Tópico Jaguar

Jaguar promete que a sua berlina do segmento D "será a melhor"

Dos artículos de un mismo tema nos hemos encontrado esta mañana. Autocar y Automotive News parecen haberse puesto de acuerdo para arrancar sus redacciones con sendos análisis de los planes a futuro de Jaguar.

Ambas publicaciones alaban la situación actual de JLR, de la que se dice que es, Porsche aparte, una de las compañías automovilísticas más rentables del planeta, gracias a los enormes márgenes que maneja en sus productos actuales, y a un crecimiento estable de sus ventas. Pero JLR no se puede quedar quieta donde está ahora mismo.
El objetivo de JLR a medio plazo (2020) es llegar a tres cuartos de millón de coches vendidos al año
Varios analistas consulados por ambas publicaciones apuntan a que JLR necesita crecer para hacer de Jaguar algo viable a medio plazo. Y aunque no necesite una estructura del tamaño de BMW para subsistir, sí que debería aproximarse al millón de unidades vendidas al año para poder amortizar la nueva plataforma modular de aluminio que va a servir de columna vertebral para todos los Jaguar y casi todos los Land Rover (exceptuando los grandes Range Rover y Range Rover Sport, así como Discovery).

En palabras de un directivo de Jaguar, citado por Automotive News, "JLR no busca ser un fabricante de gran volumen como BMW", para agregar "gran volumen es pasar del millón de unidades". No hace mucho tiempo podemos recordar viejas palabras de algunos expertos de este sector que señalaban que un fabricante que no pertenezca a un gran grupo automovilístico, tendrá complicado sobrevivir por debajo de los 4,5 millones de coches fabricados al año (lo dijo Carlos Ghosn, CEO de Renault y Nissan).

Vale, Jaguar Land Rover pertenece a Tata, un enorme emporio industrial indio, pero la realidad es que con la casa matriz apenas comparten nada, y todo el catálogo de JLR se basa en plataformas y motorizaciones propias.

De ahí lo delicado del encaje de bolillos que tienen que afrontar los británicos, obligados a usar una única plataforma para casi cada toda su gama, hacerlo de una manera rentable lanzando productos "deseables" (algo que están consiguiendo desde que Tata está a sus mandos), y contar con sus propios desarrollos mecánicos.

Y es este punto el más complicado de todos, y en el que, ya se ha anunciado, buscan socios. Pues la creciente presión por reducir emisiones de CO2 y consumos en la Unión Europea puede suponer poner contra las cuerdas a fabricantes que no puedan permitirse lanzar motores y técnicas completamente nuevas para sus modelos, caso de JLR. Por eso JLR busca un socio para "temas híbridos".

Con todo, Autocar y Automotive News hablan de cuatro nuevos modelos, como mínimo, lanzados por Jaguar para finales de 2018, junto con alguna sorpresa más de Land Rover. Entre ellos, el nuevo sedán de segmento D de Jaguar (lanzamiento en 2015), del que la firma británica asegura que no será "uno más", sino "el mejor del segmento". Por lo pronto ya sabemos que contará con un bastidor de aluminio, lo que lo convertirá en único, ya que ninguno de sus rivales utiliza una estructura similar. ¿Lo aprovecharán con un ahorro espectacular de peso? Veremos a ver, pues JLR tiene siempre problemas en la báscula, merced de usar plataformas modulares muy grandes para coches no tan grandes...

Tras el sedán llegarán un familiar, un SUV (C-X17 de producción) y hasta un cupé para plantar cara a los A5 y Serie 4.

¿Funcionará la estrategia de JLR? Si no lo hace puede condenar a la compañía para siempre, pero la realidad es que a tenor de sus últimos lanzamientos, yo no dudaría de su producto, ni de sus futuras ventas.
Click to expand...
Gama da Jaguar irá expandir-se com um SUV, ecarrinha, coupé e hatchback

Compact sedan due in 2015

JLR's new strategy chief Adrian Hallmark has shed some light regarding Jaguar's upcoming lineup expansion plans.
We already know Jaguar will launch an all-aluminum compact sedan in early 2015 which will be aimed at the BMW 3-Series. Its name will allegedly be XS (codenamed X760) and will receive an estate variant in 2016, followed by a two-door coupe in 2018 and possibly a BMW GT-like hatchback before the end of the decade.

Also in the works is an SUV which will be smaller than the recently unveiled C-X17 conceptand will compete with the BMW X3 and X4 once it comes out at the beginning of 2016. Internally known as X761, Jaguar estimates they will be able to shift 50,000 units on an annual basis.
All these cars will ride on the firm's new iq[Al] platform and will enable Jaguar to produce 1.7 million cars by 2020, according to London-based analyst ISI Auto.
A full report is available at the source link below.

