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Ian Callum makes the Jaguar C-X75 concept street-legal

Unveiled at the 2010 Paris Motor Show, the Jaguar C-X75 could have been one of the British brand's wildest and coolest models. It received the green light for production, got canned, and resurfaced in the 2015 James Bond movie Spectre before disappearing for good. However, not everyone has forgotten it: Callum, the design firm founded by former Jaguar design boss Ian Callum, has made a C-X75 street-legal. Precisely how Callum's customer ended up with a C-X75 remains a mystery. The example modified is one of the four surviving stunt cars built by Williams Advanced Engineering for Spectre, so it might be the one that auction house RM Sotheby's offered at its Abu Dhabi sale in November 2019. The car was estimated to sell for anywhere between $800,000 and $1.2 million; it ended up not selling during the auction. Regardless, Callum was the right person to take on the Herculean task of making an obscure, experimental supercar street-legal, as he led the team that designed the model. His company made hundreds of small but significant changes including replacing the glass, adding a quieter exhaust with catalytic converters, making tuning changes to the supercharged, 5.0-liter V8, and fitting additional switches inside. Interestingly, the stunt cars were built with foam door mirrors. These had to be replaced with real mirrors fitted with turn signal repeaters. The team also took advantage of the tear-down to make visual improvements, such as reducing and aligning the panel gaps. The C-X75 received a new coat of paint, and engineers made changes to the suspension system — they notably adjusted the ride height. It helps that this version of the C-X75 uses an engine already approved for road use; the V8 has powered the Range Rover, among other cars. Callum's street-legal Jaguar C-X75 will make its public debut at the Bicester Heritage Scramble event held in England on April 21, 2024. Related video: Featured Gallery Ian Callum's street-legal Jaguar C-X75 Aftermarket Jaguar Coupe

Final Jaguar F-Type produced at Castle Bromwich

Last October, Jaguar told us that the F-Type ZP Edition would be the capstone for the F-Type line, the two-seat coupe and convertible retired at the end of the model year. That turned out to be maybe kind-of a little true; standard versions of the car will continue on sale until early 2025 as Jaguar sells out the car's production. The real last stand for the F-Type is the car above, the final unit down the line at Jaguar's Castle Bromwich facility on May 22, 2024, with its siblings the XE sedan and XF Sportbrake. Colored Giola Green outside with a Tan Windsor leather interior under a black roof, the F-Type will use its 5.0-liter V8 to drive to the Jaguar Daimler Heritage Trust collection on the same day that its inspiration, the Jaguar E-Type, ended production in 1974 with a British Racing Green Series III Roadster. Speaking of which, from 1961 to 1974, Jaguar says it built 75,528 E-Types across three Series'. From 2013 to 2024, the automaker built 87,731 F-Types.   Now that the dealer inventory's stocked, what comes next is the end of the long slog to electrification. We won't know what that looks like until the first product gets revealed sometime next year. It's been three years since Jaguar outlined its electric reinvention, promising a two-door sports car and two SUVs that would contend with Bentley and Rolls-Royce. Since then, the electric coupe is said to have given way to a four-seat GT that we presume has four doors, Autocar saying this one could be considered a reborn XJ, although larger and much more luxurious than the last. Sitting on the new long-wheelbase JEA platform, the outlet predicts each will come with baseline specs of at least least 450 horsepower, all-wheel drive and all-wheel steering, six-figure prices. and super-fast charging times. Designs will be minimalist, heavy on touchscreens and sustainable materials, which are pages pulled from the Range Rover playbook. And we're told the Leaper, Jaguar's leaping cat emblem around since World War II, will be put to bed. Instead, identification will be by Jaguar wordtype outside and in — another Range Rover tic. Even stranger: Autocar says none of the three will fit a rear window. Like the Polestar 3, the Jaguars will use "a digital 'mirror' at the base of the windscreen." If this is true, a mirror on the instrument panel at the bottom of the windshield would be proper old-school Jaguar. The GT is meant to debut first, next year, one SUV per year for the two years afterward.

Frankfurt Motor Show Notes: Why Jaguar decided to build an SUV

It was inevitable. Jaguar had to make an SUV, and that notion became reality this week with the debut of the F-Pace, an all-wheel-drive five-seater that will launch in the United States next spring. Some purists may cringe. But in an era when Porsche, Bentley, Lamborghini, Rolls-Royce, Aston Martin, and other traditional luxury brands are all building or (planning to build) SUVs, Jaguar had to evolve. While it seems like a leap for Jaguar to make an SUV, longtime design director Ian Callum said it's been in the works for years. "The first time I was asked the question was when I arrived 16 years ago," he said. So in 1999 (and probably well before that), Jaguar was already thinking SUV. What took so long? "It wasn't a priority," Callum said. Jaguar was concentrating on fixing its existing lineup, which was pockmarked with holes and poorly selling products, like the X-Type. Along the way, Jaguar and sister brand Land Rover were sold by Ford to Indian conglomerate Tata Motors. Flash forward several years, and Jaguar and Land Rover are both experiencing a resurgence in the United States and around the world. Jaguar's lineup is flush with the E-Type's modern successor, the F-Type, plus a new version of the XF. The XJ received a 2016 freshening, and the smaller XE sedan is on the way. Jaguar put its house in order as other factors conspired to make a crossover timely. Fuel prices stayed relatively low, and consumers in the US and China remained steadfast in their love for utility vehicles of all stripes. Making a Jaguar SUV became a priority. "The world was telling us in no uncertain terms this is what they wanted," Callum said. "Not to be in the sector would be a little naive for the sake of purity." Jaguar proved its intent two years ago when it revealed the C-X17 crossover concept at Frankfurt, and the final production model is close to the prototype's striking looks. "I thought we managed to maintain that spirit," Callum said. It's a true Jaguar, with cues from the F-Type, 1968 XJ, and other famous models. Who would have thought Jaguar would make an SUV? "I certainly didn't," Callum admitted. But the F-Pace is here. If Callum is okay with it, purists can be, too. Quick Hits Opel retrenches for 2016 and beyond Opel used the Frankfurt show to display its new generation of the Astra, a critical vehicle line for the German division of General Motors.