This interesting article is the cover story from R&T’s July 1979 Issue.
Of course this Jag never came to fruition, however some of its lines would resurface some fifteen year later in the XK8. For this article R&T used one of their top writers, ex-racing driver (and 1960 Le Mans winner) Paul Frere.
The issue’s cover:
And the article:
Wowzer, look at that instrument cluster…looks like something a Lagonda would have used in that era.
Change the badges and you have a much better Buick Reatta.
It looks like it wouldn’t be out of place in today’s car landscape.
I keep looking at the steering wheel, and it reminds me of the wheel used in some Alfa Romeos in the 70s and 80s…
That dash…
This looks so big now, even if it does have the XK8 curves.
Interesting that Pininfarina chose to do a good modern interior, not a wood and leather special and claim it to be British.
The dashboard display is pretty bonkers though.
In the lead picture, the proportions look a lot like a Plymouth Superbird that got its nose into a big pencil sharpener….
Here’s a pic from a more similar vantage point:
Reminds me of the 96-06 XK, except with concealed headlights.
Not only that, both are essentially based on the XJS chassis
Discounting the nose, it looks like Pininfarina used the same styling cues on the Allante. It makes you wonder how much GM paid Pininfarina for a recycled design.
I said it on the other post and at the risk of being tedious I’ll repeat it here: styling wise, this is the most significant car for Jaguar in the last 40 years. All you have to do is take a look at Jaguar’s current offerings to see the resemblance – yes they did make it more brutal but the basic shape is there. Well ahead of its time.
No, that’s not tedious, it’s fact. The contrast with PF’s proposed XJ12 (which was shown up by the 77 downsized Chev sketches in yohai71’s recent posting) couldn’t be greater. That XJ12 was a dead-end, this is still being used.