Giugiaro, one of the great Italian designers: I used to have one of his Mangustas. Beautiful. I also had one of these Q-Portes. I did a lot of work on the spring rates on that big Jag rear and got it handling well for such a heavy car. Then the "electronic brain" gave out and they were backordered to infinity. I opened it up, matched the parts from Radio Shack, soldered them in et voila! Ran perfectly. Cost me five dollars. A friend of mine has three of these Q-Portes. Not sure why. (He also has an Aston Marin Lagonda in perfect shape. Came over from Japan).

 

Funny you should mention the Lagonda. I'm on the hunt for a Rapide. (Yeah I know, NOT gonna happen) I assume his is the '80s iteration?

Amazing bit of history, your Mangusta. I believe they only made a very small handful.

 

Yeah, not many Mangustas, but beautiful. Let me ask my friend what he's got in Astons these days.

 

Aston is my favourite Marque. I wanted to restore a DB6 MkII but could not find one. So I did the S Type. Probably just as well. The cost of rebuilding the Tadek Marek 4 litre 6 is huge.

 

Thank you!

 

A neighbour of some friends used to leave his DB6 parked casually in a city street. Apart from the craftsmanship, I'm not an Aston lover, but still thought it showed a total lack of appreciation.

 

David -- finally spoke with my friend, he sold his pair of Lagondas. But his pal has nine of them! They are all the "original electrics" cars (I believe) -- before they fixed the cranky electrics. I also think his friend has one of the later face-lift cars as well, which are deemed "funky". Another friend had a DB5 Vantage -- but that's long gone (along with his Toyota 2000GT -- both left drive). And no, Gandini had nothing to do with the Q-Porte. Let me know if you're feeling in a Lagonda mood! All LHD, I'm pretty sure. Oh yeah, original friend still has a pair of Q-Portes, one in a grey with 35K original miles. I liked that car. One could have a head-on collision with the entire known universe and come out OK!

 

Which is why I stated "Giorgetto Giugiaro penned the design. Possibly with some Gandini inspiration". Designers are frequently inspired by others but it is Giugiaro's design. Lyons was inspired by Frank Feeley with the Mk1 but it is very much a Lyons design & a Jaguar. One was a 2 door & the other a 4. The more Lyons tinkered the more Jaguar it became with what he called his rotund/ponton type design.

 

I read somewhere that Lyons was inspired by the shape of a cats paw for his XK120 design (three toe shape) which he followed through from the XKs to the Mk1 and beyond. Shame that after the S Type someone else took over the design and was inspired by a brick for the front of the 420 and XJ series. Joking just in case I offend some sensitive 420 owners.

 

Lyons Openly Stated that he got his first ideas from Frank Feeley at Aston Martin with the DB 2. The end product was a long way from the DB2 which was a 2 door Coupe ~ He wanted no form of wings on the car. You can vaguely see the Feeley influence. He at first wanted the open forward bonnet/hood like the DB 2. His first prototype shows this but he was structurally worried about his first Monocoque & yet he built the E Type. He had gained confidence by then.

 

Strictly, the E type and D type were space frames forward of the scuttle, which would pass the honour of being Jaguar's first forward hinge bonneted monocoque to the Mk X. That should win today's anorak prize!

Is anything anyone does in any field not in some way derivative from or inspired by what's gone before? If it isn't, it's probably rubbish.

I also hate brick fronts, especially those with no forward facing panel work, only lights and air intake.

 

Spot on Peter.