, 2011
Jaguar-Land Rover Opens Assembly Plant in India, Rolls Out its First Model [with Video]

Gone are the times when you knew where cars were made just by looking at the brand, and when luxury carmakers made the manufacturing of their vehicles in their home country one of their top selling points. Nowadays, you have BMWs built in China, India, South Africa and the USA, Mercedes-Benz cars made in Russia, Thailand and Egypt and so on.
The latest premium automaker to go global is the Jaguar-Land Rover group, which inaugurated its first Indian factory on Friday. A Land Rover Freelander 2 SUV was the first vehicle to roll out of the assembly plant, which is located just outside Pune in the Maharashtra region of India. We’ll remind you that Ford Motor Co. sold Jaguar and Land Rover to India’s Tata Motors in 2008 after losing some US$15 billion in two years.
Eagle Speedster is a Beautiful Tribute to the Classic Jaguar E-Type

Eagle is a British restoration specialist that dedicates its activity exclusively to the Jaguar E-Type. As the iconic sports car celebrates its 50th anniversary in 2011, Eagle has thought of a very special way to celebrate the occasion: the one of a kind Eagle Speedster, a roadster models that combines the beauty of the classic E-Type with the company's technical expertise and craftsmanship.
The car was commissioned by U.S. collector Rick Velaj, who wanted something "a bit special". Eagle designer Paul Brace penned a sketch, Velaj loved it and the rest came naturally. Everything on the E-Type Speedster is custom made. Like the 1960's Jaguar E-Type, Eagle's car sports classic finishing, with every detail being designed and customized, from the unique shape of the all-aluminum body, adapted from an original body by RS Panels, right through to the custom made windshield glass.
Thursday, March 17, 2011
Report: Jaguar passes on Bertone’s B99 concept
Italian design studio Bertone came to the 2011 Geneva Motor Show with the B99 concept, a design study for a prospective Jaguar rival to the likes of the BMW 3 Series and Mercedes-Benz C-Class. The sleek show car fostered rumors that perhaps Jaguar itself, which has been considering a successor to the discontinued X-Type, had commissioned Bertone to design the purple machine that graced the Geneva stage. According to new reports, however, Bertone was apparently on its own with this one.
Speaking with Jaguar’s global brand director Adrian Hallmark, Automotive News reports that the British automaker is passing on the concept car. “We appreciate the fact that Jaguar is interesting enough for people to do a concept around,” says Hallmark. “It is just not for us.”
[Source: Automotive News – sub. req.]
Sunday, February 27, 2011
2011 Jaguar C-X75
With lower output, you have the advantage of lower production costs, because the automation would be lower. Already manufacturing 2,000 units per year, production costs are higher.
Anyway, if the production model following the style of the concept, and electric propulsion and also from a small turbine, it would take no less than seven years for the sport came to the streets.
The Jaguar C-X75 concept is both a celebration of 75 years of iconic Jaguar design and a look into the future of automotive technology. Designed as a range-extended electric two-seater supercar, Jaguar C-X75 explores the outer limits of both performance and sustainability. With plug-in capability Jaguar C-X75 can achieve a zero tailpipe emissions range of 110km (68 miles) – three times round Paris’s Péripherique – when running under battery power alone, plus a potential top speed of 330km/h (205mph) and blistering acceleration.
The Jaguar C-X75’s 580kW propulsion system combines powerful 145kW (195bhp) electric motors at each wheel for outstanding performance. At the centre of the car sit state-of-the-art, mid-mounted micro gas-turbines. These can either generate 140kW (188bhp) to charge the batteries and extend the range of the car to 900km (560 miles) or when in Track mode provide supplementary power directly to the electric motors. The four electric motors provide torque-vectored, all-wheel drive traction and grip, essential in a car that produces 580kW (778bhp) and 1600Nm (1180lb ft) of torque.
Reports about the car note that the Jaguar C-X75 will be able to go from 0 to 60 mph in 3.4 seconds, accelerate from 50 to 90 mph in 2.3 seconds, do a quarter mile in 10.2 seconds, and reach a top speed above 200 mph.
Finished in Jetstream Silver, the Jaguar C-X75 boasts advanced design features such as a ground-breaking propulsion system, and active aerodynamics allow for an elegantly simple fuselage section that remains stable at very high speeds.
Saturday, February 26, 2011
Bertone’s Baby Jaguar Sports Sedan: Not My Cup of Tea

In all honestly, I really struggle to see how the Bertone B99 fits into Jaguar’s past and current design lineage and line-up. The new generation of Jags – the XF and the XJ – are sleek, risqué and look like nothing else on the market. On the other hand, the B99 could just as easily be badged as a Lincoln, a Rolls-Royce or a Maserati. If you squint at the pictures you’ll see my point. It’s anonymously styled, as if Bertone used a book called, “Luxury Concept Cars 101” as a template. And that grille! It just screams, “Dodge Caliber!”
It devalues the brand, and in the luxury market that’s the worse crime a carmaker can make. Sure, it means more sales, but I’ve never been a fan of the, “profit uber alles!” the eighties left us with.
For me personally, Jaguars have always been either V8/V12-engined coupes and big sedans. The E-Type, the Mk II...even the much derided XJS and XJ6. As if it wasn’t bad enough that BMW’s sells a naturally aspirated (or naturally asthmatic) 4cyl 3-Series, now there’s this on the horizon all in the pursuit of the almighty dollar. To think we’ve gone from, “A Modern Day Successor to the E-Type” to yet another attempt for a “BMW 3-Series competitor” just breaks my heart.



Friday, May 21, 2010
Cartazes - 12 Horas de Reims, 1954
Há algum tempo não dou continuidade à seção 'Cartazes', por isso quero retomá-la com uma pequena raridade. As 12 Horas de Reims eram uma importantíssima competição anual nos anos 1950, época em que as provas de esporte-turismo rivalizavam em importância com os Grands Prix.Em 1954, a Jaguar vingou sua derrota para as Ferrari em Le Mans (note, o evento era realizado poucas semanas após as célebres 24 Horas) e os British Racing Green ocuparam os três primeiros lugares, todos modelo D-type. A vitória coube à dupla Peter Whitehead e Ken Wharton, com Duncan Hamilton e Tony Rolt, segundos em Sarthe, repetindo a colocação.
Vale a pena mencionar os quartos colocados, Masten Gregory e Clemente Biondetti. Este seria logo forçado a abandonar as pistas para tratar de um câncer, que terminou por vencê-lo em 22 de fevereiro do ano seguinte.
O cartaz investe no clima noturno: de fato, muitas vezes, a largada (efetuada em sistema Le Mans) ocorria à noite. Ao fundo, a ponte Dunlop. Em meio à penumbra, é possível reconhecer um carro verde à frente, seguido de um vermelho e um prateado - respectivamente, Jaguar, Ferrari e Mercedes. A tragédia nas 24 Horas do ano seguinte cancelou a etapa, que retornaria em 56 e teria sua última realização em 1967.















