2013 on 2040-cars

Auto blog

Jaguar's famed design director Ian Callum is quitting

Jaguar's director of design Ian Callum is officially stepping down. Callum has been with the company for over 20 years, leading numerous important and legendary designs. To name a few, Callum is responsible for recent cars like the Jaguar F-Type, XF and I-Pace. He also designed the C-X75, which was a concept hypercar that Jaguar absolutely should have made. "I have had an incredible career at Jaguar," Callum says. "One of my biggest highlights was creating XF because it represented the beginning of a new era moving Jaguar from tradition to contemporary design — it was a significant turning point in our story." Callum also says he isn't done designing cars — he's even going to continue to act as a consultant for Jaguar after his departure. It's unclear what his main project will be after he leaves in July, but he's left the door open for himself. "I came into this role with a mission to take Jaguar design back to where it deserved to be. It has taken 20 years, but I believe I have achieved what I set out to do. Given the strength of both our products and the design team I feel that now is the right time to move on, both personally and professionally, and explore other design projects," Callum says. In addition to slick sports cars and sultry sedans, Callum is also responsible for leading Jaguar into the era of SUVs and crossovers. He headed up the design for the F-Pace and E-Pace. We found both of those to be some of the better looking crossovers on sale today, so props to Callum for finding and implementing the Jaguar style in the inherently unstylish crossover format. Callum has designed plenty of great cars outside of Jaguar, too. A few examples include the Aston Martin DB7, DB9, Vanquish and Ford Escort Cosworth. Our big question is, what's next for Callum? Whatever car he decides to design is probably going to look the business, so we're excited for any projects he gets involved in after Jaguar. Taking his place at Jaguar is current creative design director Julian Thomson. He's been with the company since 2000, and has previously worked with Ford, Lotus and Volkswagen.

More Jaguar F-Pace details revealed [w/video]

The Jaguar F-Pace will make its full debut on September 15 at the 2015 Frankfurt Motor Show. But for folks like us that want every detail about the compact crossover ahead of time, Jaguar is continuing the ongoing tease. This time, the company puts the emphasis on the CUV's suspension development and includes a video to prove that it works. The F-Pace is promising to be quite a crisp handler with a double-wishbone layout for the front suspension and an integral link setup at the rear. Cornering is further enhanced by an all-wheel-drive system that features torque vectoring adapted from the F-Type. Stopping shouldn't be an issue either because the brakes are also based on the units from the sports car. In addition, the company is making the lofty promise that crossover's electric power-assisted power steering offers "greater feedback and control than hydraulic systems." Production of the crossover should get underway at the Solihull, UK, factory soon because the F-Pace hits the market in 2016. The powertrain range is expected to include the new Ingenium four-cylinder engine family and the brand's fantastic sounding, supercharged V6. All the details should be officially revealed in Frankfurt, though. Until then, give the F-Pace a listen in the clip below. This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings. JAGUAR F-PACE: THE ULTIMATE PRACTICAL JAGUAR SPORTS CAR 26/08/15 Double wishbone front and Integral Link rear suspension enable exceptional handling and ride comfort Outstanding agility delivered by F-TYPE-derived technologies including Torque Vectoring2 Electric power-assisted steering designed to give immediate response and connected feel Debuting at the Frankfurt Motor Show in September On sale in 2016 (MAHWAH, N.J.) - August 25, 2015 - Featuring sports-car derived chassis systems and evaluated on the same demanding roads as all other Jaguar vehicles, the new F-PACE will bring new levels of dynamic ability to the brand when it goes on sale in 2016, after debuting at the Frankfurt Motor Show this September. The new F-PACE will reward drivers and passengers alike with a blend of agility and comfort that is unique to the small performance SUV segment; making it the most practical Jaguar sports car ever.

The 200-mph Jaguar F-Type SVR is coming to Geneva

Jaguar has good news for us: The new F-Type SVR will make its grand debut at March's Geneva Motor Show. Following up on leaked stats from last week, Jag confirms the hardtop F-Type SVR will be capable of hitting 200 miles per hour. The British brand doesn't go much further in confirming other details from last week's report, though. So even though the top end's extra 14 mph has to come from somewhere, we still can't be certain it'll be thanks to a reported 567 horsepower or 516 pound-feet of torque. Jag also won't yet confirm the reported claim of a 3.7-second sprint to 62 mph. What the company is saying, though, is that its first SVR-badged model will be "lighter, faster, and more powerful." JLR's Special Operations boss, John Edwards, calls the new SVR an "all-weather supercar." That lends credence to initial reports that the hottest F-Type will send its power to all four wheels. While the F-Type SVR will hit the Geneva stage on March 1, we won't be waiting that long for all the details – Jaguar will release a complete array of images and details on February 17. We'll have more then. 200MPH JAGUAR F-TYPE SVR TO MAKE GLOBAL DEBUT AT 2016 GENEVA MOTOR SHOW (MAHWAH, N.J.) – January 26, 2016 - The new 2017 Jaguar F-TYPE SVR will make its global debut at the 2016 Geneva Motor Show on March 1, 2016 and will go on sale in summer 2016. Capable of accelerating to 200mph, the new F-TYPE SVR is the first Jaguar to wear the SVR badge and is developed to exploit the two-seat aluminum sports car's full potential while retaining its day-to-day usability. Lighter, faster and more powerful, the new F-TYPE SVR takes performance, dynamics and driver involvement to a new level yet retains the comfort and duality of character inherent to all Jaguar cars. "The new F-TYPE SVR is the first series production Jaguar car to be developed by Special Vehicle Operations and benefits from everything we know about precision engineering, performance and design," said John Edwards, Managing Director, Jaguar Land Rover Special Operations. "The result is a 200mph, all-weather supercar that you can drive every day – we even made a Convertible version so that enthusiasts can revel in the sound from the new titanium exhaust system." The new F-TYPE SVR will join the 2017 Model Year F-TYPE Coupe and Convertible range comprising of the F-TYPE, F-TYPE Premium, F-TYPE S, F-TYPE British Design Edition and F-TYPE R.