Source: autocar.co.uk
 
Eagle Low Drag GT - Eagle Low Drag GT - The Ultimate Grand Tourer

1000x720_crop.jpg


1000x720_crop.jpg


1000x720_crop.jpg


1000x720_crop.jpg


1000x720_crop.jpg


1000x720_crop.jpg


1000x720_crop.jpg


1000x720_crop.jpg
 
Eagle E-type Low Drag Coupe first drive Review | Autocar

Eagle_GT_Coupe_STU_022.JPG


What is it?

A classic car developed with the benefit of hindsight. That’s perhaps the best way to describe how Eagle re-invents the Jaguar E-type for the modern era.
But its latest creation, is something else again, a car so special even in the rarefied world of Eagle E-types, that to date just one has been built. To build another would take 18 months, 6000 man hours and £650,000.

So an E-type Low Drag Coupé? When the E-type was launched in 1961 its shape was ineffably beautiful but not exactly shaped for racing. But it was so popular Jaguar didn’t need racing to publicise it.
That didn’t stop Jaguar aerodynamicist Malcolm Sayer penning a track-friendly shape designed as much to reduce lift as lower drag, and it didn’t stop privateers racing lightweight E-types equipped with ‘Low Drag Coupé’ bodywork.
Sadly by then the Ferrari 250 GTO was in its pomp and any dreams of Jaguar returning to its halcyon racing days, the car’s lack of competitiveness soon disabused that notion.
Eagle built this E-type Low Drag Coupé up around a new chassis with a two inch extension in the wheelbase to provide additional legroom and installed in its nose its own take on the classic Jaguar twin-cam straight-six motor.

Bored but mainly stroked out to 4.7-litres and fitted with fuel injection and an aluminium block, its internals are made by Crosthwaite & Gardner, the same people who build brand new pre-war Auto Unions for Audi.
The gearbox has an Eagle alloy case and Eagle five-speed internals, although the bellhousing at least is Jaguar’s. At the back an aluminium limited-slip differential is fitted.
The suspension is Jaguar's but modified to Eagle’s own specification, featuring an adjustable front anti-roll bar and adjustable Ohlins dampers made specifically for this car and bespoke rates for its torsion bar springs. AP racing provide the ventilated, drilled discs.

What is it like?

Given this level of specification, I was expecting a brutal monster. And that was before I heard of the engine’s 345bhp and an extraordinary kerbweight of just 1038kg, which is probably what an Alfa 4C weighs once you’ve filled it with fluids and a driver but with over 100 extra horsepower.
That impressive kerb weight includes such civilising influences as climate control, power steering and fully trimmed interior including thick, comfortable chairs. When it reverses off the truck I’m amazed by how quiet it is: the engine note is deep, cultured and classically English straight six, but it doesn’t want to shout about it.
The driving position is pure E-type, short in the leg despite the longer wheelbase, but can house a 6ft 4in driver. It’s snug. Then there’s the dash – apparently all E-type too with a pair of large clocks in front and the rest spread in a single disciplined file across the centre console. The switches are the same too, but not their labels. One even says ‘climate’.
First engages with a solid, mechanical thunk. The car may only weigh a tonne but this transmission feels strong enough to change the rotation of the earth. Good. The clutch is heavy but gentle. There’s no hop or stagger as we draw away – it’s all elegant: E-type elegant.

But this isn’t. As the test track opens out and the individual throttle bodies open up, the Eagle takes wing and flies. No E-type even went like this, at least not with just 1500rpm on the clock. The roar becomes a snarl and we’re surging on a supercharged wave of torque, handily without the need for a supercharger.
Thunk, thunk, thunk, the gears come and go, each engaged with such deft fluency a passenger would think I’d been doing this for years, not knowing the class of the driveline was actually doing it all. The Jaguar's engine is still relatively new so I only use 4500rpm, but that’s just 500rpm short of the redline and all you’ll ever need.
Even now, with limited traction and that slick but slow shift, it feels as fast as a fast, modern Aston.

Would I have chosen power steering? Probably not: with that alloy engine and alloy panels, there’s not much weight over the nose but its hard to be unimpressed by the lucidity of the messages it sends through the wooden-rimmed Nardi wheel, the only item of equipment that doesn’t look born to be in an E-type.
On modern rubber and with the dampers doing their finest, there’s grip of a kind no owner of a normal E-type would recognise. But when it’s finally exhausted, it’s the front that slides first. But there’s a little too much understeer and while the car will tighten its line nicely on lift-off, oversteer needs provoking.

I mention this to Eagle’s general manager who dives under the car to wind another ten clicks onto the rear Ohlins. “Try that.” So we do and at once there’s a little less understeer and it no longer needs to be kicked into a drift: a small lift and a smaller prod and it slides beautifully.
One notch off the front roll bar would probably balance it completely, but this car is so new Eagle has not yet had time to set it up. But that’s the thing: ask me how it handles and I’ll ask you how you want it to handle. I’d set mine to drift, drift and drift some more.

