Jaguar F-TYPE Roadster Is Go!
5 January 2001
Jaguar F-TYPE Roadster Is Go! LOS ANGELES, Jan. 4 The Jaguar F-TYPE roadster has been
given the production go-ahead, the company announced today. The all-new,
compact Jaguar roadster becomes the fifth model in the company's expanding
product range and marks Jaguar's return to the true sports car market, which
it helped to create in the 1950s and 1960s.
Announcing the decision at the Los Angeles International auto show today,
Jaguar's Chairman, Dr. Wolfgang Reitzle, said, "Jaguar is one of the most
evocative brands in the world and there is a renewed commitment at Jaguar to
create cars that stir people's emotions. The overwhelmingly positive reaction
across the globe to last year's concept has convinced Jaguar to build the
F-TYPE roadster."
"Due to the unprecedented growth and intensity of new product development
at Jaguar today, it will take us approximately three years to deliver the
F-TYPE roadster program to market. While F-TYPE will embody all the passion
and excitement of past Jaguar roadsters such as XK 120 and E-type it clearly
signals a fresh direction for Jaguar sports cars in the future."
The F-TYPE has been the subject of a detailed 12-month study to determine
both the business implications and potential launch timing. A crucial issue
for the study team was to determine the relative priority of F-TYPE in the
context of the company's ambitious long term product plan.
Today, Jaguar as a business is in the process of a major product-led
transformation. The introduction of the S-TYPE sedan in 1999 is driving record
sales around the world. The new X-TYPE compact sports sedan which goes on sale
later this year establishes Jaguar as a four-model line company, accelerating
the company's development from a niche player into a major competitor in the
premium car segment.
The smaller, more affordable F-TYPE roadster complements the XK Series
range of sports cars and will extend Jaguar's product portfolio to five
distinct model ranges -- three sedans and two sports car models. F-TYPE will
therefore continue Jaguar's drive to make the brand more accessible and
aspirational to a wider customer audience. Within each model range, innovative
derivatives will provide greater customer choice.
Jonathan Browning, Jaguar's Managing Director, said "The atmosphere at
Jaguar today is vibrant, exciting and challenging, as the rate of new product
development continues at a dramatic pace. Over the next 36 months, Jaguar will
launch 15 new or significantly revised products and power trains. F-TYPE will
be the sixteenth. From a manufacturer that a mere three years ago had only a
two-model line up, this represents a massive investment in design, engineering
and manufacturing resource. Today, Jaguar is the fastest growing of all car
manufacturers, but this growth is being managed very carefully to ensure that
we sustain our quality standards and do not over-extend the Jaguar brand."
Within this array of new model developments, the traditional Jaguar values
of style, finely crafted interiors and effortless performance are being
complemented by innovative technology and a renewed emphasis on sportiness and
performance. This is reflected by the supercharged 'R' derivatives -- the XJR
and XKR -- the 'R' Performance Options and, of course, Jaguar's involvement in
Formula One. F-TYPE will be the boldest expression yet of this "emotional
engineering," which characterizes new Jaguar.
The decision to take F-TYPE from concept to production coincides with the
fortieth anniversary of the seminal Jaguar sports car, the E-type, which was
unveiled to universal acclaim at the Geneva show in March 1961. The E-type was
the latest in a line of illustrious Jaguar sports cars from the SS 90 and
100 of the thirties, through the revolutionary XK 120 in 1948, to the
XK 140 and 150 of the fifties. The race-bred E-type, hailed as one of the
greatest automotive designs of all time, epitomized the mood of the "swinging
sixties." With F-TYPE, the goal of the Jaguar designers is to create an
uncompromised roadster which evokes the spirit of the legendary E-type, but
with a style that is both functional and contemporary.
Ian Callum, Jaguar's Director of Design explains, "F-TYPE represents one
of the greatest design challenges in Jaguar history. It must capture the
spirit, sensuousness and passion of the original concept, reflect Jaguar's
future direction and meet real world packaging and performance requirements.
The challenge is to create a true 21st century successor to the E-type, the
icon of the 60s."
