The stunning new Jaguar 'XJ' launched this month shares it's history with the iconic 'XK' and 'XF' ranges and uses a Koyo generation III hub unit with fully integrated ABS sensors on the front wheels.
These bearings are manufactured to the highest possible standards in our state of the art facilities located in Barnsley - British bearings for British cars!
Koyo has been supplying wheel bearings to Jaguar since the introduction of the 'S' type and 'XK' models. Our technical department has worked closely with the designers and engineers at Jaguar to design bearings that match the exacting standards of their cars.
Jaguar design director Ian Callum recently waxed lyrical about things like the visual lines of the car, its proportions and so on. But the key words he spoke are these: "This is a modern Jaguar flagship, needed to fit in with the 21st century.
"The new XJ is a thoroughly modern interpretation of the quintessential Jaguar. Its visual impact stems from the elongated teardrop shape of the car's side windows, a powerful stance and wide track. It is the most emphatic statement yet of Jaguar's new design direction," he says.
Callum then went on to describe how the muscular lower half of the car is contrasted with the slim and graceful quality of the roofline, which takes inspiration from the original 1968 XJ saloon. This is important because it gives us some insight into the controversial treatment at the rear. The wrap-around rear screen reduces the visual weight of the pillars, and gives the impression of an exotic 'floating' roof, he says. The C-pillar is unusual looking - it's barely there, though it's shape is marked out with a line of chrome.
There's more striking styling with the rear LED light clusters. They wrap stylishly over the rear wings and feature three dramatic red, vertical strips. It looks Italian. And it looks good.
There's another trick the designers have played, visually. There's a short front overhang and a much larger rear one, with that glass roof sweeping down to a highish boot lid. It perhaps sounds odd, but the distinctly asymmetric overhangs provide an element of dynamism to the car's stance. It does look very sporty. And, if you use your imagination, a bit like a leaping cat.
Inside the cabin, there are a couple of interesting surprises. One is the lack of a 'physical' instrument cluster display in the new XJ. Instead, a 12.3-inch high-definition screen provides all of the functions performed by traditional dials. Jaguar's designers have also taken advantage of the freedom provided by virtual instrumentation to help prioritise the most useful information as well as creating a real sense of theatre for the driver.
As the XJ starts, three virtual dials build on the screen. The centre dial houses a speedometer, flanked on the right by a rev counter and on the left by an information window with fuel and temperature gauges. To maximise clarity, the display employs a 'spotlight' effect to highlight the areas showing the most important information, such as the current speed or engine revs. When required - for example, if fuel is running low, or the driver is selecting a radio station - the rev counter fades away to be temporarily replaced by the required warning message or menu. You can put the sat-nav map in there, too.
There's also a dual-view touch-screen display in the centre console. 'Dual-view' allows the driver and front passenger to look at completely different content on the same screen. For example, the passenger can watch television or a DVD movie, while the driver views route navigation mapping (perish the old-fashioned thought that driver and front passenger might actually, you know, prefer to have a realtime conversation with each other).
And the Jaguar people also enthused over the latest 'interactive voice control system', which uses the cluster display to present a list of prompts for key words to control a particular function. This new "say what you see" approach quickly allows the driver to gain confidence and familiarity using systems such as the in-car telephone, navigation or audio, Jaguar says.
The engines are pretty much what you would expect to see. Prices start at GBP52,500 for the SWB 3.0-litre V6 diesel. Orders are being taken but deliveries start in early 2010.
What's the car like to drive? Not many outside Jaguar have got behind the wheel yet, but Jay Leno - who was hired for the glitzy VIP-rollout also at the Saatchi Gallery last week (other VIP guests included 'The Hof' David Hasselhof, Elle Macpherson and Sophie Ellis-Bextor on music decks) - has had a go. He knows his Jaguars and reckons the new XJ is very good to drive and a very competent car that will appeal to traditional Jaguar customers and a more modern set.
Writing in the Sunday Times, he maintained that it's a Jaguar that can be purchased rationally, but which will also be purchased irrationally by people who are bowled over by its looks.
(Jaguar article taken from Autocar July 2009) |
