1997 Jaguar Xk8 Base Convertible 2-door 4.0l on 2040-cars

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Jaguar may join the FWD, small-car parade

Was it right for Chevrolet to detune the 1975 Corvette's base engine to 165 horsepower? Was Aston Martin wrong to make the Toyota iQ-based Cygnet? Is BMW crazy to be testing the new 1 Series with three-cylinder engines and front-wheel drive? It seems now, just as in the 1970s and 1980s, that emissions regulations and social considerations are driving some automakers to adopt unbefitting practices to maintain acceptance in the eyes of governments and consumers. Jaguar has jumped on the bandwagon, and is considering development of small, frugal, front-wheel-drive cars to help lower Jaguar Land Rover's average vehicle CO2 levels in light of tightening European emissions regulations, Autocar reports.
By 2020, the European Union expects the model range of every manufacturer to average 95 grams per kilometer, which is a new law passed by the European Parliament in April. Manufacturers who make more than 300,000 vehicles per year must meet these targets, and JLR is expected to be producing up to 700,000 vehicles per year by then. CO2 regulations after 2020 will only get stricter, as EU politicians already are talking about lowering CO2 levels to between 68 g/km and 78 g/km. (To put that in perspective, Autocar posits that driving a fully charged electric vehicle in Europe produces about 75 g/km when factoring in the power-generation infrastructure.)
Jaguar has some choices here, but so far they all have drawbacks. It could develop a new, compact chassis architecture for a line of compact vehicles, but the investment required for such a project could be prohibitively expensive. Jaguar has been looking into using the Land Rover Evoque platform for a small SUV, Autocar reports, but Land Rover brand manager John Edwards raises issue with such a plan, saying it may not be financially feasible.

Jaguar designs Tour de France racing bike [w/video]

Jaguar is known for designing luxury sedans, and it's known for designing GTs. But once in a while it dabbles in a new area of transportation design. It's working on its first crossover at the moment, and even did a speedboat concept a couple of years ago. Now it's turned its attention to bicycles.
While many automakers have designed bikes in the past, Jaguar's project has a bit more of a direct correlation. It's been working with Team Sky - the outfit that has won the Tour de France two years running now - since 2010, furnishing the team with support vehicles for bicycle races around the world. But now it's stepping its collaboration up a notch by redesigning the team's bike.
Working with frame manufacturer Pinarello, Jaguar took the existing Dogma 65.1 racing bike design back to the drawing board. Jaguar's designers and engineers reshaped the frame tubes, seat post, front fork, derailleur and all the components attached to the frame, each part streamlined for aerodynamic efficiency. They ran it through Jaguar's Computational Fluid Dynamics processor 300 times then verified the results in the wind tunnel.

Wacky Jaguar crossover mule is a mind-blowing mashup

As Jaguar prepares to introduce its first-ever utility vehicle, our spy shooters have captured this jacked-up XF mule out testing. While a production Jaguar crossover will surely resemble something closer to the recent C-X17 Concept, we can't help but think that the automaker could sell at least a few of these lifted, four-wheel-drive sedans.
Other than proving that Jaguar is hard at work developing this new model using a cobbled-together body, there are some details we can put together about this luxury CUV. For one it's about the same length as an XF, while the ride height is obviously taller and the tire track wider. We're not sure what the rig on top of this mule is for, but the whole car has us reminiscing about the old sedan versions of the Subaru Outback and the AMC Eagle (with a luxury spin, of course).