pop-up headlights NOW INCLUDING HIDDEN HEADLIGHTS

[02Anders]

I’m afraid I don’t Anders - I saw this on Facebook. I’ve corrected the colour and added the redesigned C post info, thanks.

All good Jim - thx...

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The Lamborghini Diablo based Vector M12

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Abarth 216A Spyder, 1000SP
AC3000ME, 428 Spider II by Frua
Adams Probe 16
Alfa Romeo Iguana, P33 coupe, Caimano, 1961 Alfa Romeo Giulietta SS Spider & Coupe Speciale Aerodinamica (Pininfarina), 1936 coach type 8C 2900A
AMC Bizzarrini AMX/3
Ares Panther
Aston Martin Lagonda
Austin Zanada
Balbo-bodied 1954 Siata 208S coupe
Bitter CD (Opel Coupé Diplomat prototype), SC
Bricklin SV-1
BMW 840/850, M1, E25 Turbo
Bordinat Cobra & Cougar 2
Bradley GT
Buick Skyhawk
Burlington Centurion (also called the Urba Centurion and the Quincy-Lynn Centurion 04)
Camber GT
Chevrolet Corvette C2-C5, Indy, Aero Coupe/Scirocco, XP-898, CERV III Concept, Nivola Concept by Bertone, 1963 Corvair Testudo by Bertone, Astro 1
Citroen SM Frua, Olsen BX coupe concept
Cizeta Moroder v16t
Clan Clover and "Irish Clan"
Cord 810/812
Dardo F1.3 & F1.5 (Brazilian GRP X19 copy)
Davrian Imp (various)
Detomaso Pantera, Guara, Montella concept (1973), Zonda
Dodge Daytona (1987-1991) - the Shelby Z turbo II version was sold in Europe as the Chrysler GS Turbo II, Charger Daytona (1969) & 1969 Super Charger concept car, Diamante
Eagle SS
Elva GT160
Ferrari F40, 208, 288, 308 (& rainbow concept car), 328, 348, 355, late (post 71?) 365 (Daytona/California), 375 MM Pinin Farina Coupe Speciale, 400 (and PPG Concept by I.DE.A), 408 Integrale Concept by I.DE.A, 412, 456,Testarossa, 512TR, Mondial, 512S Berlinetta Speciale (concept), CR25 (Pininfarina), Meera S (michelotti)
Fiat X1/9 (& Bertone), 125 Vignale "Samantha", 850 Dart Special Coupe Concept by Vignale, Abarth 2000 Scorpione, dino parigi by Pininfarina
Ford Probe (& 1979 Probe 1 concept car), 77 Thunderbird, SA30 (also badged Tickford), 1962 Mustang showcar
Gemballa Avalanche
Geo Storm
Ghia Serenissima "Aghema"
Ginetta G26 / G27 / G31 / G32 / G33
Glenfrome Delta
Gold Cirrus
GP Talon
Griffon LB
Gyro Transport Systems GyroX
Hofstetter Cortada Turbo
Holden Hurricane RD001, Torana GTR-X
Honda Prelude (2nd & 3rd gen), (Acura) NSX, (Acura) Integra (1st gen)
Ikenga (mk2 only?)
Imposter (Imp based special based on a Silva Llama chassis)
intermeccanica Indra
Iso Grifo, Lele, Varedo
Jaguar XJR15, 1978 XJ spider concept
Kelly Python
Kia elan (rebadged Lotus)
Lamborghini Miura, Countach, Diablo (90-99), Urraco, Islero, Jalpa, Silhouette, Athon, Bravo
Lancia Stratos, Beta Mizar, Beta FF V Concept, Fulvia 1600 Competizione Concept by Ghia, Sibilo, Medusa
Ligier JS2, 1976 R14 prototype JS-6 "Ika"
Lincoln (Ford/Ghia) Quicksilver
Lombardi Grand Prix (Fiat 850 based - also called the OTAS 820), Giannini, Abarth Grand Prix and Scorpione
Lotus Esprit, Elan, Excel, Eclat, Elite (type 75 & type 83 (74-82)), M90 prototype
Malzoni GTM
Maserati Bora, Merak, Boomerang, Ghibli, Khamsin, Indy, simun
Matra M530 (A & LX - but not the SX), Bagheera, Murena, Laser
Mazda mx-5 (mk1), RX-7, 323F
McLaren M6GT
Mercedes C111-1 & 2 (from the limited info available this may be basically the same car with a different engine?)
Mitsubishi mk1 GTO,3000GT/Dodge Stealth, Starion (also badged Dodge and Chrysler Conquest)
Morris Marina SRV2
Monteverdi Hai 450 SS
Nissan Silvia S12 200SX, S13 180SX, S13 240SX, Pulsar NX/EXA, Dome Zero P1 & P2, 126X, MID4 & MID4 II concepts
Oldsmobile Toronado (the only car to feature in both lists? Some models popup, some are hidden.
Opel GT2
Owen Sedanca
Pangolina 444GT
Panther solo mk1, six
Pininfarina Jaguar Spider
Piper P2
Plymouth Laser/Mitsubishi Eclipse/Eagle (Chrysler brand) Talon - 1GA models only, Road Runner (superbird)
Polski Fiat Ogar 1500, 1100 Coupe
Pontiac Firebird (1982-2002), Fiero, 1964 Banshee, 1988 Banshee
Porsche 911 flatnose, 924, 944, 968, 928, 914, 914/6 Murene, 916, Tapiro
Reliant Scimitar SS1, SST, Sabre, SE82 concept
Renault Alpine A310 Special Concept by Coggiola, Gabbiano Concept by ItalDesign, A610 - and apparently the (never sold in the USA) USA spec GTA too?
Rickman Metisse
Rover BRM gas turbine (1964 & 65)
Saab Sonett III, Viking
Simca Civic
Siva Saluki & Spyder
Sovra LM3
Spectre R42
Subaru XT (N.America/Europe)/Alcyone (Japan)/Vortex (Aus/NZ)
Tatra MTX
Tornado M6GTR
Toyota MR2 (and the SV-3 concept it came from), supra (mk2 on), 2000GT, Celica (3rd,4th and 5th gen cars), AE86 Sprinter Trueno.
Triumph TR4B Zest II, Fury, TR7/TR8 (& Lynx)
TVR wedges - Tasmin/280i, 350i, 390SE, 420/450 SEAC, Trident
UVA M6GTR (and "Norwich Union" Mirov II), F33 Can-Am
Vauhall XVR concept
Vector M12 (Diablo based)
Vegantune Evante
Venturi Atlantique
Volvo 480
Wolfrace Sonic
Zender Vision 1S Concept
Zimmer Quicksilver

