Jaguar Xk140 Fixed Head Coupe on 2040-cars

Auto blog

Watch new Jaguar XF perform a literal high-wire act

Coming out with a new luxury sedan can be a truly daunting prospect. Make it too edgy and you'll risk disenfranchising what can often be a rather conservative customer base. Make it too conservative and you may fail to attract enough new customers or generate enough interest to make the endeavor worthwhile. Whether Jaguar succeeded in walking that thin line with the new XF is a matter of personal taste, blending as it does elements from the smaller XE and the outgoing XF it replaces. But in launching the new model, Jaguar didn't just pull of a figurative high-wire act – it did quite a literal one. To drum up support for its newest debut, Jaguar undertook the stunt depicted in the video above, stringing a pair of carbon-fiber cables some 60 feet above the River Thames in London. With some guide wires and counterbalance weights to keep it all in check, and a motion-picture stunt crew orchestrating it all, the new XF drove over 780 feet from one bank of the river to the other, setting a new world record in the process. Instead of thinking too hard about the whys (seriously, though... why?) and hows, we suggest you just watch the video above. Related Video:

Jaguar Land Rover parent Tata posts a loss over coronavirus

BENGALURU — India's Tata Motors posted a wider loss for the September quarter on Tuesday as the COVID-19 pandemic sapped demand in several of its key markets. The global health crisis has hammered sales for automakers worldwide and compounded problems for Tata Motors, which was trying to improve Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) sales amid weak demand and uncertainty related to Brexit. Tata Motors reported a consolidated net loss of 3.14 billion rupees ($42.47 million) for the second quarter ended Sept. 30, compared with a loss of 2.17 billion rupees a year earlier. Retail unit sales at luxury car unit JLR, which rakes in most of the company's revenue, was down nearly 12% for the reported quarter. Tata Motors, however, said it expects JLR sales to gradually improve. "Despite concerns around the risk of a second wave of (COVID-19) infections ... we expect a gradual recovery of demand and supply in the coming months," the carmaker said in an exchange filing. Total revenue from operations fell 18.2% to 535.3 billion rupees. Tata Motors said it was committed to achieving near-zero net automotive debt in the coming years. Shares of Tata Motors ended 1.46% higher on Tuesday while the broader Mumbai market settled 1.03% higher.

Jaguar launches new classic racing series

One-make racing series have become all the rage for customers who want to actually race their exotic sports cars (or competition-spec versions of them, anyway). Ferrari, Maserati, Lamborghini and Aston Martin all offer such programs, and Porsche supports several. Now Jaguar is getting in on the action as well, but instead of turning one of its production models - we're looking at you, F-Type - into a spec racer, it's launching an historic racing series instead.
The 2015 Jaguar Heritage Challenge will be open to cars made by the Leaping Cat marque before 1966, including the C-Type, D-Type, E-Type and Mk I and MkII sedans. The series, which builds on the success of the previous Jaguar E-Type Challenge, will be administered by the Historic Sports Car Club (HSCC) based at Silverstone and will include four races in the UK and one in Europe, with the exact schedule still to be determined.
The program was announced at the launch of the Jaguar Heritage Driving Experience, where Jaguar Land Rover Special Operations director John Edwards was also named chairman of the Jaguar Daimler Heritage Trust, replacing former Jaguar managing director Mike O'Driscoll who chaired the organization for the past five years.