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Ian Callum makes the Jaguar C-X75 concept street-legal

Unveiled at the 2010 Paris Motor Show, the Jaguar C-X75 could have been one of the British brand's wildest and coolest models. It received the green light for production, got canned, and resurfaced in the 2015 James Bond movie Spectre before disappearing for good. However, not everyone has forgotten it: Callum, the design firm founded by former Jaguar design boss Ian Callum, has made a C-X75 street-legal. Precisely how Callum's customer ended up with a C-X75 remains a mystery. The example modified is one of the four surviving stunt cars built by Williams Advanced Engineering for Spectre, so it might be the one that auction house RM Sotheby's offered at its Abu Dhabi sale in November 2019. The car was estimated to sell for anywhere between $800,000 and $1.2 million; it ended up not selling during the auction. Regardless, Callum was the right person to take on the Herculean task of making an obscure, experimental supercar street-legal, as he led the team that designed the model. His company made hundreds of small but significant changes including replacing the glass, adding a quieter exhaust with catalytic converters, making tuning changes to the supercharged, 5.0-liter V8, and fitting additional switches inside. Interestingly, the stunt cars were built with foam door mirrors. These had to be replaced with real mirrors fitted with turn signal repeaters. The team also took advantage of the tear-down to make visual improvements, such as reducing and aligning the panel gaps. The C-X75 received a new coat of paint, and engineers made changes to the suspension system — they notably adjusted the ride height. It helps that this version of the C-X75 uses an engine already approved for road use; the V8 has powered the Range Rover, among other cars. Callum's street-legal Jaguar C-X75 will make its public debut at the Bicester Heritage Scramble event held in England on April 21, 2024. Related video: Featured Gallery Ian Callum's street-legal Jaguar C-X75 Aftermarket Jaguar Coupe

Jaguar to finish building six remaining Lightweight E-Types

Back in February of 1963, Jaguar set about making a small run of lightweight E-Types. It recrafted the bodywork out of aluminum, shoehorned in a 3.8-liter straight-six with an aluminum block, stripped out the interior, removed the chrome trim and fitted lighter-weight side windows. The result was a 250-pound reduction in curb weight and a commensurate increase in performance, especially evident on the race track. The company originally set about building 18 examples, but only managed 12. The remaining six were allocated chassis numbers, but were never built. That is, until now.
Fifty years since the last of the original 12 lightweight E-Types were completed, Jaguar has announced that it is preparing to resume production and complete the final six examples. The company has assigned its top craftsmen to the job, who will build the half-dozen continuation Lightweights to the same exact specifications as the original dozen. Former sister-company and perennial arch-rival Aston Martin undertook a similar task (or at least authorized Zagato to do so) when it sanctioned four continuation examples of the original DB4 GT Zagato based on original chassis numbers in 1988, and another two based on original body shells and stock DB4 chassis in 1992.
Jaguar has not yet announced pricing and availability for the continuation Lightweights, but the first old-is-new example is set to debut this summer, whereupon Coventry will release further details. You can bet, though, that each one will be snapped up rather quick at just about any price the British automaker cares to put on them.

Jaguar C-X17 gets liquid metal finish for Dubai show [w/poll]

We thought the C-X17 concept looked pretty good when Jaguar unveiled it in Frankfurt a couple of months ago. But that shade of blue, while nice enough, made it look like it shared more than a similar name with the Mazda CX-7. No, what a Jaguar needs is a more luxurious paint job than electric blue. And that's just what the British automaker has given its crossover concept in time for the Dubai Motor Show this week.
What we have here is the same C-X17, but repainted in what Jaguar calls "a lustrous Liquid Aluminum liquid metal finish," and we have but to agree. What do you think? Scope it out in the fresh batch of high-res images above and cast your vote in the poll below.
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