Jaguar confirms Le Mans return

http://www.autocar.co.uk/News/NewsArticle.aspx?AR=247336#

Sweet.

So the Jaguar name will return on an Indian designed next generation of a car based on the Ford Mondeo. Classic Jag heritage, that.....

As true as that is, at least the sentiment is there. I mean, when was the last time an italian won in a ferrari?

Dunno, but I'll bet the car was designed by Ferrari (or Pinin Farina), and built in Italy, by the original owner of the marque, and not someone who bought the rights to the name.

Oh, and another twist on the XKR/Mondeo hybrid was the the designer was the bloke who did the DB7 and Vanquish. Although this source states that the XKR and DB7 were based on the old XJS platform (obviously rather heavily revised to say the least!). I'm getting confused, as there seems to be huge differences between some of the recent XK/XKR and similar sounding models.

Well, it was a unique feature of British marques to keep existing models going until they were very long in the tooth. I mean, the original Range Rover came out in 1979 and wasn't updated until the mid 90s.

If it works, why mess with it too much? After all, the current Landrover Defenders aren't too far removed from the 1950s Series Landies. What's under the bonnet is far more modern, but the fundamental features haven't changed all that much. A friend of mine has a Defender, and you can actually use Series 3 parts on them - even the windscreen hasn't changed!

Heritage is a history of something and in the case of Jaguar (or Land Rover) that includes it's ownership by Ford, BMW, Tata... or whomever next takes ownership. what matters is that they keep the the marques core values and continue to be produced here...

A return to sportscar racing by Jaguar is to be applauded, just as it was great to see Bentley competing at Le Mans again.

Ah yes, Bentley at Le Mans. Using a revised version of the Audi R8C, oddly enough owned by their parent company who decided not to enter that year.....

To think of the Bentley Speed 8 an Audi in drag is to over simplify things, the Bentley and the Audi R8C where drastically different cars, even the R8R engine was enlarged to 4 litres over the 3.6 in the Audi's

Audi not participating in 2003 helped Bentley for sure and I never approved of the decision by VW not to let Bentley defend their win in 2004 however as I was saying earlier a Marques heritage is simply a history of it's existence, Bentley are now 6 time winners of Le Mans

Jaguar are to date 7 time winners and it would be very nice to see them win it outright again.

This post has been edited by John on Feb 9 2010, 03:54 PM

Not that much of an oversimplification. The design team was fundamentally different, but their starting point was the R8C - almost all of which they effecitively threw away or redesigned. The engine was an enlarged and modified Audi V8, and the Audi R8 itself absent in order that it didn't beat the Bentley. It didn't really matter what the colour was, or what logo was on the car. It was a Bentley by name only. It could just as easily have been an Audi Speed 8, VW Speed 8 or even Lamborghini Speed 8 for that matter. Just like the current 'Lotus' F1 team is as much Lotus as Triumph is Triumph and Jaguar is Jagaur. The logos are the same, but the company has long gone.

Bentley by your reckoning has not existed since 1931 or Vauxhall has not been Vauxhall since 1925 of Jaguar has not been Jaguars since 1966

OK have it your way, but to me they are still British Car companies albeit in foreign ownership but british all the same.

As a new member here I must tread carefully, so I will restrict my comment on this thread by avoiding the Audi/Bentley trap, and just say what a huge disappointment the "Jaguar" effort was at Le Mans.

I saw the car at the circuit on the Sunday afternoon (before scrutineering) and even accepting that it had only just arrived from the States, appearances were hardly inspiring. Yes, they'd raced at Laguna Seca a short while before, but so too had Highcroft, and their HPD was stunningly well presented. By the time the XKRS arrived in the town centre it had at least been polished, but significantly, it took an age to get through the scrutineering process, and delayed all the other cars behind it. The ACO obviously pulled it to bits looking for homologation papers, but then waved it through (probably with many boxes to tick) in deference to its appearance during Jaguar's 75th anniversary year.

During practice and qualifying, it was more a case of watching out to see if it appeared at all, rather than clocking the timing screens in the hope of a decent lap. It was slowest on Wednesday, and again on Thursday, and then retired after just four laps of the race on Saturday. I've still not discovered what the problem was, but electrics were originally blamed before other reports suggested a blown engine.

So, despite all the hype, a dismal showing. I cannot believe there was any "factory" involvement in this lacklustre effort. When Tata bought into Jaguar a few years back, I recall the MD stating that it was the company's intent to return the marque to Le Mans, but not this way, surely?

Incidentally, I'm not convinced by the idea that the XKR and DB7 were based on an XJS platform. Going back a few years, both Jaguar and Aston were owned by Ford, and much of the development work for new cars was done by TWR in Kidlington, under Ian Callum's watch. I have a friend who worked in the design department there, and he was involved in what he understood would be the next Jag, only to be told a little while later that the whole project had been rebadged, and it subsequently became the DB7. It was, though, a ground-up new project.

With a user-name like yours we'd expect you to be rather punchy .... don't worry about offending the "natives", they actively like it .... gives them something to talk about.

Welcome BTW


This post has been edited by Brave_Lee_Flea on Jun 28 2010, 11:11 AM