Indeed the XK engine was very advanced for its time and proved successful in various types of racing in the 1950s.

One of the reasons the XK stayed in production for so long is Jaguar lacked the capital to invest in the design and tooling for a replacement. In fact, the tooling became so worn that some of the tolerances were no longer to specification, especially with the crankshaft and journals. If memory serves, the tooling was purchased from Standard in the 1940s.

 

Japanese, Germans and Koreans have always looked to passionate countries like Italy, Britain, and USA for inspiration in areas they are not particularly strong.

I have the greatest example of Japanese craftsmanship, the car that made Toyota motor company what it is today. They reference Land Rover and Jeep.

 

Its the sort of Hardship that makes the heart heavy, for a tiny little company that said it could, against all odds.

Folks have to realize that the British Auto industry is massively under-supported by the Govt. The opposite is true of Germany, Japan and even to a lesser degree, now America. Worse national treasures were allowed to perish or sold to anyone. Japan would cut off its arm before allowing that to happen. The local govt in the German where VW/ Porsche is based out of is the largest share holder in VW. If I recall correctly.

 

Were they the first to put dual cams on an I-6?

 

No, several other racing marques had that feature in the 1920s and 1930s, most notably the Bugatti Type 59.

 

Duesenberg introduced an sohc I-8 4 valve in 1921 with hydraulic brakes. In 1928 the introduced their famous dohc I-8 4 valve in the model J, which made 265 hp!


The supercharged SJ came about a year later making 320 hp, and later the SSJ made 400hp.Unfortunately the Depression killed these expensive cars and the company was gone by 1937.

 

Queen ,i have to agree with you about Jaguar being magic, it seems in time the car actually starts to possese you.
as great as they are they can be a big PITASS, and almost ghostly.

hard to exactly put your finger on it,tho.

maybe we are masochistic at best!

 

To be honest, if some brother here can pretend he is driving a Jaguar when he is driving a Ford, he is not delusional, he is smarter than all of us. But only half as smart as the guy who can get Jaguar parts at the Ford parts counter.

 

If Jaguar was ever to put a Ford engine in a Jag I recommend this one; The Aussie Ford FPV FG GT/P 5.0L S/C 335 Miami V8. And let the mods begin!!
My signature tells the story.

 

.


finally today i read TATA has a Jaguar XJ assembly plant in PUNA INDIA, so some new XJ/XJL will be shipped from India!

and many engine units will use Ford parts! made all over the world, some in USA!

and the XF use many Ford platform components.

i suppose it is enevitable ethier way, as time moves on

 

I think you'll find that the JLR vehicles assembled in India will be sold into the Indian market only, you won't find an Indian-assembled JLR vehicle being sold into the US or other "western" markets.

JLR has been assembling cars from Knock-Down-Kits in India for quite some time already, did you know they also assembled cars in Jordan, not to mention China.

The whole point of doing the local assembly is to avoid import duties and other taxes, the labour cost savings are nowhere near as significant as the taxes avoided.

You won't be buying a "made in China" JLR vehicle in the US anytime soon, if ever...

 

Cambo you gotta catch up to JLR news1

TATA/ JLR is building the largest manufacturing plant ever, super hi tech in Slovakia !

also new plants in Brazil, Russia, India(Puna), CHINA.

so USA just may get some labeled BRIC.

like said earlier hard to beat CUBIC MONEY, TATA ,3.3 TRILLION ?

 

I am a newcomer to this forum, today in fact, but my forum participation goes back to CompuServe in the early nineties and I currently belong to dozens on several topics. I would like to add some personal experiences to the topics here that are auto related and go back to the sixties. My first car was a Triumph TR-3a and I drove and raced Triumphs, MG's, Healey's, Corvettes, and Lotuses. [BTW, my Elan and Formula 2 Lotuses had Ford 105E engines with a Lotus twin cam head] All the British SC's were quite good for the period with the exception of the "Prince of Darkness" electrical systems. No one else was building "real" Sports cars at the time, except for maybe the rare and expensive SL300's and some Italian exotics which were well beyond me. I had a ball with the Brit cars.

Then in the mid sixties, the muscle cars hit and hit hard in the US. No one outside of the States ever caught on [until today] and the same applies to the luxury cruisers. America loved them but no one else did. However they supported GM, Ford, and Chrysler for a dozen years until lines at gas stations ended that party. That same party hit again in this century and we have excellent muscle cars from every part of the globe, not to mention PU trucks and SUV's.

Now to my recently purchased F-Type S. In the last twelve years I have owned 6 Corvettes, two were Z06's, three AMG's and two BMW's. Maybe my rose coloured glasses haven't lost their tint yet, but I like the Jag better than any of them - honestly! Yes, my SLK55 AMG is a bit faster. If you put a 5.5 liter V8 in a Miata sized car, it's gonna blister the pavement. But, and this is a big but, it just doesn't have the class or finesse of the Jaguar. I hope the feeling last.

BTW, not to stir the pot again, but, I really think that Ford helped Jaguar between 1989 and 2008 in both manufacturing techniques and facilities. And that comes from a long-time GM man. Ford didn't drop Jaguar, AM, LR, or Volvo because they couldn't sell the cars. as was mentioned. Ford was desperate for money at the time. They even mortgaged the "Blue Oval" to raise capital. They had to sell off assets or file for bankruptcy.

I just realized that this is a year old thread, but I spoke my mind and am going to post it. Sorry if anyone is offended.

 

I agree that Ford did that. And it's really helped Jaguar.

 

The only mild thing I have against Ford, is that while I was at Jaguar, a load of my mates and colleagues were able to emigrate to the 'land of the free' but every time I tried to do an internal transfer- it was blocked as I was the only guy doing Intake, Cam profile, combustion and exhaust work. Then after sept 11th Ford started their austerity programmes. I had to make it over taking huge chances getting sponsored by a start up. Made it over in the end and i'm very happy. Its everything I dreamed of!

 

Its good to hear from you.

The Pilgrim's path is not an easy one.

 

question; does the F in Jaguar Ftype S mean it has many Ford components in it?
a guy i know says his control arms have Fo-mo-co forged on them.

 

I suppose it's the next letter after E (in E-type).

Yes it'll have lots of parts Ford also use, just as all the jags have had for the last 20 or so years. (Since the cars are mostly pretty reliable it can't be a problem really.)

 

I think it is the other way around. The Ford Romeo plant was producing modular V8s for the lincoln town car before Ford even purchased Jaguar. The jaguar V-8 is a better design though.

 

Jaguar may be known for luxury but they are not known for quality. In general I think American brands have a better track record than European brands when it comes to quality. Jaguar, Maserati and Alfa Romeo in particular have a terrible reputation when it comes to build quality and then there are now-defunct European brands like Reliant and Yugo. Now that is probably ancient history and not representative of cars today, but even if you go by most quality surveys today the Asian brands are at the top with the American brands a distant second and European brands third.

Ford purchased Jaguar because they wanted a premium brand to compete with Mercedes. They sold jaguar to generate cash and avoid bankrupcy (which they successfully did while both GM and Chrysler went bankrupt).