Jaguar Top Ten all time cars celebrates Jaguar XE launch

Messrs Callum, Johnson & March chose the Top Ten Jaguars

Tomorrow – 8 September 2014 – sees the launch of the car that could make Jaguar a real force in the ‘Premium’ market – the new Jaguar XE. We’ve had lots of teases and detail of the new XE in the last few months, and now Jaguar are stating the heritage of the XE by publishing a list of the ten most important cars in their history, as compiled by a trio of Jaguar loving petrolheads – Ian Callum (Jaguar Designer), Brian Johnson (AC/DC main man) and Lord Charles March (he of Goodwood).

The list kicks off with a 1930s Jaguar – the Jaguar SS100 – and goes on  to include the Mark 2, C-Type, D-Type, E-Type, the original XJ6  and the Le Mans winning Tom Walkinshaw XJR-9.

It does seem, with the exception of the racing and specials of the 1980s, this particular trio of Jaguar lovers see Jaguar’s real iconic heritage stopping when Jaguar revealed the XJ6 in 1968, and in truth most Jaguar lovers probably feel much the same. The unstated conclusion is that the current crop of Jaguars – like the F-Type and XE – will be the iconic heritage cars of the future.

Interestingly, both Ian Callum and Brian Johnson agree that it’s tyhe C-Type that is the perfect heritage Jaguar, with a slight dissention from Charles March.

Ian Callum said:

The shape of the C-type has a simplicity and purity that have rarely been bettered, and have helped form the beauty and elegance of some many subsequent Jaguar models. It’s a gem.

Brian Johnson’s thoughts were very similar. He said:

The Jaguar C-type takes some beating for me. Its purity and speed are exceptional today, and must have been simply mind-boggling in the early 1950s!

But Lord March had a slightly different point of view. He said:

For me it has to be the D-type. Way ahead of its time, the D-type looks as good today as it did when it was first revealed 60 years ago, and I really can’t wait to see a grid full of D-types racing at this year’s Goodwood Revival in mid-September to mark this landmark anniversary in style.

All the Top Ten Jaguars will be on show at the new XE’s launch at Earls Court on Monday. And all are agreed that it’s the 1940s and 1950s Jaguars that made the brand.

By Cars UK