The jaguar xj-x308 – the pick of the litter
#1
10-09-2016, 02:45 AM
The jaguar xj-x308 – the pick of the litter
Thanks very much to all of you here who provided excellent feedback and critique on my first stab at this piece.
Some of you have asked to see the final draft that I submitted for my assessment. This is it...
Thanks again
WS
THE JAGUAR XJ-X308 – THE PICK OF THE LITTER
Even if you’re not an admirer of the one of the early Jaguar XJ Series of luxury saloons from the 1960s, 70s or 80s, or the proud owner of one of the models that superseded the X308, you would be correct in rushing to point out, that any discussion on such a subject could only ever be a subjective analysis, and so simply a matter of opinions.
If however, you are an aficionado of the XJ Series, or the proud owner of one the evolutions of the XJ that have been developed since the X308 then you will, if you are at all like me, find discussion of the subject endlessly fascinating. Swinging as it often does from erudite analysis of automotive design to flat out, dragged through the mud, nothing is sacred, slagging contests, I will endeavour, for the time I have your attention, to steer clear of the mud and put forward a case as to why I think the X308 iteration of the Jaguar XJ saloon is the one to have.
Fans of the early XJ’s, the Series one, two and three keepers, are a breed apart from the owners and admirers of the more contemporary models. You guys really are the heroes of the XJ Series preservation societies around the world and I take my hat off the work you do in keeping so many of those fine automobiles in such excellent condition.
They were the last in the direct line from the founder of Jaguar Cars, Sir William Lyons himself; as even though Sir William was directly involved in the twilight of his career with the development of the XJ 40, for me, the Series III marks the end of his original conception of what a luxury saloon car should be.
To consider that Sir William Lyons visualised such iconic automotive designs as the XK-E-Type and S Type Saloon, as well as the instantly recognisable Series 1 XJ, then rendered drawings of the vehicles while working in the gardens around his home, is to marvel at the casual genius that could have created such enduringly beautifully automobiles, in such an unassuming manner.
Work of similar calibre now takes the combined talents of many specialised engineering and creative designers working with computer-aided design tools months, if not years, to produce.
The characteristics and parameters of the design language employed by Sir William in the early Jaguar vehicles had been preserved, to a greater or lesser extent in every iteration of the XJ, until the production of the final X308 in 2003.
The Series I XJ’s original low slung, sleek, high performance saloon concept was a radical departure from the Jaguar four-door limousines that preceded it. Making it immediately identifiable on the roads of the time as the ‘New Jaguar’ silhouette, the same basic profile of the car was to be preserved for 35 years until the introduction of the X350 altered the proportions to such an extent that the original design DNA was lost, and with it the influences of the garden artist that linked the Series I XJ to the X308.
The success of the Series II model was severely hampered during much of its manufacturing run. At that time the Jaguar brand was part of the British Leyland Group. Like every other department and every other division of that organisation, the quality of the Jaguars being produced was at the lowest level the organisation would ever experience. It was to be many years before the brand was fully recovered from the damage to its reputation through poor manufacturing standards during a period of truly appalling labour relations.
The internal politics of the British Leyland Group conspired with the national politics of the time to produce manufacturing and industrial relations conditions in the United Kingdom that were reminiscent of Soviet Russia. That Jaguar was able to produce a luxury saloon car capable of holding its own in the marketplace against competition from German, French and Italian rivals was alone, remarkable.
That the Series I, II and III models of the XJ, in most of the range’s engine variants, are without doubt Classic Jaguar saloon cars is I think beyond question. Well preserved and maintained examples will no doubt continue to appreciate in value for many years to come. Perhaps, enjoying the appreciation afforded to the E-type - in the fullness time.
Despite the sclerotic culture of British Leyland, deplorable working conditions and management skills at the company, the engineers at Jaguar still managed to produce what is arguably one of the most beautiful two-door coupes of the period. The XJ-C was quite literally cobbled together from the existing parts bin being used to build the four-door Series II cars. Nevertheless, the elegance of the original car’s profile provided the Jaguar designers with the foundation required to produce a truly stunning two-door version of the Series II which, when married with Jaguar’s 5.3 L V12 engine delivered what could be considered Jaguar’s first true GT car. That fewer than 10,000 examples were built is a reflection of the troubled times of the mid-to-late 70s, when soaring oil prices suppressed demand for high-performance luxury cars.
The reputation for poor build quality and reliability garnered during British Leyland’s stewardship of Jaguar was well warranted. When John Egan took over as chief executive officer in 1980 he knew that “Job One” was to immediately improve reliability and build quality. Then working with the brand’s dealership network to begin restoring customer confidence in the marque was his next priority.
It was with the XJ 40 that John Egan was able to equip his forecourt dealers with the car that would begin to restore Jaguar’s reputation for excellence in engineering, quality and reliability. The introduction of far more confident sounding warranties also began to enhance the brand’s reputation as a manufacturer who was willing to stand over its product for an extended period of time.
I hold the XJ 40 in the same high regard as I do the Series I, II and III cars. I admire their keepers and the dedication they give to preserving good examples of the XJ 40, and for keeping it reasonably visible around the city where I live. It is a beautiful car and original examples really are contenders for the “Classic” moniker.
For commercial reasons the XJ 40 was always going to be a stopgap measure for Jaguar on the way to a modern saloon worthy of the XJ badge. Later builds of the XJ 40 were good cars and many of them put up huge mileage, but the styling was beginning to show its age and something fresher with more feline grace was going to be required if Jaguar was to remain competitive against its foreign rivals, especially as BMW and Mercedes had gained ground on Jaguar in the British market during the dark days under BL.
It was with the introduction of the X300 that finally, the Jaguar XJ became a modern sophisticated luxury saloon.
Mechanically there was little difference between the X300 and the XJ 40 models. The interior designs, especially the dashboards, bore marked similarities; most of this was done to achieve cost savings, and in fairness it was sound rationale.
Considerable investment had been made in a revision to the manufacturing processes used to produce the body panels and interiors for the XJ 40, and that car was now considerably lighter, stiffer and cheaper to make (with fewer parts to manufacture and assemble) than its predecessors.
All of those quality and productivity gains were hard-won and were worth carrying over into the production of the X300. In the end, the engineering similarities between the two cars was to be of significant benefit to the X300, the development of the model coming as it did just as Ford Motor Group took ownership of Jaguar and introduced simply huge sums of money.
Ford also brought to Jaguar their modern manufacturing techniques that were adapted and custom tuned to better suit Jaguar’s organisational culture, preserving the craftsmanship heritage that had become a hallmark of the brand. Ford and Jaguar managed to realise the process and procedural improvements the American company had to offer, without experiencing the deterioration in corporate culture and workplace relations that are normally associated with productivity and quality gains brought about without a proportionate increase in costs.
Mechanically and structurally the changes were kept to a minimum. By the time the XJ 40 had come to the end of its production run all of the kinks had been ironed out of the drivetrain, the independent rear suspension had been even further refined, the cooling system had been improved and the XK 4.0L 6 cylinder engine had continued to make performance and efficiency gains since its introduction in 1949. To say that it was a well tried and trusted unit is an understatement.
