Jaguar may bring back the XK as a more focused GT car, according to Russ Varney, who was the project leader for the car before it was axed this year. He also oversees the development of the Jaguar F-type.

Varney in conversation with our sister-magazine, Autocar UK, said “The heart of Jaguar is in sports cars, and that is why we will now regard the F-type as the halo product for all that we do. However, I don’t think that means the XK is dead necessarily.

“The car straddled the GT and sports car segment, with more of an emphasis on the GT side, but probably not enough of an emphasis on the sports car side. There is no reason the XK couldn’t exist today as a true contender in that GT segment.

“We have plans to do lot more with the F-type, and we expect it to cover a lot of bases, but there will still be other areas we want to cover. We need to find the right way to deliver on them, and the XK could be one way of doing that.”