THE REUNION: THE F-TYPE

Jaguar's F-type would prove a fitting successor to the E-type. John Barker, who worked on the project himself, reunites three of the key players to reminisce about the birth of a modern great

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SINCE THE DEMISE OF THE E-TYPE IN THE MID-'70s, there had been a desire among enthusiasts, including many at Jaguar, to see a replacement, an F-type. It nearly happened in the mid-'80s, but for a number of reasons XJ41 stalled, and after the Ford takeover in '89 it was re-engineered as the Aston Martin DB7. Then in 2008 Tata became Jaguar's new owner and in Ratan Tata the company had a car enthusiast at the helm. Possibilities opened up and design director Ian Callum, chief programme engineer Russ Varney and chief engineer of vehicle integrity Mike Cross were quick to seize them. One result was X152, the new F-type.

I was involved too, having unexpectedly found myself out of a job at evo. By chance, Mike Cross was looking to add to his team of vehicle assessors because development of the hybrid supercar, C-X75, was about to kick off. Ultimately C-X75 didn’t make it to production but there was plenty to do on C-X16, the sports car concept shown at Frankfurt in 2011 that would become the X152, aka the F-type.

What follows are excerpts from a full one-hour podcast on the F-type's birth, available on all the usual platforms and the evo YouTube channel.

John Barker: Ford sold Jaguar to Tata in 2008. Did that seem like an opportunity to do more stuff, more interesting stuff?

Ian Callum: Yeah, I think it did. We had the ear and the attention of Mr Tata himself, and although he was primarily focused on Land Rover, he suddenly realised there's a sports car company here and he wanted to get more involved. We used to see him regularly, and he loved cars. He was instrumental in a lot that happened. And if you got him on your side, which wasn't difficult, he would endorse things quite quickly.

JB: C-X75 was first. Was it a show car, a concept?