1988 Jaguar Xjs Convertible on 2040-cars

Auto blog

Land Rover knows where you're going and how you want to get there

Land Rover makes some of the most capable SUVs on or off the road, and some of the most luxurious too. But the British automaker isn't about to rest on those laurels - not when every other automaker assaults its territory with sport-utes of their own. That's why Land Rover has been working so hard on nifty new technologies from a depth-sounder in the door mirror of the Range Rover Sport an augmented-reality head-up display that makes the whole front of the car virtually disappear.
JLR's newest tech may not be ground-breaking, but its integration promises to make driving around town that much easier. The system syncs with the driver's smartphone and uses all manner of parameters - including driver habits, weather and location as well as the presence of other passengers - to make the commute go as smoothly as possible. Get into the car and it'll set the seat and mirrors for you. No big deal, because lots of cars do that. But it'll also set up the nav system to take you to work and the sound system to play your favorite music. Okay, getting more interesting.
Get in with your kids and it'll know not only that you've got to drop them off at school first (or remind you to pack their gym bag if they've got soccer practice after school that day) but that they might not enjoy that Chumbawamba album you've been listening to since college and it'll play something it knows you'll all enjoy based on your listening history. Then it'll switch back to Tubthumping once the kids are out, remind you of your morning meeting and alert those you're scheduled to meet with if you get stuck in traffic while finding you a better route to get there, monitoring fuel levels all the while and telling you if you'll need to tank up before you reach your destination. It knows if you like calling your mother on the drive to work and will lower the air suspension to make it easier to hop out once you get there.

Artist imagines eerie world where cars have no wheels

The wheel ranks right up there with the telescope and four-slice toaster in the pantheon of inventions that have moved humankind forward. But what if a circle in three dimensions had never occurred to anyone, and we all had just moved on without it? Perhaps we'd be driving around in Lucas Motors Landspeeders with anti-gravity engines. Or maybe we'd have the same cars we do today, just without wheels.
That's the thought experiment that seems to have led French photographer Renaud Marion to create his six-image series called Air Drive. The shots depict cars throughout many eras of motoring that look normal except for one thing: they have no wheels. The models used include a Jaguar XK120, Cadillac DeVille (shown above), Chevrolet El Camino and Camaro, and Mercedes-Benz SL and 300 roadsters.
Perhaps one day when our future becomes our past, you'll be able to walk the street and see with your own eyes the rust and patina of age on our nation's fleet of floating cars. Until then, Monsieur Marion's photographs will have to do.

Jaguar-based Eagle E-Type Low Drag GT makes its bid for most beautiful car ever with EVO

The Jaguar E-Type is one of the icons of automotive design, and British company Eagle has made a business out of restoring, upgrading and building their bespoke versions for the last 30 years. It does for the E-Type what Singer does for the Porsche 911 - takes an already great classic car and updates its mechanicals for the modern age.
The firm's latest creation, the Low Drag GT, might be its greatest ever, at least according to editor Henry Catchpole in Evo magazine's latest video. The car takes its inspiration from a trio of low-drag E-Type coupes built in the 1960s, but thoroughly modernizes the concept. The engine is based on Jag's inline-six, but made from aluminum and bored out to 4.7 liters to produce 346 horsepower and 360 pound-feet of torque. Catchpole says it's enough to propel it to 60 miles per hour in about 4.5 seconds. The body, transmission and differential are all also made from aluminum to cut the weight to 2,288 pounds, and modern upgrades include Ohlins dampers, AP Racing brakes and even extras like concealed GPS navigation and an Alcantara headliner. There's more head- and legroom than the originals, too.
Each car is built bespoke for each buyer, so prices vary, but Catchpole says the one he is in would run about half the cost of a LaFerrari - around $700,000.