2002 Jaguar X-type Base Sedan 4-door 3.0l on 2040-cars

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Lapping Le Mans with 1956's version of a dash cam

Mike Hawthorne and Ivor Bueb won The 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1955 driving a Jaguar D-Type. The following year, a few days before the race, a British broadcaster put cameras on Hawthorne's car, hung a mic from a plate on his race suit and had him narrate a lap of the Circuit de la Sarthe.
It is compelling viewing. A new pit complex was built after the massive accident on the front straight in 1955, but this was still a time when crews prepped for the race on roads that were open to the public. Hawthorne's lap includes maneuvers to avoid bicyclists and cars, and gems like letting us know that doing 185 miles per hour down the Mulsanne Straight was where you could "relax a little, recover your energy." Watch him work it like the men of old in the video below.

Jaguar releases Desire short film starring F-Type and Damian Lewis

After stoking the hype with a theatrical-style trailer, Jaguar has finally released the full-length version of its mini-movie, Desire, to help kick off the new 2014 Jaguar F-Type. Starring Homeland actor Damian Lewis across from the lovely Shannyn Sossamon, the film has been turned loose on YouTube after an initial debut at the Sundance London film and music festival.
Shot in Chile's rather breathtaking Atacama Desert, Desire is described by the producers as being "A story of betrayal, retribution, passion and greed." Lewis plays the lead role of Clark, a high-end car delivery guy (great work if you can get it), who runs into an unexpected, sexy mystery when shuttling the lovely F-Type to the middle of nowhere. Who could have guessed?
We won't spoil any of the not-exactly-serious 13-minute plot for you; scroll down below to see for yourself if the theatrical pomp and circumstance is worthy of Jag's newest roadster.

All-electric Jaguar XJ coming soon on platform shared with 'Road Rover'

We've been posting on the likelihood of electric Jaguars for a while now, especially the XJ leading the charge as a new EV flagship. Rumors at the beginning of 2018 predicted an XJ EV on our doorstep by the end of 2018, the 50th anniversary year of the XJ. By April this year, it was looking like the battery-powered XJ would use the I-Pace platform and make an appearance sometime in 2019. Now, Automotive News Europe reports that during Jaguar Land Rover's Investor's Day presentations, the automaker said it would debut a "large SUV and a large premium sedan" on its Modular Longitudinal Architecture (MLA) suitable for EVs, hybrids and traditional ICE-powered cars. The sedan in question is the next-gen XJ. Nick Rogers, JLR's product engineering boss, said electric MLA vehicles will get 90.2-kWh batteries that return range of up to 400 kilometers (292 miles) on the European cycle. That would effectively be the same size battery as the I-Pace, which rides on its own one-off platform, and the same range; in the U.S., the I-Pace is rated at 234 miles. It's said the XJ's design, produced by former Jaguar design chief Ian Callum and his team, has already been cleared. It swaps the four-door body for a five-door, a la the Audi A7, and introduces a new design language for the car and the carmaker. Car and Driver says the new statement sedan aims to be "a cutting-edge alternative to the BMW 7 Series and Mercedes-Benz S-Class," and Autocar saying it will "remain Jaguar's flagship in preference to a large SUV, such as the rumored J-Pace." The point of introducing the EV first is to establish the car's technology and sporting credentials — hopefully before the Porsche Taycan and Audi E-Tron GT arrive. Eventually, an ICE version of the XJ powered by an Ingenium inline-six should come; that will welcome buyers not ready to make the all-EV switch, a necessary move in keeping with the XJ's competition for global sales with the S-Class and 7 Series. However, leaving room in the design for a conventional drivetrain will force compromises that the all-electric competition doesn't face. Production of the current XJ ends at the Castle Bromwich facility on July 5. The new sedan is slated to be "announced in the near future" and built at JLR's plant in Solihull, which assembles Land Rover products. The same MLA platform will support a road-focused Land Rover as a sibling to the XJ, dubbed the "Road Rover" internally.