The original XJ 6 engine which remained in production until 1992 was to be replaced in the XJ 40 by a direct evolution in the form of the AJ6 engine, which retained all of the character of the much loved XK engine while introducing power and efficiency gains. All of these improvements were now well-positioned in the Jaguar manufacturing process to be applied to the new car.
That the basic platform, power unit and transmission for the X300 were carried over from the XJ 40 was not because Ford was unwilling to make a considerable investment in Jaguar. They most definitely were. With the introduction of the XK8 (X100) in 1996 the company had an instant hit on its hands. Investment funds were no longer an issue, and a great deal of confidence in the company’s potential had been restored.
Geoff Lawson headed the design team that created the original drawings for the X100 and the vision he had for the coupe, (and the very quick to follow convertible), was the materialisation of feline grace. The coupe was also to be equipped with a new V8 engine that provided supple, responsive, silky smooth power allowing the car to move in a manner that always felt and appeared effortless.
With the product pipeline clearly demanding a replacement for the XJ 40 it is beyond consideration that Geoff Lawson would have approached the development of the X300 without a clear understanding of how he was going to apply the advancements in technology and manufacturing processes being developed for the coupe to the new four-door car.
The X100 was designed with the V8 engine and drivetrain in mind but, with the platform and overall styling language of the X300 as the basis upon which to design the overarching appearance of the vehicle. Geoff Lawson would have imagined the V8 engine and drivetrain combination that he had just specified to go into the X100 would now be transplanted into the already beautiful design of the X300 to give us the X308.
Lawson killed two birds with one stone and rejuvenated both of Jaguar’s flagship models with superior replacements. That is why the X100 and X308 can be reasonably thought of as brother and sister vehicles. Pretty much everything with the exception of the sheet metal and the glass, and of course the design of the interior, is the same on both cars.
Emboldened as he must have been by the positive reception to what can perhaps be termed the “Sensuous Approach” to car design, Geoff Lawson would have approached the drawing board for the sweeping interior, (and minor exterior changes) to the four-door version of the platform with the flush of the success he had still fresh in his mind.
The sports car inspired styling for the X300 was a complete departure from what had been shown in the XJ 40. Gone were the sharp angles and squared off edges of the outgoing car to be replaced by sensuous curves and aerodynamically blended contours that suggested a much more feline grace than the blunt, masculine feeling exterior of the XJ 40. I cannot help but think that this was a carryover of a feminising influence derived from the original drawings of the X100.
One can also get the distinct feeling that Geoff Lawson reached back a generation, back past the XJ 40’s angular, muscular presence, in order to retrieve threads of the pure original Series III grace, and so weave strands of Sir William Lyon’s elegant styles into those of his own.
The X300 was sexy. And the car was now being built by Ford. Which meant build quality went through the roof and reliability came standard rather than at the expense of an on-going dealership maintenance bill.
It is, in my opinion, the most beautiful four-door saloon car in the world. Bar none. With the introduction of the supercharged version of the AJ 6 engine Jaguar really did create a unique type of super-saloon car.
The introduction of the V12 engine into the X300 body unexpectedly became possible when Jaguar was no longer part of the British Leyland group. British Leyland had wanted to use the Rover V8 in the XJ, much to the horror of the Jaguar engineers, and any other sane minded individual, I should add.
After British Leyland broke up and Jaguar became master of its own destiny again, through devout prayer, and by some sudden alteration to the laws of physics, an engine bay that was “not designed for, nor capable of, holding a V shaped engine,” suddenly became both of those things in order to accommodate Jaguar’s own, truly marvellous, V 12.
The Jaguar XJ 12 (X305) is a magnificent motorcar. I would offer it for comparison against any of its peers from the era, and expect it to acquit itself admirably against any of them.
The next generation of XJ was to get the V8 engine that had been tried and tested in the X100 for nearly two years, and it was now to be the only engine Jaguar was to offer customers for more than a decade.
The Jaguar AJ 26 engine was quite simply the most perfect mass produced V8 engine in the world at the time. It had to be. Jaguar were the last manufacturer of its ilk to the market with a V8, so they had had plenty of opportunity to see how the competition such as Lexus and Mercedes, BMW and indeed Porsche, had gone about solving the problem of building a V8 engine to power high-performance luxury motor cars.
In every respect, and by any measure, the engine is a thing of beauty and an engineering marvel for its time. That’s not to say it was in any way perfect. While the engine had no fundamental design flaws, some rather poor design choices, when it came to material selections, were made in the building of the early engines. Unfortunately, they were the kind of rather poor design choices that led to component failure which tended to be catastrophic for either the engine and/or gearbox.
Ironically, the causes of the issues which led to complete engine or gearbox failure were not entirely Jaguar’s fault. The five speed ZF gearbox that went into the X308 also drives many models of BMW cars; where it exhibits the same valve component flaws, leading to the complete failure of the gearbox’s forward clutches.
The well-documented problem with the wearing of the Nicosil cylinder linings, which could only be remedied by an engine replacement, were also experienced by BMW. Only the fact that Jaguar agreed to replace all of the affected engines under warranty ensured the company’s fledgling recovery of reputation remained on track.
Further discussion of the mechanical design problems experienced by the X308 is therefore largely redundant, as they are not unique to the Jaguar XJ range. Similar mistakes in the innovation process were experienced by many of its competitors at the time. The only real difference being that when the issues appeared in other manufacturers products the owners didn’t have the consolation of the car being a Jaguar XJ.
What then, in all of its model iterations, sets the XJ apart from its competitors? As the flagship model for the marque the XJ represents Jaguars expression of the state-of-the-art of in luxury automobile at any given time. The best the combination of engineering and design possible, while keeping value for money as a top priority, could said to have been the production brief.
For me it starts with the very name, Jaguar. There is no other name in automotive manufacturing that is so evocative. No other name as successful in establishing an immediate subconscious connection with superlatives; fastest (XJ 220), most beautiful (XK-E Type), best engineered (Le Mans winners of the 1950s) Regal, (Her Majesty the Queen had her own personal X305).
The spirit and heritage of the company has become imbued in its brand and the qualities that the brand projects are materialised in the company’s products. I can think of no other marque, that when consciously considered, can produce so many mental images and invoke such deep emotion as the name, Jaguar.
Go ahead. Try it. Have a think about names like Mercedes, BMW, or Porsche. Choose one or two of the British marques as well for fair comparison. Take a moment. Give each of them a turn.
See what I mean? I don’t know how the company has managed to do it. Some uncanny alchemy of sublime, beautiful, automotive engineering excellence coupled with craftsmanship is I think responsible. A deep, rich history of British manufacturing quality, reaching back to the Industrial Revolution, has imbued the brand with a personality that is uniquely British – understated and excellent.
Even the brand’s reputation for indiscriminate unreliability has, rather than becoming a source of annoyance, lent the car’s owners a licence to regale their fellow enthusiasts with tales of unacceptably inconvenient breakdowns, or bouts of strange performance behaviours from which they have managed to elicit themselves and their beloved carriages. Somehow, and this particular piece of branding witchcraft completely eludes me, these tales of triumph through misadventure have enhanced the cachet of Jaguar ownership, not diminished it.
By the intermingling of the qualities deliberately imbued into the Jaguar brand, with the relentless quest for manufacturing excellence in the Jaguar factories, they have produced a product that is a material representation of the qualities for which the company stands.
It’s quite an achievement. Indeed it is an achievement that I think deserves the recognition of the contributions that all of the Jaguar staff must have made, across the organisation, in order to realise it.
Of course, each of the other manufacturing brands mentioned above have rich heritages and racing pedigrees, many of which far exceed Jaguars successes, and yet… They simply don’t have the same panache. The same élan. However exceptionally fine automobiles they may be, they are just not Jaguars.
Jaguars are cool. Jaguars are sensuous. Jaguars are desirable.
What makes a car cool is open to debate but certainly, its stance on the road, the impression it gives about the way it engages with the tarmac, the way you can imagine the car’s weight distribution by the proportions of its length and width, it’s ground clearance; these design attributes give the first impression as to the car’s attitude and road manners.
Slung low and with a wide wheel base, the X308 looks poised and well-balanced. The car is ingeniously proportioned with the overhangs of the wheel arches at both front and back seemingly perfectly balanced against the size of the doors and the proportions of the greenhouse.
When mounted on standard 16 inch rims which are exceptionally well proportioned to, and by, the wheel arches, the car gives the impression that it is sitting extraordinarily low to the ground. As soon as you sit into the car you realise that you are sitting into a sports car rather than into an executive saloon. You ease yourself down into the X308; you don’t slide across into it.
The waistline of the car runs low along the flank giving perfect proportion to the height and width of the door panels in relation to that of the windows. Not only is the car suspended low to the ground, the roofline is low too, allowing for beautifully elegant proportions to be maintained throughout the profile elevation of the car.
The elegance of the design however was not without its drawbacks. The size of the boot, for example, was a consistent customer complaint. It was wide enough and long enough. It just wasn’t deep enough, and it couldn’t be. Not if Mr Lawson was to maintain the beautiful proportions where the sensuous curve of the car’s hip, above the rear wheel arch, tapers exquisitely into the boot lid. Transporting a set of golf clubs, along with bags to accommodate a weekend away with a companion, became an issue.
From the front the X308 appears aggressive, with its twin headlamps and wide, business-like, function over form grille giving the car a snarling appearance as it approached from behind you on the road.
The X308 was the last XJ to be manufactured from steel. Not much more than casual examination gives even an inexperienced inspector of the vehicle the impression that it is made from “solid” natural materials; whilst being manufactured to a quality levels that are far above what was possible by human hands alone.
Overall however, imperfections with the shut lines and the fitting of the chrome trim, as well as a “hand finished” feel to the leather and wood interior testify that the car was not manufactured completely by other machines.
The car feels like it was built by hands, not assembled by robots. The timely introduction of essentially limitless resources provided by the Ford Motor Company ensured that build specifications and engineering tolerances for the X308 were far better than anything Jaguar had ever been capable of before while also retaining the essence of handmade craftsmanship.
The replacement for the X308 the X350, was technically, an order of magnitude superior to its predecessor. It was almost completely manufactured using robotics and was constructed entirely from aluminium allowing for the implementation of the most sophisticated of fine tolerance manufacturing techniques adapted from the aerospace industry.
It is for that very reason that I resent the X350 the most. The car represents the physical manifestation of a missed opportunity. It was by a cruel twist of fate that the X350 missed out on its claim to be the Pick of the XJ Litter, not for the want of its abilities.
It has a far better engine in the all-aluminium 4.2L V8 that replaced the 4.0L AJ 27, (an evolution of the original AJ 26, and the unit that powered later models of the X308). It’s lighter, it’s more powerful, it’s more responsive and it’s more efficient. It is, in every way, a superior power plant to the 4.0L V8 that it replaced.
The X350 has a superior transmission. It introduced a 6 speed ZF unit that is simply excellent. While the 5 speed ZF unit in the X308 (when it was working well) was an absolute joy it was known to give trouble.
Not only was the engine and powertrain upgraded, making it lighter and more efficient by the introduction of aluminium, so too, the entire body and chassis of the X350 was manufactured using aluminium, with only a small number of steel, or “conventional” parts remaining in the cars construction.
The application of the new materials and construction techniques paid off in a major way. The car became far more agile and nimble, much more driveable when taken by the scruff of the neck and engaged with enthusiastically.
However, there lies the problem. The X350 never invites you to become enthusiastically engaged with it. By the time you’ve travelled to the end of your driveway you will have been overcome by a state of tranquillity normally reserved for those who have been prescribed and use Xanax.
The walk up to the car is where this transformation from, (and let’s just reach for a stereotype here), young urbane professional with a zest for life and insatiable curiosity which provides inspiration to actively seek out new experiences and embrace new cultures; into the slightly overweight, golf shirt wearing, mediocre middle manager with a nascent drinking problem and a manic-depressive wife begins.
By the time you have actually opened the door and slid across into the, “Gentleman’s Club” environment of the driver’s cabin the transition from charming, windswept and interesting travelling companion to arthritic, middle class, also-ran is complete.
By contrast, the closer you get to the X308 the more interesting life becomes. The closer you get the more engaging the curves, the more enchanting the overall form. As you blip the remote, the cabin lights fade up, and a sense of occasion descends.
Even if you’re late for work and you still have to bring the kids to school first, it feels like you are going somewhere special, exciting, as you slip down into the engaging drivers position behind the leather and wood steering wheel.
The cabin embraces you. The walnut dashboard is understated and elegant, punctuated with three portholes into which are recessed the instruments with which every driver needs to be concerned. It is ergonomically efficient as well as being aesthetically appealing.
But the thing I think I like the most about the dashboard of the X308 is that there are no LED or touch sensitive control screens. The centre console is occupied by the air conditioning controls and the stereo system; and nothing else.
I think this is an important observation to make. The X308, as far as I can tell from my research is the last Jaguar, and certainly the last XJ, to leave the factory without some sort of interactive information screen installed as standard equipment.
The advances in semi-autonomous motoring, self-driving cars, and the ever advancing integration of the automobile with the Internet leaves me to wonder how much longer “analogue” cars like the X308 will be seen as ordinary.
I have opined that the X308 is cool, young, urbane and sophisticated while remaining elegant and understated. Confident in its capabilities while exuding quality and excellence, the X308 is balanced poised and athletic, proficient, capable, successful.
In contrasting the X308 with the X350 above, I have never meant to offer offence to owners and fans of the X350. However, and this is my honest opinion: the design of the X350, both interior and exterior, moved Jaguar away from the leading edge of style and design and retrenched the company into a familiar but now stale, middle-life design language.
It’s almost as if the remodelling from X308 to X350 was driven by the laundry list of consumer complaints about the slight inconveniences presented by the elegance of the existing design. As mentioned before, customers complained incessantly about the depth of the boot, so Ian Callum made it deeper, which raised the waistline, and reduced the area of the glasshouse.
It seems a lot of people felt the cabin space was too small and so complained vociferously about this too. I can’t help but imagine that a lot of these complaints came from Jaguar customers on the other side of “The Pond”; where not only do they build the cars bigger but they also seem to build the human beings bigger too. I suspect it’s not that the cabin of the Jaguar was too small but that the American drivers occupying them felt cramped due to the “European” proportions.
To further accommodate the wish list, the cabin headroom was increased which raised the roof line, in turn destroying the proportions of glass to sheet metal that was so perfectly exhibited in the X300. The now ageing X300 and X308’s customers who were shopping for a replacement in the form of the X350, largely out of brand loyalty and dedication to the model, also complained that getting in and out of the car was becoming more difficult.
To get over this problem Jaguar’s interior design engineers raised the cushion height of the seats in relation to the door plinth, which now makes any occupant of the car feel like her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. Due to the height of the seat, one feels like one is perched inside of one’s vehicle.
The front and rear bumpers were redesigned as too was the grille - as far as I can tell - just for the sake of doing it. I cannot, without prejudice, see how any of what they decided to alter could have possibly struck them as being an improvement when they modelled the changes in clay.
All of the slight modifications conspired to make the car shorter, broader and bulkier as well as taller while never keeping any of the alterations in proportion to each other. The overall impression was of three unrelated boxes bolted together specifically to disguise the exquisitely engineered platform and running gear.
It was as if the redesign was carried out with an attitude of benign neglect. As a Jaguar fan, looking back with the benefit of hindsight, it’s almost as though the attention of the entire organisation had been directed towards the development of the new range that was to become the X351, the XF and ultimately the XE and F-Pace.
I am left with the impression that the X350 met with the same fate as the XJ 40. “It fell between two stools”, as we say in Ireland. It was as though the X350 design aged at exactly the same rate as the people who had bought X308’s, because more than anything else, when contrasted with the X308 the X350 looks, middle aged.
By precisely targeting such a small pool of customers they limited the appeal of the car so greatly that it sold in fewer numbers than any other previous model of XJ. As the great Steve jobs was once quoted as saying, “the customer never knows what he wants”.
Parked side-by-side, it’s not difficult, nor do I think it is too romantically whimsical, to conjure the image of a father and son. The X350 filling the role of wise and benevolent father to his college graduate son, whose body remains fully flexible.
Endowed, as he is, with rakish good looks and a devil may care, sense of style, the observer gets the impression that the young man’s ticket in life has already been issued; with the words First-Class embossed boldly across the face. Meanwhile dad is satisfied with his hard earned reserved parking spot at the golf club.
The personified X308’s future is so bright it has to wear shades. The X350’s persona is concerned that he might be late for his tee time
The reason for this the pivotal moment in what was to become a nightmare period in the Jaguar styling studio’s history was the untimely death of Geoff Lawson. In addition to a deep sense of loss and sympathy for his family it presents Jaguar enthusiasts with what will always remain one of life’s great “what ifs”.
What if Geoff had lived for another 30 years instead of us being cheated of him, as we were, when he was only 54? What direction would he have brought Jaguar’s styling when he had at his disposal the kind of advances in materials engineering and computing power that were just becoming available around the time he died.
It’s a thought exercise that I find fascinating. I’m far too visually unimaginative to be able to conjure in my mind the shapes and forms, the curves and angles that Geoff Lawson would have created using the materials at his disposal today. What magic would Mr Lawson have given us if he too had been able to work with aluminium and other modern composite materials such as carbon fibre structural components and ceramic brake discs?
When Ian Callum came to Jaguar he suddenly had an awful lot on his hands. While the X100 had been tremendously successful it was clear that its production run was coming to an end and Jaguar desperately needed a replacement.
Working at Aston Martin, Ian Callum produced some of the sexiest sports cars on the planet and he had now been asked to bring those talents to bear on a rejuvenation of Jaguar’s signature GT.
The company was also going to need a replacement for the now ageing, although still sublimely beautiful, X308. At the time of Mr Callum’s arrival Jaguar was faced with replacing both of its flagship models. A situation Geoff Lawson had managed admirably.
Every project at every company that I have ever worked at has been constrained by resources, time and/or money. Faced with the competing priorities of replacing the coupe and the four-door saloon car at the same time the company seem to choose to do neither completely, and instead decided to tinker with what they had while they worked out the direction in which the company was going to go forward from a design perspective.
Balancing the savagely competing priorities for solutions to the problem of upgrading both of the existing models while keeping his gaze fixed firmly on the future that was to be the X351, Ian Callum did something Jaguar had never done before.
He compromised.
On the one hand the car would be built using the latest manufacturing technologies that would also be brought to bear on the manufacturer of the new coupe in a purpose built facility, using cutting-edge technologies upon which no expense was spared. The new car would also be equipped with the same exceptional suspension and powertrain as it sister car, the XK.
On the other hand, only the most heavy-handed of facelifts as previously discussed was given to the exterior while making the interior, and in particular the luggage compartment, more “customer friendly”. It could have been so much more.
Although I am not considering the X351 as a contender due to its ineligibility for inclusion in Classic status at this time, I think it would be unfair not to afford it some discussion by merit of its place in the evolution of the model, and as its current incantation.
The X351 is a technological tour de force and is by far and away the best XJ Jaguar has ever produced. That’s not to say I like the car. I don’t. It’s too big. It’s too imposing. It’s too much.
The X351 is not a car to be driven by rich, famous and powerful Jaguar enthusiasts. Even if they are the only people who can afford them. Sure, they might own one in which they are chauffeured because they appreciate exquisite British automotive engineering and interior appointments; and because at times driving oneself is simply impractical. But it’s not a driver’s car.
The young and the affluent are no longer in the market for powerful four-door saloon cars. Their luxury executive chariot of choice is the fully loaded, and opulently appointed Range Rover, which they consider to be the ideal vehicle in which to tinker around town. It is just what that massive over engineered running gear and enormous off road wheels were designed to come to grips with after all - city streets.
I fear the X351 will be the final iteration of the Jaguar XJ. The market has moved on, and what people want in a large luxury vehicle in the 21st-century is not found in a four-door saloon car.
If that is indeed the case, and the days of cars like the Jaguar XJ and the BMW 7 series are numbered, soon to be replaced entirely by beautifully appointed large four-wheel-drive vehicles or self-driving plastic pods, our city environments will become depressing and our lives less rich.
In a world full of ugly utilitarian machines beautiful cars will stand out like flowers in a field of wheat.
The most beautiful of which will be the Jaguar XJ X308.
Some of you have asked to see the final draft that I submitted for my assessment. This is it...
Thanks again
WS
THE JAGUAR XJ-X308 – THE PICK OF THE LITTER
Even if you’re not an admirer of the one of the early Jaguar XJ Series of luxury saloons from the 1960s, 70s or 80s, or the proud owner of one of the models that superseded the X308, you would be correct in rushing to point out, that any discussion on such a subject could only ever be a subjective analysis, and so simply a matter of opinions.
If however, you are an aficionado of the XJ Series, or the proud owner of one the evolutions of the XJ that have been developed since the X308 then you will, if you are at all like me, find discussion of the subject endlessly fascinating. Swinging as it often does from erudite analysis of automotive design to flat out, dragged through the mud, nothing is sacred, slagging contests, I will endeavour, for the time I have your attention, to steer clear of the mud and put forward a case as to why I think the X308 iteration of the Jaguar XJ saloon is the one to have.
Fans of the early XJ’s, the Series one, two and three keepers, are a breed apart from the owners and admirers of the more contemporary models. You guys really are the heroes of the XJ Series preservation societies around the world and I take my hat off the work you do in keeping so many of those fine automobiles in such excellent condition.
They were the last in the direct line from the founder of Jaguar Cars, Sir William Lyons himself; as even though Sir William was directly involved in the twilight of his career with the development of the XJ 40, for me, the Series III marks the end of his original conception of what a luxury saloon car should be.
To consider that Sir William Lyons visualised such iconic automotive designs as the XK-E-Type and S Type Saloon, as well as the instantly recognisable Series 1 XJ, then rendered drawings of the vehicles while working in the gardens around his home, is to marvel at the casual genius that could have created such enduringly beautifully automobiles, in such an unassuming manner.
Work of similar calibre now takes the combined talents of many specialised engineering and creative designers working with computer-aided design tools months, if not years, to produce.
The characteristics and parameters of the design language employed by Sir William in the early Jaguar vehicles had been preserved, to a greater or lesser extent in every iteration of the XJ, until the production of the final X308 in 2003.
The Series I XJ’s original low slung, sleek, high performance saloon concept was a radical departure from the Jaguar four-door limousines that preceded it. Making it immediately identifiable on the roads of the time as the ‘New Jaguar’ silhouette, the same basic profile of the car was to be preserved for 35 years until the introduction of the X350 altered the proportions to such an extent that the original design DNA was lost, and with it the influences of the garden artist that linked the Series I XJ to the X308.
The success of the Series II model was severely hampered during much of its manufacturing run. At that time the Jaguar brand was part of the British Leyland Group. Like every other department and every other division of that organisation, the quality of the Jaguars being produced was at the lowest level the organisation would ever experience. It was to be many years before the brand was fully recovered from the damage to its reputation through poor manufacturing standards during a period of truly appalling labour relations.
The internal politics of the British Leyland Group conspired with the national politics of the time to produce manufacturing and industrial relations conditions in the United Kingdom that were reminiscent of Soviet Russia. That Jaguar was able to produce a luxury saloon car capable of holding its own in the marketplace against competition from German, French and Italian rivals was alone, remarkable.
That the Series I, II and III models of the XJ, in most of the range’s engine variants, are without doubt Classic Jaguar saloon cars is I think beyond question. Well preserved and maintained examples will no doubt continue to appreciate in value for many years to come. Perhaps, enjoying the appreciation afforded to the E-type - in the fullness time.
Despite the sclerotic culture of British Leyland, deplorable working conditions and management skills at the company, the engineers at Jaguar still managed to produce what is arguably one of the most beautiful two-door coupes of the period. The XJ-C was quite literally cobbled together from the existing parts bin being used to build the four-door Series II cars. Nevertheless, the elegance of the original car’s profile provided the Jaguar designers with the foundation required to produce a truly stunning two-door version of the Series II which, when married with Jaguar’s 5.3 L V12 engine delivered what could be considered Jaguar’s first true GT car. That fewer than 10,000 examples were built is a reflection of the troubled times of the mid-to-late 70s, when soaring oil prices suppressed demand for high-performance luxury cars.
The reputation for poor build quality and reliability garnered during British Leyland’s stewardship of Jaguar was well warranted. When John Egan took over as chief executive officer in 1980 he knew that “Job One” was to immediately improve reliability and build quality. Then working with the brand’s dealership network to begin restoring customer confidence in the marque was his next priority.
It was with the XJ 40 that John Egan was able to equip his forecourt dealers with the car that would begin to restore Jaguar’s reputation for excellence in engineering, quality and reliability. The introduction of far more confident sounding warranties also began to enhance the brand’s reputation as a manufacturer who was willing to stand over its product for an extended period of time.
I hold the XJ 40 in the same high regard as I do the Series I, II and III cars. I admire their keepers and the dedication they give to preserving good examples of the XJ 40, and for keeping it reasonably visible around the city where I live. It is a beautiful car and original examples really are contenders for the “Classic” moniker.
For commercial reasons the XJ 40 was always going to be a stopgap measure for Jaguar on the way to a modern saloon worthy of the XJ badge. Later builds of the XJ 40 were good cars and many of them put up huge mileage, but the styling was beginning to show its age and something fresher with more feline grace was going to be required if Jaguar was to remain competitive against its foreign rivals, especially as BMW and Mercedes had gained ground on Jaguar in the British market during the dark days under BL.
It was with the introduction of the X300 that finally, the Jaguar XJ became a modern sophisticated luxury saloon.
Mechanically there was little difference between the X300 and the XJ 40 models. The interior designs, especially the dashboards, bore marked similarities; most of this was done to achieve cost savings, and in fairness it was sound rationale.
Considerable investment had been made in a revision to the manufacturing processes used to produce the body panels and interiors for the XJ 40, and that car was now considerably lighter, stiffer and cheaper to make (with fewer parts to manufacture and assemble) than its predecessors.
All of those quality and productivity gains were hard-won and were worth carrying over into the production of the X300. In the end, the engineering similarities between the two cars was to be of significant benefit to the X300, the development of the model coming as it did just as Ford Motor Group took ownership of Jaguar and introduced simply huge sums of money.
Ford also brought to Jaguar their modern manufacturing techniques that were adapted and custom tuned to better suit Jaguar’s organisational culture, preserving the craftsmanship heritage that had become a hallmark of the brand. Ford and Jaguar managed to realise the process and procedural improvements the American company had to offer, without experiencing the deterioration in corporate culture and workplace relations that are normally associated with productivity and quality gains brought about without a proportionate increase in costs.
Mechanically and structurally the changes were kept to a minimum. By the time the XJ 40 had come to the end of its production run all of the kinks had been ironed out of the drivetrain, the independent rear suspension had been even further refined, the cooling system had been improved and the XK 4.0L 6 cylinder engine had continued to make performance and efficiency gains since its introduction in 1949. To say that it was a well tried and trusted unit is an understatement.
The original XJ 6 engine which remained in production until 1992 was to be replaced in the XJ 40 by a direct evolution in the form of the AJ6 engine, which retained all of the character of the much loved XK engine while introducing power and efficiency gains. All of these improvements were now well-positioned in the Jaguar manufacturing process to be applied to the new car.
That the basic platform, power unit and transmission for the X300 were carried over from the XJ 40 was not because Ford was unwilling to make a considerable investment in Jaguar. They most definitely were. With the introduction of the XK8 (X100) in 1996 the company had an instant hit on its hands. Investment funds were no longer an issue, and a great deal of confidence in the company’s potential had been restored.
