Here’s Why The Jaguar Type 00 Is A Proper Jag | Feature

I can’t ever recall something a car company’s done causing as much mainstream, vitriolic, politically-charged debate as Jaguar’s big rebrand, which culminated this week in the reveal of the radical, opinion-dividing Jaguar Type 00 concept.

I’m not even going to engage with the more politicised response to the relaunch. That, like most online discussions about such things, would be about as effective as screaming my opinions straight down a 500-foot-deep well. All I’ll say is that no, a pink car is not a threat to your way of life, and other colours are available. Clearly, Jag’s going after a whole new audience, and that audience couldn’t care less about the views of the people debating this car online. Not mine, not yours, and certainly not Nigel Farage’s. 

No, I’m far more bothered by the accusations that Jaguar has abandoned its rich history. I’ll let you into a secret: if all car companies stuck steadfastly to their past, we’d all be driving around at 19mph in roofless, spindly-wheeled nonsense that broke your wrist when you tried to start it. 

Some retro navel-gazing is fine now and then – the new Renault 5 has nailed it, and the Porsche 911 is built around it. However, nearly all cars that make a measurable impact, that linger in the memory, do so with fresh, innovative thinking, be that in their engineering or styling.

And guess what? This is something Jaguar’s done throughout its entire history. In 1961, the average British sports car looked like the Triumph TR2, MGA, or Jag’s own XK150 – bulbous arches, buggy headlights, and more than a whiff of cucumber sandwiches and village fetes.

Just imagine the shock and awe that must have arisen when Jag pulled the covers off the E-Type that year. Those crisp, minimalist lines; the long, thrusting bonnet; the bullet-like profile. It’s familiar now, but then, it must have looked like it had been beamed straight down from Mars. That’s why it’s rightly regarded as an icon. It moved the game on.

Examine Jag’s back catalogue, and you can see this willingness to experiment again and again. XJS, XJ220, the first XF, the final generation of XJ – all of them bore very little regard to what came before. And when Jag has tried to do retro, the results have been decidedly mixed. The F-Type was great, and wore its E-Type influence proudly, but it was still clearly its own thing, and all the better for it. When Jag really tried to go all in on its heritage, though, we ended up with the X-Type and S-Type. Would you really rather it was still doing stuff like that?

Which brings us to the Type 00, which isn’t bound for production itself but does give us an idea of what the new era of Jag will look like. It’s unlike anything Jag’s done before, and that’s exactly how it should be. I don’t think it’s perfect by any means – I’m not sold on the repeating ‘Strikethrough’ grille motif, and I’m convinced the whole no rear windscreen thing is pure gimmickry. But it’s daring, it challenges convention, and it gets people talking – just like the E-Type did nearly 64 years ago.

And yet, you really don’t have to look too hard to spot nods to the past. It has a long, thrusting bonnet like the E-Type; a resolutely upright, monolithic nose like so many versions of the XJ. Jag could have played things safe and relaunched with an SUV. Instead, the concept is a big two-door coupe, and the first production car will be a low-slung four-door saloon – the two body types people associate most with Jaguar. In fact, there are lots more retro cues here than in Jag’s only production EV so far, the genre-defying I-Pace.

I’m not trying to defend everything Jag’s done as part of this grand reinvention. I think the new logo is a bit naff, and while I’m absolutely not about to join the chorus of bile-spitting individuals deriding it as “woke”, I’ll admit the teaser video went over my head a bit. Again, though, I’m not the target audience.

I also worry about the decision to go all in on electric power, considering EVs are currently proving a tough sell, especially in the posher end of the market Jag’s now chasing. Outwardly, though, the company appears confident.

Regardless of all that, anyone accusing Jaguar of abandoning its heritage needs to reconsider what they think that heritage is. We may like to view its cars as wood-panelled cigar lounges on wheels, but there are plenty of examples of Jag pushing out daring, unconventional ideas. The Type 00 is just the latest example.

And if you’re still convinced that Jaguar doesn’t give a damn about its past, may I direct you to the Classic division it operates together with stablemate Land Rover? It’s an arm of JLR that sources, restores and sells pristine examples of the two brands’ glorious and expansive back catalogues, and even does the odd continuation car. That’s something plenty of other manufacturers, supposedly more in touch with their pasts, don’t have.

For its new cars, though, Jag can’t be expected to keep looking through rose-tinted glasses. Its sales have been miniscule for years compared to German rivals (maybe if even half the people ranting on the internet had actually bought XEs instead of 3-series, the company wouldn’t be in this position), so it needed to try something different. And frankly, it’s rolls of the dice like this that have resulted in the best, most beloved Jags of all.