Not quite a full popup, out, down, round, evidence still required, etc

Alfa Romeo BAT 5, BAT 7, Montreal, Carabo 1968 (Bertone), Navajo
Aston Martin Bulldog
Buick (GM) Y-Job, Le Sabre, Riviera
Chevrolet Corvette Astro 2, Camaro (various years and models), Caprice
Chrysler Imperial, 1942 DeSoto, New Yorker Brougham, 1941 Newport dual-cowl phaeton, Thunderbolt, Norseman, Imperial D’Elegance, Le Baron
Corvair Monza
De Tomaso Mangusta (approx 50 US cars only?)
Dodge Monaco, Royal Monaco, Magnum, Charger, Challenger SRT concept
Ferrari 275 P2
Ford Megastar, Coins, 1962 Cougar 406, 1963 Mustang II, 1964 Cougar II, Ranchero GT
Ginetta G4R, G15
GP Talon
Heuliez prototype (Raffica concept)
Iso Grifo 90
Isuzu Piazza mk1 (JR120/130, also Isuzu Impulse, Holden Piazza, Oldsmobile Sunfire), Isuzu Piazza mk2 (JT22, also Asüna Sunfire, Isuzu Impulse)
Jaguar XJ220, XJ41
Jensen Nova by Vignale
Lamborghini 350 GTV, Jarama
Lancia Montecarlo
Lincoln Continental mk3 - mk6
Lister storm (road version)
Marcadier Barzoi 2
Marta Laser (Michelotti)
Mazda RX-500
Mercury Cougar, Marquis, Marauder
Monica 560
Muira Sport
Mumford Musketeer
Nissan 300ZX Z31
NSU Trapeze by Bertone
Oldsmobile Incas, Toronado
Opel GT
Packard Predictor
Panther Solo mk2
Pontiac GTO, 1956 Club de Mer
Rapport Forte
Quantum saloon and 2+2
Triumph TRX
VW based Avante