Geoff Lawson headed the design team that created the original drawings for the X100 and the vision he had for the coupe, (and the very quick to follow convertible), was the materialisation of feline grace. The coupe was also to be equipped with a new V8 engine that provided supple, responsive, silky smooth power allowing the car to move in a manner that always felt and appeared effortless.
With the product pipeline clearly demanding a replacement for the XJ 40 it is beyond consideration that Geoff Lawson would have approached the development of the X300 without a clear understanding of how he was going to apply the advancements in technology and manufacturing processes being developed for the coupe to the new four-door car.
The X100 was designed with the V8 engine and drivetrain in mind but, with the platform and overall styling language of the X300 as the basis upon which to design the overarching appearance of the vehicle. Geoff Lawson would have imagined the V8 engine and drivetrain combination that he had just specified to go into the X100 would now be transplanted into the already beautiful design of the X300 to give us the X308.
Lawson killed two birds with one stone and rejuvenated both of Jaguar’s flagship models with superior replacements. That is why the X100 and X308 can be reasonably thought of as brother and sister vehicles. Pretty much everything with the exception of the sheet metal and the glass, and of course the design of the interior, is the same on both cars.
Emboldened as he must have been by the positive reception to what can perhaps be termed the “Sensuous Approach” to car design, Geoff Lawson would have approached the drawing board for the sweeping interior, (and minor exterior changes) to the four-door version of the platform with the flush of the success he had still fresh in his mind.
The sports car inspired styling for the X300 was a complete departure from what had been shown in the XJ 40. Gone were the sharp angles and squared off edges of the outgoing car to be replaced by sensuous curves and aerodynamically blended contours that suggested a much more feline grace than the blunt, masculine feeling exterior of the XJ 40. I cannot help but think that this was a carryover of a feminising influence derived from the original drawings of the X100.
One can also get the distinct feeling that Geoff Lawson reached back a generation, back past the XJ 40’s angular, muscular presence, in order to retrieve threads of the pure original Series III grace, and so weave strands of Sir William Lyon’s elegant styles into those of his own.
The X300 was sexy. And the car was now being built by Ford. Which meant build quality went through the roof and reliability came standard rather than at the expense of an on-going dealership maintenance bill.
It is, in my opinion, the most beautiful four-door saloon car in the world. Bar none. With the introduction of the supercharged version of the AJ 6 engine Jaguar really did create a unique type of super-saloon car.
The introduction of the V12 engine into the X300 body unexpectedly became possible when Jaguar was no longer part of the British Leyland group. British Leyland had wanted to use the Rover V8 in the XJ, much to the horror of the Jaguar engineers, and any other sane minded individual, I should add.
After British Leyland broke up and Jaguar became master of its own destiny again, through devout prayer, and by some sudden alteration to the laws of physics, an engine bay that was “not designed for, nor capable of, holding a V shaped engine,” suddenly became both of those things in order to accommodate Jaguar’s own, truly marvellous, V 12.
The Jaguar XJ 12 (X305) is a magnificent motorcar. I would offer it for comparison against any of its peers from the era, and expect it to acquit itself admirably against any of them.
The next generation of XJ was to get the V8 engine that had been tried and tested in the X100 for nearly two years, and it was now to be the only engine Jaguar was to offer customers for more than a decade.
The Jaguar AJ 26 engine was quite simply the most perfect mass produced V8 engine in the world at the time. It had to be. Jaguar were the last manufacturer of its ilk to the market with a V8, so they had had plenty of opportunity to see how the competition such as Lexus and Mercedes, BMW and indeed Porsche, had gone about solving the problem of building a V8 engine to power high-performance luxury motor cars.
In every respect, and by any measure, the engine is a thing of beauty and an engineering marvel for its time. That’s not to say it was in any way perfect. While the engine had no fundamental design flaws, some rather poor design choices, when it came to material selections, were made in the building of the early engines. Unfortunately, they were the kind of rather poor design choices that led to component failure which tended to be catastrophic for either the engine and/or gearbox.
Ironically, the causes of the issues which led to complete engine or gearbox failure were not entirely Jaguar’s fault. The five speed ZF gearbox that went into the X308 also drives many models of BMW cars; where it exhibits the same valve component flaws, leading to the complete failure of the gearbox’s forward clutches.
The well-documented problem with the wearing of the Nicosil cylinder linings, which could only be remedied by an engine replacement, were also experienced by BMW. Only the fact that Jaguar agreed to replace all of the affected engines under warranty ensured the company’s fledgling recovery of reputation remained on track.
Further discussion of the mechanical design problems experienced by the X308 is therefore largely redundant, as they are not unique to the Jaguar XJ range. Similar mistakes in the innovation process were experienced by many of its competitors at the time. The only real difference being that when the issues appeared in other manufacturers products the owners didn’t have the consolation of the car being a Jaguar XJ.
What then, in all of its model iterations, sets the XJ apart from its competitors? As the flagship model for the marque the XJ represents Jaguars expression of the state-of-the-art of in luxury automobile at any given time. The best the combination of engineering and design possible, while keeping value for money as a top priority, could said to have been the production brief.
For me it starts with the very name, Jaguar. There is no other name in automotive manufacturing that is so evocative. No other name as successful in establishing an immediate subconscious connection with superlatives; fastest (XJ 220), most beautiful (XK-E Type), best engineered (Le Mans winners of the 1950s) Regal, (Her Majesty the Queen had her own personal X305).
The spirit and heritage of the company has become imbued in its brand and the qualities that the brand projects are materialised in the company’s products. I can think of no other marque, that when consciously considered, can produce so many mental images and invoke such deep emotion as the name, Jaguar.
Go ahead. Try it. Have a think about names like Mercedes, BMW, or Porsche. Choose one or two of the British marques as well for fair comparison. Take a moment. Give each of them a turn.
See what I mean? I don’t know how the company has managed to do it. Some uncanny alchemy of sublime, beautiful, automotive engineering excellence coupled with craftsmanship is I think responsible. A deep, rich history of British manufacturing quality, reaching back to the Industrial Revolution, has imbued the brand with a personality that is uniquely British – understated and excellent.
Even the brand’s reputation for indiscriminate unreliability has, rather than becoming a source of annoyance, lent the car’s owners a licence to regale their fellow enthusiasts with tales of unacceptably inconvenient breakdowns, or bouts of strange performance behaviours from which they have managed to elicit themselves and their beloved carriages. Somehow, and this particular piece of branding witchcraft completely eludes me, these tales of triumph through misadventure have enhanced the cachet of Jaguar ownership, not diminished it.
By the intermingling of the qualities deliberately imbued into the Jaguar brand, with the relentless quest for manufacturing excellence in the Jaguar factories, they have produced a product that is a material representation of the qualities for which the company stands.
It’s quite an achievement. Indeed it is an achievement that I think deserves the recognition of the contributions that all of the Jaguar staff must have made, across the organisation, in order to realise it.
