Let's Remind Ourselves How Gorgeous The Original Jaguar F-Type Concept Was
17 years ago yesterday at the Detroit Auto Show, Jaguar revealed one the most stunning concept cars it’s ever made. The name is one you’ll be familiar with: F-Type.
It has nothing to do with the F-Type of today that we know and love, other than the fact it’s a Jag with two doors. It looks like the lovechild of an XK8 and the old E-Type, and all these years on, it still looks drop-dead gorgeous.
Much of the design work was done by Jaguar Design Director Geoff Lawson shortly before his death in 1999. It was significantly shorter and narrower than the XK8, and powered by a V6 borrowed from the S-Type saloon.
It came from a time when Jaguar’s styling department seemed to be looking backwards rather than forwards, but unlike the awkward-looking, retro pastiche S-Type, the F-Type concept presented a drool-worthy blend of past and present. And the best part? A production version beckoned.
The only issue was translating the concept into a road-legal production car without bastardising its pretty lines. Speaking to Top Gear a few years ago, Ian Callum - who succeeded Lawson as Jaguar Design Director - noted the difficulties in redesigning the concept to meet various regulations relating to windscreen and bonnet height.
The answer proposed by Callum was to make the car mid-engined. The resulting machine - set to be powered by a transverse V6 - is said to have reached an advanced state of development, when it was canned by Jaguar to focus on the introduction of diesel engines to the brand.
It wasn’t until 2011 that Jaguar revealed the C-X16, a concept which eventually became the F-Type that’s on the road today. It did without the kind of retro-inspired styling which was infused within the 2000 F-Type concept’s shapely flanks, and is arguably all the better for it.
But still, the idea of a pretty, compact, mid-engine Porsche Boxster rival from Jaguar certainly makes you wonder what might have been.
Growing up on a diet of World Rally Championship highlights and lengthy Gran Turismo 2 sessions, a life in cars was as good as inevitable for Matt.
Comments
Soo…..
Hahaha
Wow…17 years it took them….that’s crazy
Following the E-Type was never going to be easy lol.
Just me?
This is the inspiration. The body, the grilles, and even the mirrors are exactly the same
The ugly era of Jaguar. I absolutely hated Jaguar at that time. Now though, I wish I could afford a F Type.
And TVR had put it into production(?)
The back is sublime. Not liking the front. It all came good in the end tho.
I actually prefer the real car over the concept
Same, that concept is fugly.
The earlier XK180 concept with its Zagato-esque double-bubble front screen gets my vote…nicer colour too;
I really like the XK180, it looks a bit prettier than the F-Type
mmmhmmm
Scrap the F-Type we have and give us that one!
-Said the man who can’t afford a used, falling-apart 1980s econobox,
They canned a beautiful concept car in order to build diesel engines???
If Clarkson, Hammond, and May were in power they would’ve had the people who made that decision hanged.