Jaguar’s press kit for the Advanced Lightweight Coupe Concept, which is a thinly veiled version of the next generation XK sports car, credits “Renowned Design Director Ian Callum” for the styling of the body and interior. The purpose of the design, according to Jaguar, is to show that future vehicles from the iconic English luxury automaker will be adorned with “no extraneous sculpture or unnecessary surfacing…nothing superfluous.”
Please excuse our brief editorializing, but isn’t superfluous design and unnecessary detailing the point of a Jaguar? The recently introduced XJ sedan is gorgeous in its retro bulges and swells, the existing XK sports car sensuous thanks to flares and swoops, and even the S-Type and X-Type are distinctive thanks to immediately identifiable styling traits that can be traced to revered Jaguars of yore. Good gracious, gents, styling is what sells a Jaguar today. Based on the Jaguar Advanced Lightweight Coupe Concept, future Jags sound austere and minimalist in terms of design – like a Lexus. Is Callum drinking the J Mays kool aid, or what?
