Jaguar C-X17 SUV prototype review, test drive

When I ask whether the new aluminium structure lurks beneath the elegant skin of this particular prototype, engineer Graham Wilkins, vehicle engineering manager for the cars that will use this new architecture tell me it is not much more than an engineering lash-up. "It has a supercharged XK engine," he says, "and it has four-wheel drive. It's not the real thing, but more of a bespoke experiment. What's important is it proves the car can look that good, yet all the new stuff would fit under there. That's as important as having it in place."

 

Jaguar high-ups have been in two minds about how to treat the C-X17 ever since it first broke cover two months ago. For some, it's a way of showing that the F-type's design style can extend to one automotive extremity - sports cars - to the other, SUVs, while encompassing saloons and estates on the day. Ergo, Jaguar can build whatever cars its R&D department believes the market will take.

 

Others feel this concentration on design style obscures the significance of the wholesale change to aluminium, a programme costing many millions that will affect every Jaguar ever made from now on. It is becoming apparent that this is not merely a compact architecture Jaguar is building but the basis of its entire future range - looking ahead for two decades and more.

 

Gingerly, I climb into the car. First thing you see through the cabin door are the elegantly simple seats in saddle leather, reminiscent of those from the original E-type, whose beauty and simplicity has stayed with us for 50 years.  Continued..