jaguar

A British car brand that has been producing luxurious and sporty vehicles for decades. Jaguar was founded as the swallow sidecar company in 1992. the company went through a series of transformation before becoming Jaguar cars in 1945. it became a part of the British Motor Corporation in 1966. but the jaguar went out on their own in 1984 before being purchased by ford in 1990. the brand struggled under Ford ownership and was sold to the Indian company Tata Motors in 2008 as the luxury vehicle brand of Jaguar Land Rover and they have thrived ever since.

Their first breakthrough car was the XK 120 sports car which was launched in 1948. one of its more successful models is the XJ which had a production run from 1968 to 1992. other popular models include the F-type, XE and XF.

Jaguar started as a motorcycle sidecar company. The company that would eventually become known as Jaguar originated in 1922 as the swallow sidecar company. They specialized in making motorcycle sidecars before coming under the ownership of the SS car company. where they started making complete cars, many of which had jaguar in the model name. In 1945 SS car shareholders agreed to change the name to Jaguar cars because it was a much more distinctive name and because SS had a negative association after World War II.

Each jaguar model is thoroughly checked and tested in its high tech climate chambers. this involves the ar being frozen at -40 degree Celcius, being exposed to hurricane-strength winds and enduring 50+ degrees Celcius and powerful solar loads you might expect with the hottest desert. the also undergo a monsoon soak test and a 16-hour drizzle test to check for water tightness.

Extensive precautions are taken when Jaguars are being transported to dealerships. The fleet of drivers involved takes extensive measures to prevent any last second scratches. The drivers are not allowed to wear any buckles on their clothing and they even remove the metal shoelace eyelets from their shoes. An industrial-grade car cover is provided to prevent any scratches. 

A 1955 Jaguar D-type was sold for $21 million. it is the most expensive Jaguar ever sold at the auction in 2016 in Monterey California. The D-type was the legendary overall winner of the 1956 24-hour LeMans race. it is the only Leman wining C or D type that has remained intact and in original condition.

Jaguar designers have a virtual reality cave that has eight cinema quality 4k projection screens that recreate the interior of cars. the designers can sit in these virtual reality cars and test out the proportions they can also form virtual 3D models of parts to test how they all work.

Recently Jaguar has shown that they want to be one of the top innovators when it comes to cars of the future. every Jaguar model line will be electrified by 2020. JLR announced in 2017 that, starting in 2020 all of its new vehicles will have a fully electric or hybrid option. The announcement came at jaguar’s first tech fest in London. They also showcased three fully electric car designs. The I-pace concept is a sleek SUV. the E-type zero which is a version of the 1968 series 1.5 jaguar e type roadster. And the future type concept. 

Jaguar introduced a very limited new original XKSS in 2016. a total of 25 Jaguar XKSS roadsters were originally produced in 1957 but 9 of them were destroyed in a fire at the assembly plant. Jaguar decided to pull the serial numbers from the destroyed cars and recreated them from scratch almost to the exact specifications of the original. The only changes made had to do with safety including 4 point seat belts and a non-leaking fuel tank. The cars were meticulously built by hand. each car was sold for more than $1.3 million. 

Jaguar had the world’s fastest production car for 2 years. from 1992 to 1994, the Jaguar XJ220 was the world’s fastest production car with a top speed of 213mph. Jaguar introduced a self-driving future type in 2017, it was designed with the mobility needs of 2040 and beyond in mind. it is fully electric and fully autonomous meaning it can drive itself. It has a narrow body to navigate traffic and fit into tight parking spaces. It also has a removable voice-activated steering wheel that is capable of summoning a shared vehicle in which Jaguar envisions will be a thing in the future.