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NSU Trapeze by Bertone

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1978 Jaguar XJ spider concept

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Can anyone find out where the headlights are on the 1977 Jaguar Ascot concept by Bertone? Pop ups, hidden behind the grilles, or none at all?

And I think it looks a bit like the Citroen BX/SE82/etc

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The jaguar XJ41

1980 Jaguar XJ41 & XJ42 Prototypes

When the E-Type finally ceased production in 1975 it was replaced with the stylish, but large, XJS. The XJ41 and XJ42 used the underpinnings, suitably modified, from the short wheelbase XJ12 saloon and incorporated much from the standard Jaguar line-up of the time.

A replacement for the E-Type had been on stocks for some time, and the basic design was continuously improved and kept up to date with suitable modification. By the time the E-Type Series III appeared there were full size mock-ups, using cues from the Series III, for proposed replacements. None of them was considered for production and, as we note above, the XJS was launched as the new sports car.

The XJ41 started life as quite a lean machine, but as the project evolved the car gained weight and bulk. Besides, by this time Jaguar, still in BL ownership, was in serious financial trouble and the likelihood of a new sports car seemed remote. The new cars were coded XJ41 (Targa Top Coupé version) and XJ42 (Convertible version) and took shape in the early part of 1980.

During 1988 the car was shown at several clinics, and the positive results buoyed Jaguar’s confidence in the project. Mock-ups of the car were clearly admired by all who saw them; this was a very attractive car for the 1990s and would not disgrace Jaguar in any way.

Ford purchased Jaguar at the end of 1989 and every aspect of the Company and every project was put under microscopic scrutiny. Ford’s management decided to make the quality of the cars already in production a priority and the XJ41/42 programme was cancelled.

Under the project code X100, Jaguar’s own design team at Whitley, led by Fergus Pollock, came up with the XK8 launched in 1996.

The back of Jaguar Heritage’s facility at the British Motor Museum in Gaydon, there is a pretty, red, four-seat convertible. It wears Jaguar badges and has many of the company’s familiar styling cues, yet it’s clearly not a production model. Consequently, visitors often ignore it in favour of more famous cars.

What they don’t realise it that this red car is one of the few remaining prototypes of the XJ41 project, in which Jaguar invested millions during the Eighties, and what was tipped to be the XJ-S’ replacement. Although this development car has obviously had a hard life, it’s still very pretty, with gorgeous soft lines and perfect proportions – and, if anyone were to look under the bonnet, they’d find a turbocharged version of the AJ6 engine. The car hasn’t turned a wheel under its own power for some time, but in its day it was very fast and could easily have put Jaguar into the supercar league long before the XJ220.

Sadly, rising costs, an overly complicated specification and internal politics sealed the XJ41’s fate and today it remains just a footnote in the company’s history. It was an illustration of what the company was capable of creating three decades ago.

The project was born (as many of Jaguar’s good ideas were) in engineering director Jim Randle’s head. In early 1980, Randle was trying to persuade the BL board to back the XJ40. He knew that the business argument to invest the millions Jaguar needed would be strengthened if more than just the saloon were to come off that platform. Plus, at the time, the XJ-S was less than loved and needed to be replaced at some point anyway. Therefore, spinning off a sports car in the normal Jaguar way (by reducing a saloon’s wheelbase from 113in to 102in) seemed liked common sense.

