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Jaguar XE teased in new video, will debut September 8

Outside of a major auto show, this might be one of the best times of the year for new car debuts, and we couldn't be more excited. Just this week, the low-slung face of the next-generation Mazda MX-5 Miata showed itself to the world, and Land Rover debuted its new Discovery Sport. Plus, there's a double-whammy of launches on the imminent horizon with the unveilings of the Jaguar XE on September 8 and the Mercedes-AMG GT on September 9.
Jag is teasing the launch of its latest midsize luxury sedan with a few glimpses on video. It's strangely secretive, given the fact that Jaguar showed the XE's face completely un-camouflaged a few weeks ago. Regardless, it's quite a looker up front with a sleeker take on the shape of the larger XF.
Because of the way Jaguar is slowly leaking details about the XE, there are a few other things we already know about this new cat, too. It rides on a monocoque chassis made from over 75 percent aluminum, and the automaker is promising 75 miles per gallon fuel economy on the more lenient European cycle for at least one engine in the lineup.

Check out Harry Metcalfe's 1978 Jaguar XJ 5.3 V12 Coupe

Jaguar may have built its business producing luxury sedans, but it also made some superb coupes over the years, from the XK120 through the E-Type, XJS and XJ220 to today's F-Type. The automaker has largely steered clear of turning its four-door models into two-doors, but there was a time when it did exactly that. And Harry Metcalfe, former editor of the British car magazine Evo, just happens to have one in his garage. Based on the Series II XJ sedan, the XJ Coupe was long and elegant – something along the lines of what you might see today in the form of the Mercedes S-Class Coupe, but smaller and built the better part of four decades ago. With only around 10,000 of them made, the pillar-less XJ-C was much rarer than the more iconic E-Type, and even fewer of them packed the 5.3-liter fuel-injected V12 engine. That makes the former Evo editor's ride a rather scarce one indeed, and well worth checking out in his latest video clip.

Harry bravely drives Jaguar XJ-S V12 1,000 miles to Monaco

There are a great many cars we'd like to take on a transcontinental journey – especially across Europe. And a good portion of them would probably be grand tourers with twelve-cylinder engines. We're just not sure we'd be as brave as Harry Metcalfe, who drove his 1980 Jaguar XJ-S V12 from his home in the UK all the way down to Monaco. Don't get us wrong, the XJ-S looks like a rather comfortable ride, and with the V12 is surely both smooth and powerful. It's just that Jags didn't have the best reputation for reliability back then, and we'd have been at least a little worried that we wouldn't make it all the way across France on this trip. Nor are we sure we would have wanted to without air conditioning. The model in question, as you'll find out if you watch the video, is an early 1980 example, produced just before Jaguar updated the line with the High-Efficiency versions. As such, it's got a bit more power and shorter gearing than later models. The XJS (as it would later be labeled) would undergo a number of updates over the following years, and would stay on the market until 1996 when the XK came along to relieve it. By Harry's reckoning, his early XJ-S was every bit as good as the Porsche 928 and other front-engined GTs of the era, and would have been more fondly remembered if it hadn't had to live in the shadow of the E-Type that came before. You'll want to watch the 17-minute video of the journey, undertaken for a cover story to appear in the September issue of Octane, to see for yourself. Related Video: