The word ‘retromod’ doesn’t really seem to cut it when the car you are updating is barely old enough to qualify for classic insurance. (Of course, the word retromod is horrible and shouldn’t be used anyway, but that’s another story.) Yet news that McLaren is doing a number on the McMerc (alright, the Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren) seems to really tap into the zeitgeist.
Even before Octane heard the news and Mark Dixon tested the sensational results, we had been discussing that this mightily impressive machine seemed to be one of those rare greats that slips under the radar. Not like the Jaguar XJ220, which even now tracks way below its contemporary rivals, all of which have taken off, even the Bugatti EB110 – but more like the XJR15, which languished in the doldrums for so long before savvy (and wealthy) petrolheads realised that, by reverse-engineering these Jaguar race-cars-for-the-road, you could have the next best thing to a McLaren F1 for a tiny fraction of the price.
All of which makes mention in our second McMerc piece – James Page’s superb analysis of the 722 GT – of a potential renaissance all the more tantalising. And to my mind probably brings that XJR15 comparison into even sharper relief. McLaren is pretty tight-lipped about the ‘project’ just at the moment, but we are justifiably excited. Bring it on!
We all deserve a second chance I may not have always owned one, but I like to think I have always been a Lotus man. I suppose I can’t count my Westfield Eleven, but Elan, Elan +2, Elite and Elise have all been wonderful additions to the Elliott fleet over the years. And as soon as the kids are gone, or a pension matures, or the right Lotto numbers come up, I can promise there will be another.
Being a diehard Lotus fan can be testing, though. At times it has been rather like being a devoted England football fan – the talent is there for all to see, but somehowit is perpetually squandered until inevitable failure ensues. Not now, though. When Geely took over in 2017, I was shocked by the open distrust of the new owners, an overarching suspicion straight out of some 1950s movie. Yet look at what Geely has done at Volvo and what it is now promising to do at Lotus. Stability and investment? Lotus has never had it so good.
Like all Jaguars, the XKR-R prototype is a car that likes to be driven
From the more focused XKR-R on the cover to the discreetly modified Mk 2 on page 44, and the only XJ-S cabriolet to have both TWR’s 6.0-litre V12 and a manual ’box to the E-type Series 3 fitted with a modern six-speed automatic transmission, this issue of Jaguar World features nothing but cars that like being driven.Of course, for those of us who own one, this shouldn’t come as a surprise. More than any other British marque, Jaguar has always produced models to be enjoyed.
The E-type Series 1 might be a high-end investment for the lucky few today, but – at its heart – it’s still the simple, yet highly effective, sports car it has always been. The XJ-S that replaced it is clearly more of a luxury grand tourer, yearning to be taken to the South of France. To do anything else misses the point of the car. Even the new XF Sportbrake D200, with Jaguar’s new hybrid drivetrain – which I go camping with to the far reaches of northern Scotland – fits this description, although I discover it’s more about covering miles than big, beaming smiles. My own XK8 gets into the act, too, by taking me to Shelsley Walsh for the wonderful E-type 60 event in June. The 116 miles travelled from home might pale into insignificance compared to a trip to the French Riviera, but, after 18 months of the Covid-19 pandemic, it’s the furthest I’ve driven the car for some time. It was a great reminder of how fabulous a car it is. I’m sure many of you can say the same about your own little-used pride and joy. But, now that life in the UK is taking its first precarious steps back to normality, it’s time to hit the road and let your Jaguars do what they do best: be enjoyed and, most of all, be driven.
Well those DCT boxes shift way quicker than i ever could in a manual. I remember vividly the heavy clutch setup in the XY GTHO and after tearing around mountain roads i needed a leg massage. It was ridiculous heavy and no power steering didn't help either lol...
That's because your ahem, older like me. I've had a little manual hot hatchback and Loved smashing it's gearbox left right and centre. I've also had mid size German saloons with automatic gearboxes. Some with manual overide. So I'd definitely go the latter route now! :)
About the same power, similar weight, and similar price as a Porsche Cayman/Boxster GTS 4.0. I think it'll fool a lot of people thinking it's a supercar. In terms of brand recognition and value, I don't think it's better than the Porsche. But I would be more inclined to buy this instead because it's just more special.
Excess all areas. Okay, I’m old and old school. I remember reading Cars and Car Conversions and then Performance Car before progressing on to evo. However, the huge size, massive power and ridiculous costs of many of the cars featured in your pages of late are making them completely irrelevant to all but a privileged few, not to mention irrelevant on most of our finest roads.
The £140k, 626bhp, 1825kg BMW M5 CS; the £5million, 836bhp Aston Martin Victor; the £117k, 616bhp, 2320kg Porsche Taycan Turbo Cross Turismo…are these cars really made for driving?
I’m happy with my lightly modified 30th Anniversary Mazda MX-5. £25k new, cheap to run, insure, maintain and modify. I can revel in country B-roads (on which it easily fits), wringing the sweet little naturally aspirated motor to the red line on every precise manual gearchange, working to carry every possible mph onto the next straight, feeling the little car move under me on its skinny 205-section tyres – and loving every second! Is it just me, or am I missing something?
