From the moment I first saw an XK120, followed by a Mark V, then a Mark VII, I fell in love with Jaguar cars. The sheer voluptuous beauty of those curvaceous, elegant lines did it for me. The famous double-overhead-cam six, one of history's great engines, merely added to the romance. Five (later, six) LeMans victories convinced me that Jaguars were the fastest road cars on earth. Test-driving the new E-Type for Track & Traffic magazine was sheer ecstasy.
In spite of a few less-than-perfect moments I'm still a fan, yet I'm disappointed with Jaguar's latest sedan: the XF. It has been described as the most important car in the company's history, another way of saying "if this doesn't work, guys, we're dead." The Jaguar XF replaces the S-Type which, when launched, was widely praised by the automotive press. The S-Type was a modern version of the legendary mid-size Jags of the 60's, arguably the most beautiful production sedans ever created. When the S-Type arrived the world's car writers, including me, wrote lavish reviews. Now (typical of my cheap-date colleagues) they're bad-mouthing the S-Type as being too reminiscent of the company's past. Ian Callum, Jaguar's design director, insists that the new XF was intended to maximize "Jaguarness." Sorry, Ian, but at a glance I'd mistake this for a Japanese luxury car or even a European competitor.
However the current trio of XF, XJ, and XK collectively symbolise what a luxury/sports marque should be. Let's hope its new Indian owners appreciate the meaning of Jaguar's one-time slogan "grace, space, pace" and ignore the car industry's foolish stampede to a car for every niche. Jaguar is a niche.