Mike Cross Vehicle dynamics engineer
THE 2013 GOODWOOD FESTIVAL OF Speed offered a vignette of what Mike Cross has brought to Jaguar Land Rover over the last three decades. As is the Goodwood way, Lord March had secured a headline act and this year it was the 911, which was celebrating its 50th birthday. A spectacular, dynamic sculpture in front of the house showed off significant examples of the iconic Porsche and the entry lists were peppered with historic road and race 911s.
However, the car that really wowed the crowds and grabbed the lead in many Goodwood reports wasn’t a 911. It was a loud and leery, King fisher blue sports car that came into view on the narrow driveway already extravagantly, elegantly sideways and then roared off up the hill, leaving the crowd to enjoy the tang of smoked Pirellis. It was the Jaguar Project 7 concept and at the wheel was Mike Cross. Talk about crashing someone’s party.
For many years, Cross has been the public face of engineering at JLR, ever ready to demonstrate the sporting nature of Jaguars, driving them to the limit and, when appropriate, over the limit, and engaging with the press on new model launches where he’d offer revealing insights into the development process.
Cross has been described as the keeper of JLR’s DNA because for many years