But others would sooner waft, and this is the Eagle’s real secret. It may look shaped by the wind and could drop most things short of a 911 Turbo in a straight line, but if you just want to park it in fifth and cruise, that’s just fine by the Low Drag Coupé. The ride quality is remarkable and even at the 120mph it’ll show on any short straight, it’s quiet enough for conversation.
Not that you’d want to talk, or even have company. Eagle says this is a car that two people can use for touring Europe or the West Coast and I’m sure they could. For me however it is a car in which to be entirely alone with your thoughts, that engine, the gearshift and its supple, indulgent and sensitive chassis.

Should I buy one?

Don’t ask if it’s worth the £650,000 or so its owner will pay for it because to him it is and as it’s the only one, his is the only opinion who counts.
If customers want them, Eagle will make more, but don’t expect production to amount to more than a handful at most.
Knowing Eagle and its standards, this was a car I had expected to like. But in fact I found myself adoring it and as I wound my way home I wondered why. I concluded it was the E-type they’d have made at the time if only they’d known how.

It’s not less of a Jaguar or less of an E for all its myriad modifications, but more: more of the essential spirit of the car with less of the rubbishy inexactitude that to one extent or another pollutes the experience of driving any old car.
An E-type with the benefit of hindsight? Every sweeping, snarling, gorgeous inch of it.

Eagle E-type Low Drag Coupé

Price £650,000 approx; 0-62mph 4.5sec approx; Economy n/a; CO2 n/a;Kerb weight 1038kg; Engine 6 cyls in line, 4700cc, petrol; Power345bhp at 4800rpm; Torque 360lb ft at 3600rpm; Gearbox 5-spd manual
Click to expand...
 
4zpg.jpg


A nova decoração da fachada sul da fábrica em Castle Bromwich.
F-Type Coupé.

Este, como o Cabrio, tem componentes "MADE IN PORTUGAL".
 
Autohoje - Jaguar Land Rover prepara nova família de motores de quatro cilindros
386bbc0073a3223a59aeb5ddc6a9873f_L.jpg

O grupo começará a testar os novos propulsores na próxima primavera. Esta família terá como destina quase todos os modelos de ambas as marcas.

A Jaguar Land Rover começará a testar um novo motor de quatro cilindros a partir da próxima primavera. Segundo confirmou à Automotive News Europe o engenheiro chefe da marca, esta novidade será aplicada até ao final de 2014 em todos os modelos do grupo, com exceção do Range Rover. Wolfgang Ziebart disse que modelos de pré-produção equipados com os novos propulsores sairão da fábrica de motores em Wolverhampton localizada no Reino Unido.
As primeiras unidades do novo motor Diesel destinar-se-ão à nova berlina Jaguar, com nome ainda por definir, previsto para o final da primavera de 2015. A primeira versão a gasolina do novo motor deverá chegar perto do fim desse ano. Zeibart garante que esta nova família de motores é o pináculo em termos de “eficiência, peso e potência por litro”. A nova família partilha o máximo de componentes e técnicas de construção possível, sendo de prever que uma versão Diesel mais potente seja encaixada no Range Rover Sport.


Entretanto, a Jaguar Land Rover assinou um acordo com o estado do Rio de Janeiro para a construção de uma nova fábrica na cidade de Itatiaia. Investindo 288,5 milhões de euros na nova linha de produção, o grupo britânico prevê produzir 24 mil veículos por ano, a partir de 2016. A unidade de fabrico brasileira dará, para já, origem a cerca de 400 postos de trabalho.
Click to expand...
 
4063376091137141270.jpg


Jaguar XJ220 by Overdrive on sale for 400,001 EUR

A Jaguar XJ220 tastefully modified by OVERDRIVE is now up for sale and can be yours if you are willing to pay 400,001 EUR.Jaguar built 275 units but only one of them was tweaked by the Bulgarian specialists at OVERDRIVE. It's the 98th car manufactured and has been driven for just 12,427 miles (20,000 km). The upgrade process was finished about a year ago and now the car is up for grabs at Auto Performance in Germany for a hefty 400,001 EUR (about 544,300 USD or 330,000 GBP).
The exclusive 90s supercar received an interesting green with brown and golden chameleon exterior paintjob and a carbon exhaust system provided by Akrapovic. It rides on 19-inch front / 20-inch rear ADV.1 Wheels with central locking and has gained LED daytime running lights as well as Ferrari 599 GTB-sourced taillights.
Its V6 3.5-liter twin-turbo engine and five-speed manual gearbox went through a restoration process, while the interior has been updated with a carbon fiber trim, a leather and Alcantara upholstery and a Ground Zero audio system with McIntosh player.
Click to expand...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top