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Jaguar gives World Car jurors private viewing of J-Pace, next XJ

The brace of accolades bestowed on the Jaguar I-Pace include three awards given by the 86 jurors on the World Car of the Year panel. They anointed the I-Pace World Car of the Year, World Green Car of the Year, and World Car Design of the Year. Jaguar hosted a get-together for its new WCOTY friends, inviting jurors to the carmaker's Coventry design studios to check out future products. The coming all-electric XJ and flagship J-Pace were the stars of the gathering, this being the first time Jaguar's publicly got behind the range-topping crossover. Ex-head designer Ian Callum hinted about the J-Pace in April, but all he would say is, "We're looking at it." With Jaguar confident enough to show the vehicle to very important outsiders, the J-Pace could be on track for its rumored 2021 launch. Jaguar dropped hints of other new cars, too. The carmaker "gave a firm nod to" two new crossovers that will be "considerably less expensive" than current crossovers in the lineup, to be called A-Pace and B-Pace. We've never heard of these, but based on the brand's naming structure, the A-Pace would slot in at entry-level, the B-Pace just above. It's said that one or both of these will be sized to compete in the World Urban Car Awards sometime in the 2020s. That means subcompact dimensions along the lines of this year's World Urban Car winner the Suzuki Jimny, or the top-three finisher Kia Soul. The jurors also got a look at the imminent replacements for the F-Type and XE. The second-generation F-Type is said to wear an evolutionary design; the big changes will take place under the hood. A V8 could remain in the top tier, but one sourced from BMW instead of Jaguar's own supercharged 5.0-liter V8. The current V6 is expected to give way for an Ingenium inline-six developed in-house. And expect one or both of them to come with hybrid assistance, as Jaguar's made a point of saying that all of its offerings will get "electrified options" in the 2020s. What did Jaguar get out of the open-house? Insider information, apparently: "150 senior Jaguar employees" put questions to the WCOTY jurors about how the panel road-tests cars. Perhaps the WCOTY award will become the new Nurburgring for the next decade. As a final flourish to everyone who'd get the news, Jaguar CEO Ralph Speth informed the audience that his charge and Land Rover "are definitely not for sale to Peugeot-Citroen, Fiat-Chrysler, Hyundai-Kia or any other motor manufacturing companies." So there.

Watch 2 clay modelers build Jaguar E-Types out of plasticine

Ah, quarantine time. When put to good use, it can be a time of ingenuity and creativity — precious time given back to us, in a sense. So here are two chaps, Joe and Lucas, who work at JaguarÂ’s Design Studio, stuck at home, ready to make a couple classic E-Type models out of some plasticine. This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings. ItÂ’s not exactly an instructional video, since itÂ’s mostly sped-up time lapse footage with no instructional explainers. But itÂ’s meant to show us that anyone can do it. The tools they use to shape the plasticine are common household items: a rolling pin or similar cylindrical items — they use a can of hair spray — to roll out the material, a plastic spoon, potato peeler, a knife, cardboard, tinfoil and a glass of water to apply to the plasticine and make a smooth finish. As for plasticine itself, itÂ’s a modeling clay thatÂ’s similar to Play-doh except that it is oil-based, where the latter is made of flour and water. (If youÂ’re interested, hereÂ’s a video that shows you how to convert Play-doh into plasticine.) So weÂ’re shown how the designers shape the signature fender bulges, greenhouse, head- and taillights and wheels. But it frankly all goes by in a blur, and we suspect that most of us amateurs would be left with something that looks more like an undefined blog. Still, itÂ’s fun to watch. Built between 1961 and 1975, the E-Type two-seat roadster is considered one of the major icons of automotive design and part of the AUTObodies collection at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Design/Style Jaguar Coupe Classics

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.