End
of the road.
The
new Jaguar XJ is a truly fantastic car, it is bristling with innovation
and simply superb engineering. The engines are remarkable too, more power
and yet more economy, a very neat trick.
But this car is also a turning point, a major historical event. You see, I am fairly certain that this will be the last ever big piston engined new Jaguar. Ever.
Let me explain. The 5 litre V8 petrol was the last project I worked on as an engineer, before jumping ships and becoming a writer, so I am very attached to it because I have seen it grow up, from its first faltering steps on an engine test dyno to its coming of age as it went into production. And it is a spectacularly good engine, exceeding its design targets with ease, even though as with any modern engine it has taken a huge amount of work to get it there. To quote someone much bigger than me; 'it's been emotional'.
With it now happily in volume production, you would be forgiven for imagining that work should have started on its successor, but despite a very long history of ever more impressive petrol engines from Jaguar, there will never be such a successor. No my friends, I think this is it. The most powerful production petrol engine Jaguar will ever make.
Oh sure there will be upgrades over the years, it may well win trophies as a race engine too with even higher outputs. But that basic engine will not be replaced.
And its not just Jaguar either, far from it. Big fire breathing engines of all permutations grace this years greatest cars, but they too mark the swan song of the breed.
The thing is, it usually takes at least seven years to bring a new engine from an idea into full scale production, there is a hell of a lot more to it than just making a few race engines, there is durability testing in far flung places, running cars for hundred of thousands of miles and fine tuning any glitches out, building production tooling and testing it out, the list goes on. In short, its a big job.
The mighty new Jag V8 started life on a piece of paper in 2001, it recognised that we demand more performance, but also that emissions regulations and CO2 targets would be tougher too. But what has happen since then is that the world has realised that absolutely no CO2 is acceptable, not just less. And also the oil prices have gone silly, and are likely to get worse. The world has changed, drastically.
So the plans for a decade into the future have to be zero carbon, not just a little bit, none.
For decades all the big car companies had vague plans for electric cars in 'the future'. Prototype and experimental cars have been trundled round for years, but the plan to put them into production always got pushed back.
Until now.
After the huge problems of the last couple of years, all those 'future' plans have been pulled forwards with astonishing speed, the first step will be hybrids as the infrastructure and familiarity builds, then once customers are used to the idea everyone will go full electric across the board. And this will probably happen over the next ten years, so there is absolutely no point in anyone designing a new big piston engine.
But that doesn't mean the end of performance cars, on the contrary as electric drive technology finally gets some proper funding the performance will match, and then exceed that of even the fastest petrol cars. Imagine having a 1000bhp hub motor on each wheel, ultimate control over traction and stability, but with the power of four Veyrons. Make no mistake, the future is bright.
Going back to the amazing new Jag, and it is truly amazing, if you can afford one then buy it, seriously. Not only because it is such a good car, but because it is the triumphant finale of over a century of car development involving the good old piston engine. Like the final chord of the most rousing orchestral piece ever performed, it has all built up to this moment and the audience are on their feet cheering.
Its a rare moment in time, a turning point, something that will be written into the history books. So enjoy the hec out of it.
RH 2010.
But this car is also a turning point, a major historical event. You see, I am fairly certain that this will be the last ever big piston engined new Jaguar. Ever.
Let me explain. The 5 litre V8 petrol was the last project I worked on as an engineer, before jumping ships and becoming a writer, so I am very attached to it because I have seen it grow up, from its first faltering steps on an engine test dyno to its coming of age as it went into production. And it is a spectacularly good engine, exceeding its design targets with ease, even though as with any modern engine it has taken a huge amount of work to get it there. To quote someone much bigger than me; 'it's been emotional'.
With it now happily in volume production, you would be forgiven for imagining that work should have started on its successor, but despite a very long history of ever more impressive petrol engines from Jaguar, there will never be such a successor. No my friends, I think this is it. The most powerful production petrol engine Jaguar will ever make.
Oh sure there will be upgrades over the years, it may well win trophies as a race engine too with even higher outputs. But that basic engine will not be replaced.
And its not just Jaguar either, far from it. Big fire breathing engines of all permutations grace this years greatest cars, but they too mark the swan song of the breed.
The thing is, it usually takes at least seven years to bring a new engine from an idea into full scale production, there is a hell of a lot more to it than just making a few race engines, there is durability testing in far flung places, running cars for hundred of thousands of miles and fine tuning any glitches out, building production tooling and testing it out, the list goes on. In short, its a big job.
The mighty new Jag V8 started life on a piece of paper in 2001, it recognised that we demand more performance, but also that emissions regulations and CO2 targets would be tougher too. But what has happen since then is that the world has realised that absolutely no CO2 is acceptable, not just less. And also the oil prices have gone silly, and are likely to get worse. The world has changed, drastically.
So the plans for a decade into the future have to be zero carbon, not just a little bit, none.
For decades all the big car companies had vague plans for electric cars in 'the future'. Prototype and experimental cars have been trundled round for years, but the plan to put them into production always got pushed back.
Until now.
After the huge problems of the last couple of years, all those 'future' plans have been pulled forwards with astonishing speed, the first step will be hybrids as the infrastructure and familiarity builds, then once customers are used to the idea everyone will go full electric across the board. And this will probably happen over the next ten years, so there is absolutely no point in anyone designing a new big piston engine.
But that doesn't mean the end of performance cars, on the contrary as electric drive technology finally gets some proper funding the performance will match, and then exceed that of even the fastest petrol cars. Imagine having a 1000bhp hub motor on each wheel, ultimate control over traction and stability, but with the power of four Veyrons. Make no mistake, the future is bright.
Going back to the amazing new Jag, and it is truly amazing, if you can afford one then buy it, seriously. Not only because it is such a good car, but because it is the triumphant finale of over a century of car development involving the good old piston engine. Like the final chord of the most rousing orchestral piece ever performed, it has all built up to this moment and the audience are on their feet cheering.
Its a rare moment in time, a turning point, something that will be written into the history books. So enjoy the hec out of it.
RH 2010.
Ralph
Hosier