1989 Jaguar Xj6 Base Sedan 4-door 3.6l on 2040-cars

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Jaguar Land Rover to cut thousands of UK jobs

LONDON — Britain's biggest carmaker Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) is set to cut thousands of jobs as the company faces lower demand in China and a slump in sales of diesel cars in Europe. The central English firm builds a higher proportion of its cars in Britain than any other major or medium-sized carmaker and has also spent millions of pounds preparing for Brexit, in case there are tariffs or customs checks. Britain's business minister Greg Clark said on Thursday it is clear why a no-deal Brexit would add to the problems with further costs and disruption. JLR lost 354 million pounds ($450 million) between April and September 2018 and had already cut around 1,000 roles in Britain, shut its Solihull plant for two weeks and announced a three-day week at its Castle Bromwich site. Its Chief Executive Ralf Speth warned in September that the wrong Brexit deal could cost tens of thousands of car jobs and posed a threat to production at the automaker. The Tata Motors-owned company, which employs around 40,000 people in Britain and has boosted its workforce at new plants in China and Slovakia in recent years, unveiled plans to cut costs and improve cash flows by 2.5 billion pounds last year including "reducing employment costs and employment levels." Those cuts will be "substantial" and run into the thousands, the source told Reuters. "The announcement on job losses will be substantial, affecting managerial, research, sales, design," said the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, not affecting production-line staff "at this stage." The company declined to comment when contacted by Reuters on Thursday. Ford also said on Thursday it will cut thousands of jobs in Europe, exit unprofitable markets and discontinue loss-making vehicle lines as part of a turnaround effort aimed at improving profit margins in the region. Brexit warnings JLR, which became Britain's biggest carmaker in 2016, had been on course to build around 1 million vehicles by the turn of the decade, reported on Thursday a 4.6 percent drop in full-year sales to just under 600,000 vehicles. Demand in China, which had once been one of its strongest countries but has since been hit by a slowdown, fell by 21.6 percent, the biggest drop of any of its markets. "The economic slowdown in China along with ongoing trade tensions is continuing to influence consumer confidence," said Jaguar Land Rover Chief Commercial Officer Felix Brautigam.

Jaguar practiced the E-Pace barrel roll - wait, how do you practice a barrel roll?

Jaguar launched the E-Pace compact crossover by literally launching it into a barrel roll. But to get to the point where the company could do the stunt in front of the press naturally took plenty of preparation and planning, and the company documented much of it in the video above. It turns out that the early stages of preparing the stunt are about as entertaining as the stunt itself. The video spends a little time showing some of the computer modeling and designing of the stunt, but most of the video covers the practice runs done with a test car. Jaguar set up its prototype offset ramp for initiating the roll, and had a massive airbag set up for the test car to land in. And early on, to make sure the stunt driver wasn't hurt, they rigged up a Land Rover Evoque with autonomous driving equipment to do the first runs. Later the stunt driver took a few turns. The testing resulted in flips and tumbles you've only seen with Hot Wheels cars. It's so strange and fun to see a full-size car launched this way. Once the team finally had the jump pretty well dialed in, the stunt driver was able to test it launching from ramp to ramp, and then eventually do it in the production E-Pace at the crossover's reveal. Related Video: Image Credit: Jaguar Jaguar Crossover Luxury Videos jaguar e-pace

2018 Jaguar F-Type 2.0T First Drive Review | Less soulful, still sexy

Jaguar is eager to promote its Ingenium turbocharged inline-four as a legitimate object of performance desire, and what better way to do so than drop it into its most desirous car? The 2018 Jaguar F-Type Coupe to this point has featured six- and eight-cylinder engines, all supercharged, but this is the first time that the other type of forced induction has made its way under the F-Type's long, sculpted hood. The new pairing looks pretty good on paper. The 2.0-liter engine's 295 pound-feet of torque is available from 1,500 to 4,500 RPM. It makes 296 horsepower at 5,500 RPM, 44 horsepower shy of the blown V6 model, but weighs 117 pounds less. That's enough to motivate the 3,360-pound F-Type to 60 mph in the mid-5-second range, only 0.3 seconds behind said V6. The 2.0-liter is also a lot cheaper – $8,100 less than a bare-bones V6. That'll probably make the decision for a lot of folks, dropping the base F-Type into a whole 'nother class of sporty two-seaters. I'll posit, however, that the F-Type isn't a raw numbers car. It's a passionate thing that appeals to an emotional part of our brain. Just look at it! The coupe we tested, in Fuji White, was fresh as a mountain stream despite the platform's age. The sheetmetal is, quite simply, most of the appeal. Even the base wheels, 18-inch, 10-spoke alloys, look phenomenal. And since the F-Type 2.0 is sexy, undeniably quick enough to back up its sporting looks, and a significant price savings over a V6, it's almost a killer app. If only the little Ingenium turbo-four was as passionate as the F-Type itself. It's a workaday unit, coarse and gruff. After all, it sees duty in just about everything else Jaguar-Land Rover makes, from the lowly Discovery Sport to the big XJ. Its clattery four-cylinder noises and thrashiness don't jibe with the premium sports-touring vibe the rest of the car exudes. We've gotten used to, if not come to universally love, four-cylinder pony cars like the Mustang and Camaro, but the divergence in character between car and powerplant here is vast. It does the job, sure, but you enjoy the F-Type in spite of its engine, rather than because of it. Low-speed tractability issues don't help things any, whether the engine's charms are important to you or not. An odd combination of boost, driveline shunt, or transmission confusion make low-speed maneuvering jerky, regardless of drive mode. Putz around a mall parking lot or sit in traffic for a few minutes, and it'll be clear what I'm on about.