1968 Jaguar Xke Base 4.2l on 2040-cars

Auto blog

David Brown Speedback GT marks US debut at The Quail

The British invasion has officially deployed another expeditionary force to these American shores with the arrival of the David Brown Speedback GT. The classically styled English grand tourer debuted nearly a year and a half ago, and has been racking up orders from discerning customers in the UK and across continental Europe. As promised, it has now made its American debut at the swanky Monterey event known as The Quail, A Motorsports Gathering. The Speedback GT is a coachbuilt grand touring coupe made by British startup David Brown Automotive. It's based on a Jaguar XKR, but reskinned inside and out to give it the look and feel of a classic Aston Martin – little wonder given the name it shares with the former Aston chief whose initials still adorn the DB model line. Underneath the retro bodywork lies Jaguar's celebrated 5.0-titer supercharged V8, giving the Speedback thoroughly modern levels of muscle with 510 horsepower and 461 pound-feet of torque. The resulting 0-60 time of 4.6 seconds and top speed of 155 miles per hour are suitably quick – not quite time-warping, but the performance is certainly nowhere near as old-school as the design would lead you to believe. Call it the best of both worlds, then, if you dig the styling. But don't expect everyone to be jumping on this particular gentlemanly bandwagon. At nearly half a million pounds sterling – over $750k at current exchange rates – it's sure to keep out the riffraff of which "the rest of us" are most certainly part. Featured Gallery David Brown Speedback GT: Monterey 2015 View 14 Photos Image Credit: Copyright 2015 Drew Phillips / AOL Misc. Auto Shows Jaguar Coupe Luxury Pebble Beach david brown automotive

Jaguar to finish building six remaining Lightweight E-Types

Back in February of 1963, Jaguar set about making a small run of lightweight E-Types. It recrafted the bodywork out of aluminum, shoehorned in a 3.8-liter straight-six with an aluminum block, stripped out the interior, removed the chrome trim and fitted lighter-weight side windows. The result was a 250-pound reduction in curb weight and a commensurate increase in performance, especially evident on the race track. The company originally set about building 18 examples, but only managed 12. The remaining six were allocated chassis numbers, but were never built. That is, until now.
Fifty years since the last of the original 12 lightweight E-Types were completed, Jaguar has announced that it is preparing to resume production and complete the final six examples. The company has assigned its top craftsmen to the job, who will build the half-dozen continuation Lightweights to the same exact specifications as the original dozen. Former sister-company and perennial arch-rival Aston Martin undertook a similar task (or at least authorized Zagato to do so) when it sanctioned four continuation examples of the original DB4 GT Zagato based on original chassis numbers in 1988, and another two based on original body shells and stock DB4 chassis in 1992.
Jaguar has not yet announced pricing and availability for the continuation Lightweights, but the first old-is-new example is set to debut this summer, whereupon Coventry will release further details. You can bet, though, that each one will be snapped up rather quick at just about any price the British automaker cares to put on them.

Daily Driver: 2015 Jaguar XJL AWD

Daily Driver videos are micro-reviews of vehicles in the Autoblog press fleet, reviewed by the staffers who drive them every day. Today's Daily Driver features the 2015 Jaguar XJL AWD, reviewed by Seyth Miersma. You can watch the video above or read a transcript below. Watch more Autoblog videos at /videos. VIDEO TRANSCRIPT: [00:00:00] Hey everybody, it's your old pal Seyth here with Autoblog. I am in the 2015 Jaguar XJL. That L is for a long-wheelbase. The engine powering this car is the 3.0-liter supercharged V6. My cameras inside probably didn't pick up a lot of that, but the supercharged 3.0-liter does have a nice little growl to it, especially in sport mode [00:00:30] where I'm staying higher in the rev range. It doesn't have that same big, luxurious, meaty, whoofly V8 sound as the naturally aspirated 5.0-liter used to. At 340 horsepower, 332 lb-ft of torque, this engine has everything that you need. I think that they say the 0 to 60 time is around six seconds. Frankly, the car feels a little bit faster even that that. Again, we're talking about a large long-wheelbase car here. What's particularly interesting and [00:01:00] relevant to the weather that you see behind me right now, is that this car is not rear-wheel drive. It is in fact all-wheel drive. Even going into this, knowing obviously that I was in an all-wheel drive car, the first drive really reveals it to handle a lot like a rear-wheel drive vehicle. That's appropriate. That's what you want in a car of this class. Something very luxurious and that has a reputation built on sporting dynamics as opposed to sort of just comfort and refinement. [00:01:30] Jaguar's goal with an all-wheel drive system like this is to make the car still feel very much like a rear-wheel drive vehicle but give you just enough ability to be able to pull out of a corner smartly when the grip is a little bit lower than you'd expect it to be. Obviously if there's some snow on the ground, that's a helpful thing. Or on a day like today, when I'm coming out of a corner on a slightly slippery road, being able to put the power down is advantageous. To be honest, so far the application has been really seamless. The power seems to be [00:02:00] flowing from the engine just to the rear wheels. I feel like I'm getting a little bit of assist, right now I'm entering a corner at a moderate speed and not really slipping at all. It feels like a rear-wheel drive car. I've always loved this XJ.