You may well question why we are reporting the loss of Jaguar’s latest design director in Classic Jaguar? It is our view is that each generation of designers from Sir William Lyons and Malcolm Sayer all the way through to Ian Callum have created iconic models which are either now regarded as classics or will be in the future. Prior to Julian Thomson’s 21-year stint at JLR where his credits included the R-coupe and RD-6 concept cars from the early 2000s, he worked at Lotus for 12 years during which time he penned the iconic Elise S1 in 1996.
These achievements alone gave us every reason to believe there were exciting times ahead as his vision for Jaguar became a reality. Upon hearing the news, Ian Callum ‘tweeted’ his disappointment at the loss to Jaguar of such high calibre talent. Callum himself left in 2019, compounding Wayne Burgess’ departure the same year, this now leaves Jaguar with none of the long-term triumvirate team in place. Thomson has not yet revealed his plans for the future, and neither have JLR announced who is to be his successor.
yep the car in the pic is indeed the 1997 version of the porsche gt1. between 911 gt1 and clk-gtr… that's a really tough choice. i'm surprised nobody ever did a comparison test between the two, on a track or something. it's important to know how fast this type of cars are on circuits
I find this funny. I wonder who decided how much $$ would be too much to pay photographer for not releasing pictures of crashed F1… How do you calculate something like that… I guess they don't want the bad imagine for the brand, but it's not like other supercars don't crash or that there aren't plenty of pictures with crashed McLaren's, Ferraris etc around anyway
1992 F1 has incredible acceleration because it weighs only 1150 kg and has a power of 620 hp or 545 hp / t. The modern Porsche 918 has a power ratio of 520 hp / t. F1 is a very light supercar with a powerful engine, all modern supercars weigh more than 1600 kg
Top speed — what is the topspeed advertised in 1992 McLaren F1 owners manual/brochure? That number should be used, if there is such a number. The prototype speed records can be ignored, but it would be best to have some other number in place.
Estimates — they are based on deep learning (not really deep tbh). The AI does take in account the year of the car (which implies tyre performance) but this effect probably in this current version of neural net is not strong enough. So you could look at it as if the tyres are almost ignored or the effect diminished.
Like this cool version of MG
Nice Coupe
The word ‘retromod’ doesn’t really seem to cut it when the car you are updating is barely old enough to qualify for classic insurance. (Of course, the word retromod is horrible and shouldn’t be used anyway, but that’s another story.) Yet news that McLaren is doing a number on the McMerc (alright, the Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren) seems to really tap into the zeitgeist.
Even before Octane heard the news and Mark Dixon tested the sensational results, we had been discussing that this mightily impressive machine seemed to be one of those rare greats that slips under the radar. Not like the Jaguar XJ220, which even now tracks way below its contemporary rivals, all of which have taken off, even the Bugatti EB110 – but more like the XJR15, which languished in the doldrums for so long before savvy (and wealthy) petrolheads realised that, by reverse-engineering these Jaguar race-cars-for-the-road, you could have the next best thing to a McLaren F1 for a tiny fraction of the price.
All of which makes mention in our second McMerc piece – James Page’s superb analysis of the 722 GT – of a potential renaissance all the more tantalising. And to my mind probably brings that XJR15 comparison into even sharper relief. McLaren is pretty tight-lipped about the ‘project’ just at the moment, but we are justifiably excited. Bring it on!
We all deserve a second chance I may not have always owned one, but I like to think I have always been a Lotus man. I suppose I can’t count my Westfield Eleven, but Elan, Elan +2, Elite and Elise have all been wonderful additions to the Elliott fleet over the years. And as soon as the kids are gone, or a pension matures, or the right Lotto numbers come up, I can promise there will be another.
Being a diehard Lotus fan can be testing, though. At times it has been rather like being a devoted England football fan – the talent is there for all to see, but somehowit is perpetually squandered until inevitable failure ensues. Not now, though. When Geely took over in 2017, I was shocked by the open distrust of the new owners, an overarching suspicion straight out of some 1950s movie. Yet look at what Geely has done at Volvo and what it is now promising to do at Lotus. Stability and investment? Lotus has never had it so good.
Nice car
Epic drive
Nice job for VAG
Ultra rare version of Pagoda SL — W113
Like all Jaguars, the XKR-R prototype is a car that likes to be driven
From the more focused XKR-R on the cover to the discreetly modified Mk 2 on page 44, and the only XJ-S cabriolet to have both TWR’s 6.0-litre V12 and a manual ’box to the E-type Series 3 fitted with a modern six-speed automatic transmission, this issue of Jaguar World features nothing but cars that like being driven.Of course, for those of us who own one, this shouldn’t come as a surprise. More than any other British marque, Jaguar has always produced models to be enjoyed.