Of course, each of the other manufacturing brands mentioned above have rich heritages and racing pedigrees, many of which far exceed Jaguars successes, and yet… They simply don’t have the same panache. The same élan. However exceptionally fine automobiles they may be, they are just not Jaguars.
Jaguars are cool. Jaguars are sensuous. Jaguars are desirable.
What makes a car cool is open to debate but certainly, its stance on the road, the impression it gives about the way it engages with the tarmac, the way you can imagine the car’s weight distribution by the proportions of its length and width, it’s ground clearance; these design attributes give the first impression as to the car’s attitude and road manners.
Slung low and with a wide wheel base, the X308 looks poised and well-balanced. The car is ingeniously proportioned with the overhangs of the wheel arches at both front and back seemingly perfectly balanced against the size of the doors and the proportions of the greenhouse.
When mounted on standard 16 inch rims which are exceptionally well proportioned to, and by, the wheel arches, the car gives the impression that it is sitting extraordinarily low to the ground. As soon as you sit into the car you realise that you are sitting into a sports car rather than into an executive saloon. You ease yourself down into the X308; you don’t slide across into it.
The waistline of the car runs low along the flank giving perfect proportion to the height and width of the door panels in relation to that of the windows. Not only is the car suspended low to the ground, the roofline is low too, allowing for beautifully elegant proportions to be maintained throughout the profile elevation of the car.
The elegance of the design however was not without its drawbacks. The size of the boot, for example, was a consistent customer complaint. It was wide enough and long enough. It just wasn’t deep enough, and it couldn’t be. Not if Mr Lawson was to maintain the beautiful proportions where the sensuous curve of the car’s hip, above the rear wheel arch, tapers exquisitely into the boot lid. Transporting a set of golf clubs, along with bags to accommodate a weekend away with a companion, became an issue.
From the front the X308 appears aggressive, with its twin headlamps and wide, business-like, function over form grille giving the car a snarling appearance as it approached from behind you on the road.
The X308 was the last XJ to be manufactured from steel. Not much more than casual examination gives even an inexperienced inspector of the vehicle the impression that it is made from “solid” natural materials; whilst being manufactured to a quality levels that are far above what was possible by human hands alone.
Overall however, imperfections with the shut lines and the fitting of the chrome trim, as well as a “hand finished” feel to the leather and wood interior testify that the car was not manufactured completely by other machines.
The car feels like it was built by hands, not assembled by robots. The timely introduction of essentially limitless resources provided by the Ford Motor Company ensured that build specifications and engineering tolerances for the X308 were far better than anything Jaguar had ever been capable of before while also retaining the essence of handmade craftsmanship.
The replacement for the X308 the X350, was technically, an order of magnitude superior to its predecessor. It was almost completely manufactured using robotics and was constructed entirely from aluminium allowing for the implementation of the most sophisticated of fine tolerance manufacturing techniques adapted from the aerospace industry.
It is for that very reason that I resent the X350 the most. The car represents the physical manifestation of a missed opportunity. It was by a cruel twist of fate that the X350 missed out on its claim to be the Pick of the XJ Litter, not for the want of its abilities.
It has a far better engine in the all-aluminium 4.2L V8 that replaced the 4.0L AJ 27, (an evolution of the original AJ 26, and the unit that powered later models of the X308). It’s lighter, it’s more powerful, it’s more responsive and it’s more efficient. It is, in every way, a superior power plant to the 4.0L V8 that it replaced.
The X350 has a superior transmission. It introduced a 6 speed ZF unit that is simply excellent. While the 5 speed ZF unit in the X308 (when it was working well) was an absolute joy it was known to give trouble.
Not only was the engine and powertrain upgraded, making it lighter and more efficient by the introduction of aluminium, so too, the entire body and chassis of the X350 was manufactured using aluminium, with only a small number of steel, or “conventional” parts remaining in the cars construction.
The application of the new materials and construction techniques paid off in a major way. The car became far more agile and nimble, much more driveable when taken by the scruff of the neck and engaged with enthusiastically.
However, there lies the problem. The X350 never invites you to become enthusiastically engaged with it. By the time you’ve travelled to the end of your driveway you will have been overcome by a state of tranquillity normally reserved for those who have been prescribed and use Xanax.
The walk up to the car is where this transformation from, (and let’s just reach for a stereotype here), young urbane professional with a zest for life and insatiable curiosity which provides inspiration to actively seek out new experiences and embrace new cultures; into the slightly overweight, golf shirt wearing, mediocre middle manager with a nascent drinking problem and a manic-depressive wife begins.
By the time you have actually opened the door and slid across into the, “Gentleman’s Club” environment of the driver’s cabin the transition from charming, windswept and interesting travelling companion to arthritic, middle class, also-ran is complete.
By contrast, the closer you get to the X308 the more interesting life becomes. The closer you get the more engaging the curves, the more enchanting the overall form. As you blip the remote, the cabin lights fade up, and a sense of occasion descends.
Even if you’re late for work and you still have to bring the kids to school first, it feels like you are going somewhere special, exciting, as you slip down into the engaging drivers position behind the leather and wood steering wheel.
The cabin embraces you. The walnut dashboard is understated and elegant, punctuated with three portholes into which are recessed the instruments with which every driver needs to be concerned. It is ergonomically efficient as well as being aesthetically appealing.
But the thing I think I like the most about the dashboard of the X308 is that there are no LED or touch sensitive control screens. The centre console is occupied by the air conditioning controls and the stereo system; and nothing else.
I think this is an important observation to make. The X308, as far as I can tell from my research is the last Jaguar, and certainly the last XJ, to leave the factory without some sort of interactive information screen installed as standard equipment.
The advances in semi-autonomous motoring, self-driving cars, and the ever advancing integration of the automobile with the Internet leaves me to wonder how much longer “analogue” cars like the X308 will be seen as ordinary.
I have opined that the X308 is cool, young, urbane and sophisticated while remaining elegant and understated. Confident in its capabilities while exuding quality and excellence, the X308 is balanced poised and athletic, proficient, capable, successful.
In contrasting the X308 with the X350 above, I have never meant to offer offence to owners and fans of the X350. However, and this is my honest opinion: the design of the X350, both interior and exterior, moved Jaguar away from the leading edge of style and design and retrenched the company into a familiar but now stale, middle-life design language.
It’s almost as if the remodelling from X308 to X350 was driven by the laundry list of consumer complaints about the slight inconveniences presented by the elegance of the existing design. As mentioned before, customers complained incessantly about the depth of the boot, so Ian Callum made it deeper, which raised the waistline, and reduced the area of the glasshouse.
It seems a lot of people felt the cabin space was too small and so complained vociferously about this too. I can’t help but imagine that a lot of these complaints came from Jaguar customers on the other side of “The Pond”; where not only do they build the cars bigger but they also seem to build the human beings bigger too. I suspect it’s not that the cabin of the Jaguar was too small but that the American drivers occupying them felt cramped due to the “European” proportions.
To further accommodate the wish list, the cabin headroom was increased which raised the roof line, in turn destroying the proportions of glass to sheet metal that was so perfectly exhibited in the X300. The now ageing X300 and X308’s customers who were shopping for a replacement in the form of the X350, largely out of brand loyalty and dedication to the model, also complained that getting in and out of the car was becoming more difficult.