Jim asked Jaguar’s chassis engineer, Tom Jones, to look into how to get 50/50 weight distribution from the shortened XJ40 platform. Between them, they came up with the novel idea of turning the wishbones back to front, thereby moving the wheels further forward.

In early 1980, everyone in the design team was asked to sketch a sports car suitable for the chassis, including Keith Helfet, the South African designer who had joined the company in April 1978. Although the trend at the time was for slab-sided, origami design themes with flat panels – cars such as the Lotus Esprit and Volkswagen Golf – Keith knew from the outset what he wanted. “For me, the origami styling fashion from the mid-Seventies to the early Eighties was completely unappealing. I don’t do square lines; I do flowing sculpture and that’s what Jaguars are about.”

Keith was always influenced by Sir William Lyons’ and Malcolm Sayer’s work, and his sketches show a handsome car that unashamedly features the similar soft curves of the D- and E-type. He also designed more than one car. “I liked the idea of a targa; I wanted it, the coupe and the convertible to have the same proportions since one can often look like an after thought”.

Once the design team of around just six had submitted their individual designs, the next step was to choose one that would be shown to the BL board. But, it wouldn’t be chosen by Randle, or even Keith’s immediate boss, studio director Doug Thorpe. It was down to someone with considerably more experience in designing Jaguars. Explains Keith, “Jim – because he’s clever – decided there was only one natural person who should choose: Sir Williams Lyons.”

Although Lyons had retired in 1972, Jaguar’s founder and president was still a regular visitor to the studio, offering advice that the young designers gladly followed. “He used to come in once about fortnight, more if something was bugging him. But things moved slowly then, so there wasn’t much for him to look at.”

Internally codenamed XJ41 for the coupe and XJ42 for the convertible (that many would later informally call the F-type) the submissions for the sports car were put on display. Lyons apparently went straight to Keith’s sketches, pointed his stick and said simply, “Do that one.”

For Keith, this was a huge turning point in his career. He’d spent his first two years at Jaguar in the shadows, designing bits and pieces for the XJ40’s interior, and then, suddenly, the company’s founder chose his sports car. “I was shocked,” he admits. “I had simply designed something I liked; I never thought about the end process.”

In mid-1980, Jim Randle presented the business case for the XJ40 and XJ41 to the BL board in the ballroom of London’s Grosvenor Hotel. Keith was there to talk through his sketches. “It was my first taste of corporate glamour,” he says. Approval was given in February 1981, as was the required £80 million that kicked off the project.

Keith soon had a modeller assigned to him, who began by creating quarter-scale models. Since Sir William never sketched, preferring instead to design his cars in metal, it wasn’t really until there was a 3D model of the XJ41 that he really latched onto it, coming into the studio every week. “With the XJ41 model, he’d say to me, ‘Keith I’ve been thinking about...’ In other words, in the preceding week it had clearly been on his mind.

“Doug Thorpe kept out of the way during these visits and while Jim was always present, he would only listen. He never offered any opinion. This meant that Sir William was effectively my boss. Yet he wasn’t adding ideas – I was still the car’s proposer. He was simply helping me to make judgments on what was and wasn’t working.”

The fact that Sir William had a full-scale model of the XJ41 displayed outside his home at Wappenbury Hall is a clear indication of his close involvement with the project. Lyons had always preferred to critique new designs in natural light, finding the privacy of his Edwardian estate the ideal place to look at them, where the tall trees that surround the house cast shadows across the car.

At this point, the project was still moving swiftly towards its original 1986 launch date, having been added to Jaguar’s official product plan in 1982. It was to use Jaguar’s all-new AJ6 engine, which was later turbocharged, resulting in 330bhp. That was an impressive figure for the mid-Eighties, when a Porsche 911 Turbo had just under 300bhp. The engine had been 15 degrees to the vertical on the XJ40, but when the turbochargers were added there wasn’t space under the 41’s bonnet, so it was righted.

