2004 - Jaguar Xj8 on 2040-cars

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Lister LFT-C brings 666 horsepower to the Jaguar F-Type

Lister just announced a limited run of its LFT-C Jaguar F-Type conversion cars. It made 99 of the coupes in this spec, but now there will be 10 convertibles available for purchase worldwide. The LFT-C name further confuses Lister's naming for this car, which was initially known as the Thunder, then morphed into the LFT-666, and now these new convertibles are called LFT-C. We would've just stuck with Thunder all along and called this one a Thunder convertible. It makes the same 666 horsepower as the Lister F-Types before it, but that's still substantially more than the 575 horsepower out of the F-Type SVR. Lister does a lot of its own work to the 5.0-liter supercharged V8 to eke out the extra horsepower on top of what Jag is able to do with its performance division at the factory. The nice part of this aftermarket work is that it still comes with a seven-year warranty from Lister, so it's similar to a new car powertrain warranty. This should give you some peace of mind when dashing to 62 mph in just over three seconds. Related: Lister Knobbly roadster gets green light for production There's more than just engine work done to the LFT-C, though. Lister has designed its own suspension, exhaust, braking system and wheels to bring the rest of the car up to snuff. Carbon fiber body panels replace everything from Jaguar where possible. Other Lister design touches on the exterior include a new front bumper, front splitter, rear diffuser, rear spoiler, rear wheel arches, a new grille design and lightweight alloy wheels fitted with Michelin tires. Lister is differentiating this 10-car run by adding in a unique interior, but customers can request anything they desire on the customization front. With so few cars available, it's unlikely to see one on this side of the world after being manufactured in the U.K. That said, we asked Lister, and they said you can buy one here. Base price for the LFT-C is a cool $182,995, and that's only where it starts. We're sure customization options will allow it to skyrocket from there. The price for a base F-Type SVR Convertible is $127,725, so you're looking at a hefty premium over the donor car for what Lister has to offer. The LFT-C is available to order now.

Jaguar E-Type 60 Collection celebrates 1961 launch and The Decade of the Cat

The night before the 1961 Geneva Motor Show, Jaguar PR man Bob Berry drove "flat out" from the English automaker's home base in Coventry to the city on the lake. Berry needed to be at the Parc des Eaux Vives in time to debut the car he was driving, a Jaguar E-Type coupe in Opalescent Gunmetal Grey with the number plate 9600 HP. Legend says he arrived at the Parc only minutes ahead of the appointed time for test drives. That morning hinted, and the decade of the 1960s would prove, that Berry also arrived driving a legend. The invited guests did so much clucking over the hardtop that Jaguar boss Sir William Lyons told famed company engineer Norman Dewis to "drop everything" and dispatch another cat to Geneva that very night. Dewis drove the roughly 700 miles in 11 hours to get a British Racing Green E-Type roadster with the number plate 77 RW to the show the following morning. To celebrate those two totems to Englishness and success, Jaguar Classic will build the E-Type 60 Collection — 12 cars sold only as six sets of two, with one coupe and one roadster in each set. All cars will be powered by rebuilt 3.8-liter straight-sixes with 265 horsepower and 260 pound-feet of torque. That motor took the show cars from zero to 60 miles per hour in 6.9 seconds, on to a top speed of 150 mph. The coupes will be painted Flat Out Grey, the roadsters in Drop Everything Green, unique colors reserved for the collection. The dozen cars will also get special design details penned by Jaguar design director Julian Thompson. Jaguar Classic already has the 12 E-Type Series 1 donor cars in its possession, and plans to begin restorations in March 2021. Jaguar hasn't mentioned pricing, and likely won't unless you intend to purchase. Seeing as a Jaguar Classic E-Type Reborn was priced at $355,000 three years ago, multiply that by two and add a touch for inflation and exclusivity for an approximate base price. If you're still interested, the E-Type 60 Collection is available to order now, so contact Jaguar Classic. 

2020 Jaguar I-Pace Suspension Deep Dive | All kinds of weird and wonderful

I’ve driven the Jaguar I-Pace a handful of times, and it always proves to be an enjoyable experience. In case youÂ’re not up to speed, this is JaguarÂ’s dual-motor all-wheel drive all-electric SUV. ItÂ’s quick, it looks cool in a running shoe sort of way, and it delivers a decent 234 miles of range. Sure, it has its faults, particularly when it comes to the infotainment and climate control layout. But the electric JagÂ’s smooth ride comfort and direct steering feel are clear strong points, and its handling stays nicely balanced and displays sharp reflexes as far as IÂ’ve pushed it. That is to say, a strong pace, but nothing that would land me in jail. The suspension plays a big role in all of this, of course. I wanted to see what theyÂ’d done, so I recently put an I-Pace HSE up on jackstands and took a look underneath. Electric powertrain notwithstanding, I found this to be an utterly weird and fascinating machine.    From this vantage it is easy to see the big air spring (yellow arrow). The use of this type of spring medium allows the I-Pace to run at different heights. It mostly runs at standard height, but can also lower the car at highway speeds to lessen aerodynamic drag. ThereÂ’s an even lower mode to ease the loading of passengers and cargo, along with a raised-height off-road mode because, well, this is theoretically an SUV. It looks like it has a double wishbone front suspension, too, with a high-mount upper arm (green). But we canÂ’t be sure until we move in closer.   With the wheel turned, we can see that this is a double wishbone front suspension in the sense that it has a single ball joint (green) at the bottom. ThereÂ’s lots of nice-looking forged and hollow-cast aluminum bits and pieces, too. But it looks odd in some other respects. The lower arm (yellow), for example, seems to have a joint of some kind in it. Meanwhile, near the top, you can see how the tall upright (or hub carrier, if you like) is curved (red) to provide tire and wheel clearance. Use the wheel studs as a reference point and you can imagine how the tire assembly will nestle into that area.   The shock absorber (green) runs up the middle of what is a doughnut-shaped air chamber. A very tall tower of a doughnut, but you get the idea. But you canÂ’t call this a coil-over. Do I hear bag-over? Anyway, a position sensor (yellow) is connected to the upper arm so the height-control system can regulate itself properly.