The E-type Series 1 might be a high-end investment for the lucky few today, but – at its heart – it’s still the simple, yet highly effective, sports car it has always been. The XJ-S that replaced it is clearly more of a luxury grand tourer, yearning to be taken to the South of France. To do anything else misses the point of the car. Even the new XF Sportbrake D200, with Jaguar’s new hybrid drivetrain – which I go camping with to the far reaches of northern Scotland – fits this description, although I discover it’s more about covering miles than big, beaming smiles. My own XK8 gets into the act, too, by taking me to Shelsley Walsh for the wonderful E-type 60 event in June. The 116 miles travelled from home might pale into insignificance compared to a trip to the French Riviera, but, after 18 months of the Covid-19 pandemic, it’s the furthest I’ve driven the car for some time. It was a great reminder of how fabulous a car it is. I’m sure many of you can say the same about your own little-used pride and joy. But, now that life in the UK is taking its first precarious steps back to normality, it’s time to hit the road and let your Jaguars do what they do best: be enjoyed and, most of all, be driven.
Well those DCT boxes shift way quicker than i ever could in a manual. I remember vividly the heavy clutch setup in the XY GTHO and after tearing around mountain roads i needed a leg massage. It was ridiculous heavy and no power steering didn't help either lol...
That's because your ahem, older like me. I've had a little manual hot hatchback and Loved smashing it's gearbox left right and centre. I've also had mid size German saloons with automatic gearboxes. Some with manual overide. So I'd definitely go the latter route now! :)
About the same power, similar weight, and similar price as a Porsche Cayman/Boxster GTS 4.0. I think it'll fool a lot of people thinking it's a supercar. In terms of brand recognition and value, I don't think it's better than the Porsche. But I would be more inclined to buy this instead because it's just more special.
Excess all areas. Okay, I’m old and old school. I remember reading Cars and Car Conversions and then Performance Car before progressing on to evo. However, the huge size, massive power and ridiculous costs of many of the cars featured in your pages of late are making them completely irrelevant to all but a privileged few, not to mention irrelevant on most of our finest roads.
The £140k, 626bhp, 1825kg BMW M5 CS; the £5million, 836bhp Aston Martin Victor; the £117k, 616bhp, 2320kg Porsche Taycan Turbo Cross Turismo…are these cars really made for driving?
I’m happy with my lightly modified 30th Anniversary Mazda MX-5. £25k new, cheap to run, insure, maintain and modify. I can revel in country B-roads (on which it easily fits), wringing the sweet little naturally aspirated motor to the red line on every precise manual gearchange, working to carry every possible mph onto the next straight, feeling the little car move under me on its skinny 205-section tyres – and loving every second! Is it just me, or am I missing something?
Look fine and sharp
You may well question why we are reporting the loss of Jaguar’s latest design director in Classic Jaguar? It is our view is that each generation of designers from Sir William Lyons and Malcolm Sayer all the way through to Ian Callum have created iconic models which are either now regarded as classics or will be in the future. Prior to Julian Thomson’s 21-year stint at JLR where his credits included the R-coupe and RD-6 concept cars from the early 2000s, he worked at Lotus for 12 years during which time he penned the iconic Elise S1 in 1996.
These achievements alone gave us every reason to believe there were exciting times ahead as his vision for Jaguar became a reality. Upon hearing the news, Ian Callum ‘tweeted’ his disappointment at the loss to Jaguar of such high calibre talent. Callum himself left in 2019, compounding Wayne Burgess’ departure the same year, this now leaves Jaguar with none of the long-term triumvirate team in place. Thomson has not yet revealed his plans for the future, and neither have JLR announced who is to be his successor.
This car was with cool rear susspension system
Nice pre-Fiat era example of rear wheels drive Alfa big sedan!
yep the car in the pic is indeed the 1997 version of the porsche gt1. between 911 gt1 and clk-gtr… that's a really tough choice. i'm surprised nobody ever did a comparison test between the two, on a track or something. it's important to know how fast this type of cars are on circuits
I find this funny. I wonder who decided how much $$ would be too much to pay photographer for not releasing pictures of crashed F1… How do you calculate something like that… I guess they don't want the bad imagine for the brand, but it's not like other supercars don't crash or that there aren't plenty of pictures with crashed McLaren's, Ferraris etc around anyway
1992 F1 has incredible acceleration because it weighs only 1150 kg and has a power of 620 hp or 545 hp / t. The modern Porsche 918 has a power ratio of 520 hp / t. F1 is a very light supercar with a powerful engine, all modern supercars weigh more than 1600 kg
Top speed — what is the topspeed advertised in 1992 McLaren F1 owners manual/brochure? That number should be used, if there is such a number. The prototype speed records can be ignored, but it would be best to have some other number in place.
Estimates — they are based on deep learning (not really deep tbh). The AI does take in account the year of the car (which implies tyre performance) but this effect probably in this current version of neural net is not strong enough. So you could look at it as if the tyres are almost ignored or the effect diminished.