Jaguar Xkr Launch

[chris_h]

Went to the Launch of the new Jaguar XKR (called ALC at the moment) at the Science Museum in london on friday. Had an excellent evening and the car is stunning.

 

What made the evening even better was chatting to Julian Thompson for about 15 mins. (head of Jaguar Design) but more importantly was head of design at Lotus for the Elise.

 

What a great guy and really interesting to talk to. We also chatted about the new Xk chassis design etc being very similar to the Elise (wonder where that idea came from !!) and he says that the new car will be a real drivers car (but he said it won't replace the lotus - but will be pretty good for a normal car) meaning the lotus isn't normal ???

 

Best part of the night was when this arrogant bloke started saying that he didn't think the car looked like a jaguar and looked like every other car on the road. Julian wasn't very impressed as you can imagine and started stating where every part of the cars design came from. Pointing out the back end like an e-type bits from the XK120 etc. The bloke then went quiet and disapeared.

 

Chris

[GCCK]

Julian's a top bloke.

 

Had a good chat with him at Brunty or Bust last year. Suggested to him that perhaps the hood on the Elise could have been made easier to deploy and he immediately retorted - "well how would you do it". Didn't have an answer, did I. Then he clambered under the dashboard and autographed it! Now to be found on Greyknight's car, it's original and AFAIK, unique.