To get over this problem Jaguar’s interior design engineers raised the cushion height of the seats in relation to the door plinth, which now makes any occupant of the car feel like her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. Due to the height of the seat, one feels like one is perched inside of one’s vehicle.
The front and rear bumpers were redesigned as too was the grille - as far as I can tell - just for the sake of doing it. I cannot, without prejudice, see how any of what they decided to alter could have possibly struck them as being an improvement when they modelled the changes in clay.
All of the slight modifications conspired to make the car shorter, broader and bulkier as well as taller while never keeping any of the alterations in proportion to each other. The overall impression was of three unrelated boxes bolted together specifically to disguise the exquisitely engineered platform and running gear.
It was as if the redesign was carried out with an attitude of benign neglect. As a Jaguar fan, looking back with the benefit of hindsight, it’s almost as though the attention of the entire organisation had been directed towards the development of the new range that was to become the X351, the XF and ultimately the XE and F-Pace.
I am left with the impression that the X350 met with the same fate as the XJ 40. “It fell between two stools”, as we say in Ireland. It was as though the X350 design aged at exactly the same rate as the people who had bought X308’s, because more than anything else, when contrasted with the X308 the X350 looks, middle aged.
By precisely targeting such a small pool of customers they limited the appeal of the car so greatly that it sold in fewer numbers than any other previous model of XJ. As the great Steve jobs was once quoted as saying, “the customer never knows what he wants”.
Parked side-by-side, it’s not difficult, nor do I think it is too romantically whimsical, to conjure the image of a father and son. The X350 filling the role of wise and benevolent father to his college graduate son, whose body remains fully flexible.
Endowed, as he is, with rakish good looks and a devil may care, sense of style, the observer gets the impression that the young man’s ticket in life has already been issued; with the words First-Class embossed boldly across the face. Meanwhile dad is satisfied with his hard earned reserved parking spot at the golf club.
The personified X308’s future is so bright it has to wear shades. The X350’s persona is concerned that he might be late for his tee time
The reason for this the pivotal moment in what was to become a nightmare period in the Jaguar styling studio’s history was the untimely death of Geoff Lawson. In addition to a deep sense of loss and sympathy for his family it presents Jaguar enthusiasts with what will always remain one of life’s great “what ifs”.
What if Geoff had lived for another 30 years instead of us being cheated of him, as we were, when he was only 54? What direction would he have brought Jaguar’s styling when he had at his disposal the kind of advances in materials engineering and computing power that were just becoming available around the time he died.
It’s a thought exercise that I find fascinating. I’m far too visually unimaginative to be able to conjure in my mind the shapes and forms, the curves and angles that Geoff Lawson would have created using the materials at his disposal today. What magic would Mr Lawson have given us if he too had been able to work with aluminium and other modern composite materials such as carbon fibre structural components and ceramic brake discs?
When Ian Callum came to Jaguar he suddenly had an awful lot on his hands. While the X100 had been tremendously successful it was clear that its production run was coming to an end and Jaguar desperately needed a replacement.
Working at Aston Martin, Ian Callum produced some of the sexiest sports cars on the planet and he had now been asked to bring those talents to bear on a rejuvenation of Jaguar’s signature GT.
The company was also going to need a replacement for the now ageing, although still sublimely beautiful, X308. At the time of Mr Callum’s arrival Jaguar was faced with replacing both of its flagship models. A situation Geoff Lawson had managed admirably.
Every project at every company that I have ever worked at has been constrained by resources, time and/or money. Faced with the competing priorities of replacing the coupe and the four-door saloon car at the same time the company seem to choose to do neither completely, and instead decided to tinker with what they had while they worked out the direction in which the company was going to go forward from a design perspective.
Balancing the savagely competing priorities for solutions to the problem of upgrading both of the existing models while keeping his gaze fixed firmly on the future that was to be the X351, Ian Callum did something Jaguar had never done before.
He compromised.
On the one hand the car would be built using the latest manufacturing technologies that would also be brought to bear on the manufacturer of the new coupe in a purpose built facility, using cutting-edge technologies upon which no expense was spared. The new car would also be equipped with the same exceptional suspension and powertrain as it sister car, the XK.
On the other hand, only the most heavy-handed of facelifts as previously discussed was given to the exterior while making the interior, and in particular the luggage compartment, more “customer friendly”. It could have been so much more.
Although I am not considering the X351 as a contender due to its ineligibility for inclusion in Classic status at this time, I think it would be unfair not to afford it some discussion by merit of its place in the evolution of the model, and as its current incantation.
The X351 is a technological tour de force and is by far and away the best XJ Jaguar has ever produced. That’s not to say I like the car. I don’t. It’s too big. It’s too imposing. It’s too much.
The X351 is not a car to be driven by rich, famous and powerful Jaguar enthusiasts. Even if they are the only people who can afford them. Sure, they might own one in which they are chauffeured because they appreciate exquisite British automotive engineering and interior appointments; and because at times driving oneself is simply impractical. But it’s not a driver’s car.
The young and the affluent are no longer in the market for powerful four-door saloon cars. Their luxury executive chariot of choice is the fully loaded, and opulently appointed Range Rover, which they consider to be the ideal vehicle in which to tinker around town. It is just what that massive over engineered running gear and enormous off road wheels were designed to come to grips with after all - city streets.
I fear the X351 will be the final iteration of the Jaguar XJ. The market has moved on, and what people want in a large luxury vehicle in the 21st-century is not found in a four-door saloon car.
If that is indeed the case, and the days of cars like the Jaguar XJ and the BMW 7 series are numbered, soon to be replaced entirely by beautifully appointed large four-wheel-drive vehicles or self-driving plastic pods, our city environments will become depressing and our lives less rich.
In a world full of ugly utilitarian machines beautiful cars will stand out like flowers in a field of wheat.
The most beautiful of which will be the Jaguar XJ X308.
#7
04-22-2017, 01:48 AM
Times change, tastes change, markets change. Either a company can adapt to these changes and survive and hopefully prosper, or it will whither and die. The giants like GM and Ford have weathered the storm and survived, but not unscathed. It seems that Jaguar under the stewardship of Tata Motors, has developed a successful line of cars. It's taken me awhile to warm up to the new styling direction, but it has grown on me. I would imagine that there will probably be another crossover joining the line up, as this is what the market is asking for. Jaguar has produced a long series of classic cars and the X300 and X308 are just the latest examples. Hopefully there will be more to come in the future.
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#9
04-22-2017, 03:59 PM
Junior Member
Fantastic article. I bought my '95 XJR in 1998, and (even though it is not the 308) the same body design, strong turbine like power, and quiet speed (recently running 135 mph for a sustained period on a more remote freeway) has made it a car I just could never give up. With a Max360 Escort Radar Detector I find it is still all I need for long distance travel. I especially enjoy the driver interface - old school and no need for a computerized big brother checking my driving. Thanks!
#10
03-06-2020, 03:50 PM
Junior Member
