Thanks guys,

Yes black is hard work to keep clean, it could do with at least two washes a week but will have to make do with one as I haven't got time

Was invited to the main assembly line in Castle Bromwich last Wednesday.

Fascinating to see them being manufactured,

They start off in BIW (body in white, bare metal) there's hardly anyone in there it's all robotic welding

After the body is welded it is clamped in a large jig like a vice and photographed by lasers hundreds of times in a few seconds to ensure its's all within a very tight tolerance

Then they pass through the electrostatic painting plant

After that they take off all the doors and the doors then go on an overhead conveyor to another part of the factory to be assembled seperatley, but they are all bar coded to each car they came from.

This also means the bodies can be assembled much more easiliy.

The bodies then travel through the assembly plant having the drive train and wiring harnesses fitted before being completley fitted out.

Then lastly the assemled doors travel back down from an overhead conveyor and are completley syncronised to each car that they came off so they arrive back exactly to the right car at exactly the right time (clever stuff)

Current track speed is 3.33 cars per minute and they take approx 38 hours to build

But the build quality is fantastic and every worker there takes pride in their work,

One said to me "we don't build cars here, we build Jaguars"...lol

One couple on the tour even had their photo taken with their car being built

Also took a peek at the new XJ, Oh my god it's lovely

Full of wood veneer and leather,

Much larger then the XF it is a true limo but absolutley stunning

It launches in May here in the UK not sure about the States, maybe you already have it over there?

Regards,

Steve

 

Meant to say track speed is one car every 3.33 minutes

Regards,

Steve

 

Nice ot read you had a great time and mainly I like the quote :"....We build Jaguars"
That's how Jaguars are built too

 

lovely tale. Great car the XFR, I think the class of the field today.