Baby Jag’s inverted launch
NOW this is the proper way to reveal a new car. A Guinness World Record, upside down, barrel rolling, smoke, laser lights, funky music backing track...oh, and the car looks pretty sexy too.
Welcome the Jaguar E-Pace, the Brit brand’s new compact SUV which lands here early in 2018 with a price expected to be from $48,000 before on-road costs, making it the cheapest Jag ever offered in Australia.
London was the chosen venue to reveal this shrunken version of the F-Pace (Jaguar’s mid-sized SUV and its current best-seller), and in typical Jag showboating style, it claimed a world record for the furthest barrel roll in a production vehicle.
Yes, the E-Pace’s introduction was to be launched into a 15.3-metre long jump complete with a 270-degree corkscrew-like barrel roll.
Jag said the barrel roll was inspired by “cinema’s most iconic car stunt” without actually mentioning its name, so I’ll do it for them.
In the 1974 James Bond film The Man with the Golden Gun, Roger Moore (well, stunt driver Bumps Willard was actually at the wheel), barrel rolled an AMC Hornet from a broken bridge, spinning around 270 degrees in mid air across a river, before landing safely on the other side.
For the Jaguar E-Pace stunt, veteran stunt driver Terry Grant performed the twisting leap, and said post-roll: “As far as I am aware no production car has ever cleanly completed a bonafide barrel roll and therefore it has always
been an ambition of mine to perform one ever since I was a boy.”
At the launch, Jaguar emphasised how it was aiming for a younger market with its new E-Pace, with the stunt proving the compact SUV – which will rival the likes of BMW’s X1 and Audi Q3 – lives up to the brand’s “Art of Performance” philosophy.
The E-Pace is about “attitude and stance” with its sporting looks, and its “sports car driveline technology make E-Pace the hot hatch of its segment”.
Jaguar promises all-wheel-drive, 4G wi-fi and a 10-inch touchscreen as standard. Its InControl system allows you to track the car, check its fuel level, warm it up or cool it down or even start it remotely using your smartphone.
Power comes from a range of petrol and diesel turbocharged four-cylinders, with a 213kW petrol giving a 0-100kmh sprint time of 6.4 seconds.
Nailed on new best seller for Jaguar? No doubt, and you can configure your E-Pace on Jaguar’s Australian website now. While you’re online, take a look a the barrel roll stunt on YouTube. James Bond would be proud.