New Jaguar GT seen on the road: 1000bhp production car prepares to launch Jag’s new era

Little is going to trump the reveal of Jaguar’s Type 00 concept car; a day in December the world seemingly won’t forget in a hurry. And while some in the Jaguar comms team might still be sitting in a darkened room processing what happened post Miami Art Week, the engineering team has driven out of the gates at Gaydon to get on with developing the production car the Type 00 heralded, the first car of Jaguar’s much talked about reinvention. 

That also means images of the development cars are finding their way to the public, such as this latest set of pictures showing the car testing in Sweden. It was ‘papped’ during cold weather systems testing with Bosch, where the car’s drivetrain, braking, stability controls and everything else that works to keep it the right way up were being developed, tweaked, updated and recalibrated.

Built on an entirely new and bespoke platform architecture, the new 1000bhp GT from Jaguar is aimed at Bentley and Rolls Royce customers, although with starting prices planned to be ‘under £100,000’ it will significantly undercut any rival from Crewe or Goodwood. 

The latest images don’t reveal much more than those released by Jaguar itself post concept car reveal. Although seeing it in the wild with street furniture to give a sense of scale is more useful than the previous images captured on a featureless test track. It’s still safe to say the car is huge at over five-metres long and more than two-metres wide. 

The rear buttresses are more clearly defined on the car’s back end, although the canny engineers and design team also appear to have added some fake bodywork to exaggerate these further in the hope of throwing you off the scent. 

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We know it will have rear-suicide doors, complete with rather small rear passenger windows and a camera system that could replace the rear windscreen as per Polestar’s 4. Remove the cladding from the roof and C-pillars and you could imagine a quite traditional three-box saloon design. Which would be odd considering Gerry McGovern claims this Jaguar is a copy of nothing… 

A claimed 430-mile range is a partial explanation for the Jaguar’s size, although a leap into the luxury space regularly occupied by the largest Range Rovers is also a reason for this substantial footprint. The battery will be part of an 800-volt electric architecture, powering a number of motors (depending on specification) on the front and rear axles. Expect one on the front and rear for entry level models, an additional one for the rear for mid-line trims and two front and rear for the full blown 1000bhp range topper.