Jaguar's Porsche Ambitions

Cammy Corrigan
by Cammy Corrigan

Car magazine reports that Jaguar wants to build an XE take on Porsche in the two-seater roadster market. The company is planning to produce some version of this garish, over-wrought, beltline-up-to-its-nipples, wagon-wheeled, bastard child of a Z-car mated with an Aston. It would slot into the £40K – £50K bracket, between the slow-selling Cayman and the slow-selling iconic 911 range. The rear wheel-drive Jag will/might/should share its aluminium architecture with the XF and XJ models. It’ll be powered by 275bhp V6 or a 350bhp supercharged version of same. The plan: introduce the XE roadster by 2013. If successful, convertible and R versions to follow. If not, not. In theory, the baby cat will be styled more gracefully than Rita Hayworth (ignoring all evidence to the contrary), rival a wood burning stove for reliability and begin life in the UK. OK but—the X-Type was supposed to be a BMW 3-series killer. Something got killed in the process, and it wasn’t German.

Cammy Corrigan
Cammy Corrigan

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  • Psarhjinian Psarhjinian on Aug 15, 2009
    The company is planning to produce some version of this garish, over-wrought, beltline-up-to-its-nipples, wagon-wheeled, bastard child of a Z-car mated with an Aston Come on, Cammy, tell us how you really feel. I don't think this is a bad idea, per se. There's a market for this kind of car, and it's one that Porsche and Audi don't quote play in and that Mercedes (SLK) and BMW (Z4) do badly. Pity Jaguar is no longer in Ford's orbit: a heavily reskinned, supercharged luxury Miata might have been entirely reasonable.
  • Dangerous Dave Dangerous Dave on Aug 15, 2009

    If they made this thing with a retractable hard top I think they would do well with it. I'm sure the styling will be toned down for production. The Z4 & SLK just dont do it for me, this is more like it.

  • Accs Accs on Aug 16, 2009

    I hate to say this.. But EVERYBODY (Porsche, Lamborghini, BMW, MB, Lexus, Audi, A.M) is doing a automatic.. with shift levers on the wheel. Forget the concept that even though the idea came from racing... It just doesnt fit into reality. Id like.. a proper stick on the floor... Id also like to know.. where in the HELL did they pull this design from.. and how is it that they changed everything EXCEPT the grill? It looks like some cross between a Peugeot and a R8. God its different, and damn it looks "good". But shit.. that grill and that awful PRIMER / SILVER color.. doesnt do shit for it.

  • Chuck Goolsbee Chuck Goolsbee on Aug 17, 2009

    grifonik : "I’m trying to remember the last time Jag built a “light” car… It’s been quite a while right?" 1967 to be exact. Then came Leylandization, federalization, and finally the bloatification that came along with the V-12 engine in 1971, which transmogrified the E-type sports car into a much bigger GT car. The V-12 did bring back some of the old E-type performance but at a cost of size and weight. The XJS that replaced the E was seriously big. --chuck

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