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Jaguar planning two bodystyles for next XJ

As we alluded to in today's F-Type first drive, Jaguar hasn't been selling its wares in China for very long, and as a result, buyers there usually don't have the same appreciation for the brand's history. So you might reasonably think that the company's recent radical styling shift (kicked off by the 2008 XF) wouldn't be as jarring to the nation's buying populace since they really didn't have the automaker's more traditionally styled models from years past to compare them against.
Yet while Jaguar and its sister marque, Land Rover, continue to pick up steam in China's developing market, that apparently isn't necessarily the case. Local buyers there tend to have more conservative tastes when it comes to styling, preferring more upright dimensions, big back seats and larger quantities of traditional luxury materials (think: chrome and wood) than other markets currently find desirable. Thus, the very bold current-generation XJ sedan may be leaving some sales on the table.
According to Edmunds, Jag doesn't want to risk that, and as such, it is preparing two bodystyles for the next-generation XJ - one with the rakish coupe-like styling of the current model, and a more "old-school" three-box sedan designed to appeal to a wider swath of Chinese buyers.

Petrolicious examines a very special Jaguar C-Type

There are rare Jaguars, and then there's this stunning C-Type Lightweight Le Mans. Built in response to the dominance of the Mercedes-Benz 300SL at the 1952 24 Hours of Le Mans, Jaguar made only three C-Types for 1953 and managed to capture first, second, and fourth. These cars featured four-wheel disc brakes – a rarity at the time even in endurance racing – and a lighter aluminum body. The two SU carburetors were swapped out for three Webers, meaning more power and, according to RM Sotheby's David Swig, better throttle response. Swig would know. In the latest video from Petrolicious, he takes the fourth-place C-Type for a ride, giving us a look at the sleek open-roof racer in action, while our ears enjoy the delicious sound of the 3.4-liter, twin-cam straight-six. "What I love about these cars is how communicative they are on the road," Swig told Petrolicious. "How when you're going through a corner, you feel in the seat of your pants and through the steering wheel every little movement, every little pebble that you drive over." Beyond the driving experience, there's something to be said of the historical seat Swig is occupying. "No less than five Le Mans-winning drivers of this period have sat behind the wheel of this car," Swig said, "which almost give you goosebumps." Should you have the money, you can actually put this iconic racing Jaguar in your garage. RM Sotheby's will offer it for auction as part of its glitzy Monterey Car Week event next month. While you can look forward to our coverage of that event come August, you can enjoy the sight and sound of this iconic C-Type in the latest episode from Petrolicious.

Jaguar to expand Jaguar XKR-S GT production run?

According to a report in Autocar, demand for the Jaguar XKR-S GT is such that the English company could nearly double production from 30 to 50 cars. Such inflation can often incense those have already put deposits down, worried that they've both been lied to about the potentially diminished values of their cars, but Jaguar has made the announcement barely a day after the XKR-S GT was revealed and 50 still isn't that many vehicles.
Nothing in the Autocar report indicates the additional examples will not come to America, making the 500-horsepower superfast coupe a treat we can still call all our own. Jaguar didn't add horsepower but instead honed other aspects of the car to produce a GT that can lap the 'Ring nearly as quickly as a Ferrari 458 Italia, and the world should be the beneficiary, the company's brand director saying, "The real beauty of this project has been that it has extended our understanding of the elements involved in making a car go so fast, and that will feed back into all our road car programs." Sounds good to us.