Its name, which reprises the word ‘Type’ used for so many great Jaguars, also suggests that future nomenclature won’t stray too far from the past.
Although the Type 00 is a two-door car with forward-hinged dihedral doors and built on a shorter-than-production wheelbase, it tells us plenty about the forthcoming saloon. We already know this is a low, lithe car in the old Jaguar mould, with a raked roof, a long wheelbase and a uniquely long bonnet.
It’s also one of a new wave of cars that ditches a heavy and fundamentally useless rear window and uses twin side cameras, and a digital rear-view mirror like that offered in its Defender cousin.
The Type 00’s shape is defined by long, confident lines that spell out beautiful, opulent proportions, according to its maker. The modernist surfaces are starkly simple, almost flat in places, but they incorporate sleek compound curves where needed.
The overall effect is boldness – a key aim of the designers – yet the surfacing and sparse details carry impressions of sophistication and restraint, as befits a Jaguar selling in the £120,000 bracket, more than twice the price of an outgoing-generation Jag.
The glasshouse stresses the theme of lowness. The Type 00 has a fairly high waist and a flattish roof with a ‘fast’ rear panel (without window) that gives it almost a chop-top look. In that one way, it faintly resembles one previous Jaguar: the XJS.
