CAR: Tell us how important the XF is for Jaguar
IAN CALLUM: ‘At the risk of sounding immodest, it’s the most important new car for us since the 1968 XJ6. That car for me was a real benchmark. It set the Jaguar identity arguably until the present day. But the ’68 XJ was not immediately accepted by the purists. There was a little scepticism at first. ‘I want a reaction to the XF. I want people to like it – that’s the aim of any product – like it enough to buy it. But if I get a lot of hate mail saying this is not a proper Jaguar, I am happy with that.’
CAR: How much risk were you prepared to take with the XF? You must have been worried about it alienating buyers?
IAN CALLUM: ‘Any change is risky but this is a calculated risk. Some people will take it as being too bold. But I remember a leading captain of industry walking past the concept car at Detroit, saying “that’s much too modern”. I thought that was great! ‘People are more open to change and understand design nowadays. They have a much more astute understanding of design than they did 10 or 20 years ago. ‘There was an understanding when I arrived at Jaguar seven years ago that change had to happen. I was pushing an open door. I get a little bit miffed when people suggest that the powers that be were holding us back. They were not.’
CAR: How do you design a great Jaguar in layman’s terms?
IAN CALLUM: ‘A Jaguar must be a beautiful car. You take a risk changing what a Jaguar is – but if you create a beautiful car, that removes a lot of the risk. ‘If I have to be there to explain a Jaguar, if you have a design that requires an essay to explain it, then it’s not succeeded. The XF stands alone – it should evoke an instinctive reaction. ‘Finally, a Jaguar must have great proportions and a purity of surface. There’s a fashion for random lines and forms, but they demand too much scrutiny. That’s not what a Jaguar is about at all. If you keep those three values in mind, even if you change a lot of other things, you will have a successful Jaguar design. ‘Jaguars are very three-dimensional. When you see the car on the road, it has attitude and stance that a sports saloon should have. To help that we wanted as much rake in the screen and back window as we could. The rear window is as raked as the XK’s. We also tried to press the rear wheelarch around the wheel for an athletic feel.’
CAR: Ok, onto the XF. Talk us around it
‘Jags historically had low boots at the rear. The lid on the XF is higher – by about three or four inches higher than the old car’s boot, although I haven’t actually measured it. We never once sat the XF and S-type side by side. My only reference car was the MK2 (its atmosphere, not its details). The relaxed line shoulder drops at the rear and there’s lots of lots of sweep in the rear like on the E-type; [seen in plan view, the rump is quite rounded]. ‘This is a very athletic car. Parallel lines are static in car design; divergent lines are dynamic. At the front, we found the wire mesh grille is what customers like best. All our future products will have the wire mesh grille. We went for single front lights in the end; we mocked one up with twin headlamps and it was just too predictable. We also tried the oval grille from the Mk2, but was too obvious. Lyons would not have gone for that, were he alive today. ‘We have used the signature blade we first had on the X-type estate. The Jaguar name is a lovely name and we felt that people looking at it might not know what this new car is; so we spell out the Jaguar name on all four sides of the car.’
CAR: And what about inside?
IAN CALLUM: ‘Step inside and the starter button starts to pulsate like a heartbeat. Press it and the car comes to life. The air vents rise up and the JaguarDrive Selector pops up. We took so much comment on the old J-gate change and felt it was time for a change. The dial takes up less space, too. We have been working with Apple on control interfaces. ‘We wanted it to make a statement that we are moving away from a big slab of wood in the cabin. This is a resulotely modern place to sit, with cool blue accents on the lights, doors and around the JaguarDrive Selector. The dashboard is as low as possible and every model has a leather-trimmed wheel.’