The new Jaguar lightweights

[clarki]

RYH64E said:

I can't see that being the case, 6 cars even at £1m-ish each is a drop in hte ocean for a company the size of Jaguar, plus the costs of setting up a bespoke manufacturing operation can't have been cheap. It only really makes sense for the publicity it generates for their run of the mill cars.

Well it's 6 cars for now, if financially successful will they just stop or explore this sector further?

Tbh the publicity hasn't been that great for us run of the mill people.

Jag has a heritage dept and more recently SVO so they do already have specialist skills and manufacturing operations. It looked to me like they assigned half a dozen existing employees to the project and gave them work space rather than developing something from scratch.

I guess only time will tell - still lovely cars.

[RYH64E]

clarki said:

Well it's 6 cars for now, if financially successful will they just stop or explore this sector further?

In 2014 Jaguar Land Rover had a turnover of £19,386,000,000, they're in the volume car market not the bespoke specials market.

clarki said:

It looked to me like they assigned half a dozen existing employees to the project and gave them work space rather than developing something from scratch.

[a8hex]

clarki said:

Well it's 6 cars for now, if financially successful will they just stop or explore this sector further?

I thought the rumours for the next project were for the XKSS. For the E-Type there were just the 6 assigned but unused numbers, there originally plans for 50 XKSS's before the fire put paid to all the plans.

[davepoth]

RYH64E said:

In 2014 Jaguar Land Rover had a turnover of £19,386,000,000, they're in the volume car market not the bespoke specials market.

You could say the same about BMW or Mercedes, or indeed for Bugatti in terms of what they are to VAG. As you quite rightly say, £6m is a drop in the ocean for Jaguar. Building low volume bespoke cars is very good advertising (I bet they didn't pay for the whole hour on Channel 4, for example).

[thegreenhell]

Going by this effort, perhaps Ferrari should build another sixty-odd 250 GTOs to make up the 100 they should have built in the first place to pass homoologation...

[Pistom]

Yertis said:

I was planning to watch this documentary but having read about all the marketing bks I won't bother.

I know the marketing bks is infuriating but let's not forget that the marketing bks is probably the most important bit.

Many a good car manufacturer has gone bust because their product wasn't well marketed but not many marketing people go hungry because of a crap product.

Also let's not forget that the E-type was all about marketing.

[clarki]

RYH64E said:

In 2014 Jaguar Land Rover had a turnover of £19,386,000,000, they're in the volume car market not the bespoke specials market.

Wiki is your friend, lol. Remember Profit > Turnover (there's a well known phrase).

Lets imagine too, they had an idea, at a meeting, and decided they could reach into other markets, hence developing their business. No, no, that'd never happen.

[a8hex]

clarki said:

Wiki is your friend, lol. Remember Profit > Turnover (there's a well known phrase).

Wow, Profit > Turnover
That would be a neat trick

[LotusOmega375D]

It's nonsense to say that the original Lightweights are too valuable to race. I get the Lindner/Knocker car is unique and fragile (wasn't that a re-body in period anyway?), but there are plenty of more valuable cars with Prancing Horses on the bonnet racing all over the world. Lord March gets the originals to race anyway.

Also, correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't the Lightweight E-Type disappoint when it raced in period, which may have led to the shortened production run? The show claimed 20 wins but what was the competition?

[chevronb37]

thegreenhell said:

Going by this effort, perhaps Ferrari should build another sixty-odd 250 GTOs to make up the 100 they should have built in the first place to pass homoologation...

That made me chuckle.

[a8hex]

chevronb37 said:

thegreenhell said:

Going by this effort, perhaps Ferrari should build another sixty-odd 250 GTOs to make up the 100 they should have built in the first place to pass homoologation...

That made me chuckle.

I'm sure I remember reading somewhere many many years back that Jaguar got around that by claiming the ali cars were the standard ones and that the steal cars where the specials.

[FWDRacer]

Roy C said:

Anyone know where they were actually built? Browns Lane has been a housing estate for a while.

Misinformed and wrong. Jag Workshops and Proto build line are still there, as is the veneer manaufacturing centre (ownership changed hands).

[Roy C]

FWDRacer said:

Roy C said:

Anyone know where they were actually built? Browns Lane has been a housing estate for a while.

Misinformed and wrong. Jag Workshops and Proto build line are still there, as is the veneer manaufacturing centre (ownership changed hands).

No, it's just that the last time I was there, just before the museum closed, the only bit I could see was "Swallows Nest" Taylor Wimpey housing estate.

Edited by Roy C on Thursday 4th June 17:44