The crossroad

EVERY AUTOMOTIVE manufacturer hasa carthat’s awatershed moment, acar that either reinvents the brand or comes to define an entire genre. For Volkswagen, the original Golf from 1974 set the blueprint for all future hatchbacks, while Ford’s sharper-edged Focus from 1998 reinvigorated the company’s image following the ugly and unpopular Escort Mk 6. Jaguar has had many such cars throughout its long history, but the most important from the last two decades is the second generation of XK. As a traditional two-door coupe and convertible, it may have shared many similarities with its immediate predecessor, but its sharper design and sportier performance marked a new direction for the company, one it still follows.

As the first production car designed from start to finish under former Ford, TWR and Aston Martin designer Ian Callum, the XK started a radical new approach. From the moment he took up his position as design director in 1999, Callum pushed to move the designs of Jaguar’s cars forward. Although the X300/X308 XJs and S-TYPE had been commercially successful, Callum felt that Jaguar was no longer as innovative as it once had been and was now too reliant on previous designs.

The X-TYPE saloon and X350 XJ had already been signed off by the time Callum started, so he began his quest to move Jaguar forward with two prototypes: the R-Coupe from 2001 and the 2003 RD-6. The first production car, which would really