Jaguar Mark X on 2040-cars

Auto blog

2017 Jaguar F-Type SVR is a very fast, very angry kitty

Well, Jaguar has gone and done it. The British marque hit the perfect sweet spot with its newest F-Type, the range-topping SVR, landing squarely in a price/performance segment its butt-engined rivals from Stuttgart aren't playing in. Confirming our previous reports, the new SVR will debut at the 2016 Geneva Motor Show with the latest version of Jaguar Land Rover's 5.0-liter, supercharged V8. With some fettling by the team at JLR's Special Vehicle Operations, the engine has been boosted to 575 horsepower, 25 more than F-Type R. Torque is up from 501 pound-feet to 516 pound-feet, while the 0-60 time has dropped from 3.9 to just 3.5 seconds. And yes, 200 miles per hour is possible with the hardtop – the convertible will only do 195. That means you'll be getting more power, more torque, a quicker run to 60, and a higher top speed than an all-wheel-drive Porsche 911 GTS, but for just $5,000 more, a figure that's quickly erased by Porsche's insane options catalog. The Jag can't stand up to the 0-60 performance of 540-hp, 2.9-second 911 Turbo or the high speed of the 205-mph Turbo S, but with prices for the SVR Coupe starting at just $126,945 ($129,795 for the droptop), it's going to cost anywhere from $33,000 to $62,000 less than the Carreras. With only modest increases in output, it's pretty clear SVO made some bigger changes to score an extra 14 mph on the high end and cut 0.4 seconds off the 0-60 time. At its most basic level, the SVR is 55 pounds lighter than the F-Type R, thanks in large part to the new Inconel titanium exhaust, which cuts 35 pounds of fat (and makes for a more sinister note, we're told). Tack on the optional carbon-ceramic brakes, along with a few carbon-fiber accents, and the overall savings sits around 110 pounds. JLR is also promising faster performance from the eight-speed ZF automatic transmission, which still sends its power to all four wheels. Speaking of which, the new 20-inch forged aluminum alloys are shod in wider Pirelli PZero – 265s in front and 305s in the back, compared to 255/295 on the R model. There is also the usual array of aesthetic and aerodynamic changes. You can check out the more aggressive body work in the full gallery, but know the changes contribute to improved cooling and cut the coefficients of drag and lift by up to 7.5 and 45 percent, respectively, when the adjustable rear wing is in its aerodynamic down position, and 2.5 and 15 percent with the wing up.

Tata to get Jaguar and Land Rover tech, platforms too?

Since buying Jaguar Land Rover, Indian automaker Tata has generally left its luxury arm's platforms and technology alone. However, those days might be gone. The two of them are gradually growing closer with coordinated development and rumors of shared platforms. And it looks like all of that work and money is finally going to pay off with an actual vehicle in the near future.
According to Australian website Drive, Tata wants to make its cars more attractive to buyers outside of India, and to do that the company knows it must improve quality. The Indian company is being careful, though, because it doesn't want to dilute the Jaguar or Land Rover brands with cheap models. "You're going to see in the future a lot of sharing of technologies and platforms over time, but you won't see a JLR with a Tata badge on it," said Darren Bowler, managing director of Tata's Australian distributor, to Drive.
According to Bowler, these future vehicles are already on the way. Tata and JLR have a global platform in the works for 2017 that both companies could use for cars or crossovers. He also hinted that Jaguar's new Ingenium engines could be shared among the brands in the future, too.

Jaguar design boss Callum reinterprets classic Mark 2 for himself [w/video]

As the man behind the styling of basically every Jaguar since the mid 2000s, two things should be known about Ian Callum - he's a big fan of the brand, and he can bloody well get whatever kind of Jag he wants.
His newest car, though, is not what you might expect. Rather than an F-Type or an XJ, Callum has gone old school, and commissioned a custom, resto-modded Jaguar Mark 2.
Designed by Callum and built by Classic Motor Cars in Shropshire, England, the Mark 2 was an 18-month project between the designer and the garage. The essentially new car draws its power from a 4.3-liter engine that's been pilfered and modified from an XK. It's mated to a five-speed manual transmission.