I Think The Jaguar Type 00 Would Make a Decent Car Under The Right Brand, But Jaguar Isn't The Right Brand For This Car

I’m a long-time Jaguar owner and fan. I’m on my third E-Type, having owned a 67 Roadster and 64 hardtop and now a ’70 Restomod. I’ve also owned an XK-8, an XK-R, which I heavily modified, and an F-Type V8-S convertible. My experience with Jaguar has been love/hate, however, because while the cars are rolling art, they aren’t precisely tops in reliability, though the F-Type was impressively trouble-free for a first-year car. 

Jaguar has had several design language changes over the years. They ranged from relatively minor when moving from the XK-120 to the XK-150 to major for the XK-E (E-Type) and XJ-S, then back to more tradition for the XK-8/R, and finally refreshed for their last batch of vehicles.

Compared to American muscle cars, Jaguars have traditionally had more feminine and elegant lines, less brute force, and a more organic aerodynamic focus. The pinnacle of the Jaguar lines has always been the E-Type, which is considered to be one of the most beautiful cars ever made. 

The Jaguar Type 00

To my eye, the Jaguar Type 00 reminds me of the Jensen Interceptor, a British car with a massive Chrysler Hemi Engine. Other than the typical British reliability issues, the Interceptor was pretty practical and very high-performance. It had plenty of room and plenty of power, but it felt more like a British version of an American Muscle car than the kind of understated elegance that typically surrounded Jaguar cars. 

The Type 00 is also kind of weird in that its lines suggest a massive gasoline engine, much like the Jensen's, rather than an electric car like the old Jaguar I-Pace, which had a more contemporary and sleeker cab-forward design that appeared even more modern than any current Tesla, largely because it was conceived well after most Teslas were. 

The car is expected to cost between $100K and $200K, which is a price range for older affluent buyers or middle-aged buyers looking for affordable exotics. However, the target audience for their new campaign is even younger buyers who probably couldn’t afford it and likely don’t want a car that looks like a muscle car even though they might find the performance attractive. 

So, in effect, Jaguar, while creating a campaign that focuses on a younger generation of buyers, used design elements that might be attractive to older muscle car buyers. Those buyers generally prefer gas-powered muscle cars, so they made their electric look like one. 

This is both the wrong car for Jaguar’s existing base and the base they want to attract. 

Straight-Line vs. Track

Now, I think they got right that this car looks more like something you’d see at a drag strip than on a road course. This, I think, is something Jaguar got wrong with their I-Pace. Electric cars are fantastic in terms of straight-line performance and acceleration, they generally suck as track cars because tracks lack fast chargers, and even if they didn’t, pushing the batteries hard like you do on a track with prematurely age them particularly when you are also fast charging them between runs. You are going to cook your battery.

But they’ll do 1/8th or quarter-mile runs all day, and you generally don’t have to fast charge them. Electric cars generate their torque immediately, making them as impressive as drag cars. So, they perform better, and drag racing is far less damaging to the batteries than road racing. The I-Pace was positioned as a track car; they even had a race series with that car for a time. 

The Type 00 does not look like a track car, but it does look like it would be awesome on a drag strip. That isn’t to say some folks didn’t drag them, my ’70 E-Type was configured as a dragster when I bought it, it just wasn’t a very good dragster, and I took it back to a more traditional sportscar when I modified it. 

Wrapping Up: SNAFU

I think the Jaguar Type 00 would make a decent car under the right brand, but Jaguar isn’t the right brand for this car. Jaguars are typically not bought as muscle cars. And I honestly doubt there is a very big market for a pink Muscle car; I’m sure there are some buyers, but I doubt there are enough to support a pink line. (I find it hard to believe this would be a Barbie car.) 

I think the Dodge Viper brand would have been better for this design than trying to make it a follow-on to the XK or E series Jaguar cars. I also think the colors are wrong—they are feminine colors, but the lines of this car are very masculine. While gender flexibility is a trend, it isn’t a particularly successful one in cars yet, and I doubt Jaguar has the funding alone to make it into one. 

So, this is a car that looks like a gas muscle guy’s car, with feminine color choices and the performance of a dragster. It is under a classic road car brand, priced for affluent buyers, but wrapped with a campaign that targets a demographic that likely couldn’t afford or want it. In short, the acronym “SNAFU” comes to mind.

I truly doubt this will end well.

Rob Enderle is a technology analyst at Torque News who covers automotive technology and battery development. You can learn more about Rob on Wikipedia and follow his articles on Forbes, X, and LinkedIn.