California, and Los Angeles in particular, is the biggest new car market for Jaguar. The F-Type roadster has been very successful since its launch in the market last year, so it was only natural for the British automaker to reveal the latest sports car in its range in LA this year.
We caught up with Jaguar production studio director Wayne Burgess at the LA show to talk about the next stage in Jaguar’s ambitions in the market, and spoke to him about the new F-Type which made its official debut at the show.
Burgess took us through the design, highlighting how, contrary to other development programs, the car was built after its topless namesake. He also spoke to us about the extreme rearward proportions of the new car and disclosed how, contrary to popular belief, there wasn’t an E-Type in the studio at the time of its development.
As the halo product for the Jaguar brand, the F-Type Coupe has been influenced by other products in the range, adopting design elements such as the grille shape, arched eyebrow of the headlamps and ‘J-blade’ daytime running lamps which we’ll see implemented on all future vehicles in the Jaguar line-up.
Burgess also shared some of the challenges he and his team faced in bringing the design to market, staying as close as possible to its concept car precursor, the C-X16 concept shown at the LA auto show last year.
There’s no denying the F-type is a very well resolved modern interpretation of the iconic E-Type. And the fact that Jaguar’s design team have managed to successfully transfer so many elements of the C-X16 concept through to production is also a feat Jaguar’s design team should be proud of.