In 1984, Jaguar’s New Vehicle Concepts (NVC) took over the project and it was very keen to use computer-aided design (CAD). As Jaguar’s first car to be designed this way, the company didn’t have the expertise, and that delayed the project. “The master model was eventually done in Paris by a company called Hartman since it was the only place in Europe that had a five axis [a milling machine that can cut from five points rather than the traditional three] big enough to CNC a whole car, which could then be digitised.” Every single component of the XJ41 had to be laboriously converted from drawings into 3D, which took up further time and even more money. The cars would be made by computer-aided manufacturing, the first Jaguar to be built this way.

Although NVC didn’t change the overall design (which had been finalised in 1984/85), they didn’t think some of Keith’s design ideas would work, such as lamp covers that dropped to reveal the lenses. “When I was creating a car in Cape Town from plaster of Paris in the early Seventies, I wanted a modern-looking car with a smooth bonnet, but hated the idea of pop-up lamps – aerodynamically, they weren’t very good and the things don’t pop up at the same time. I thought it would make more sense to have them in a sugar scoop and let the covers drop down. When I was working on the XJ41 I thought, ‘Let’s do the same thing,’ but the engineers said it couldn’t work.” In the end, Keith had to work out a mechanism that would drop the light covers; when the lights come on they drop, revealing the light. The reason the engineers had said it wouldn’t work was because the bottom of the light scoop wasn’t flat – so Keith invented a way that would make it work.

Keith also remembers fighting to keep the smooth line at the rear and to have a steel beam under a plastic cover as per his original design, which was more complicated than an old-fashioned bumper. Freely admitting that he was, perhaps, too passionate about the car, Keith says, “The engineers sometimes wanted an easy life, but this was my baby; I owned it. I was like a dog with a bone and would often come into conflict with people. But I felt like I was safeguarding the design and I didn’t want it to become just another car.” One of the first major changes was the addition of all-wheel drive. “There was a belief that so much power needed 4x4, plus it was very fashionable at the time thanks to the success of the Audi Quattro. But this put up the car’s weight and the cost of development.”

In the late Eighties, the German contract manufacturer Karmann was asked to build several prototypes, including the red convertible seen here, plus a white coupe and a dark-grey targa-roofed car. In Paris, Hartman also made several glass-fibre examples for clinics (where manufacturers ask potential customers behind closed doors for their thoughts on the new models, and immediate rivals’ cars).

They were a nod towards the eventual production car, featuring various wheel options, plus some of the later design updates made by Keith and the engineering team. In total, Jaguar invested £50 million in developing specialised tooling for the car.

The XJ41 was cliniced three times during its development – all carried out in North America, Jaguar’s most important market. The first was in the early Eighties and although it went well there were, says Keith, still some negative views. The second, a couple of years later, was better, and the third, in late 1988, was just before the XJ220 concept’s debut, so Keith wasn’t able to attend but which was still very successful. According to Keith, the car was compared against the Ferrari 328 and Porsche 911, among others, and it came out on top by a big margin. “They voted it the best-looking car there and those are the opinions that mattered.”

However, all was not well behind the scenes. There were concerns that the car was too heavy and that it wasn’t performing as planned (although Keith says the prototype still hit 190mph at the Nardo test track in Italy) and its development costs had risen dramatically. These issues, coupled with the fact that Jaguar’s new owner, Ford, wasn’t interested in the car because it had been started before it took control, resulted in the programme being cancelled in 1989.

Yet Keith never gave up on the XJ41, and worked out another, cheaper way. “A few months later, I went to see Jim and said that it could be done on an XJ-S platform. With the same wheelbase and same track width, plus the A-posts in the same place, you could put the body on the XJ-S platform. He took my proposal to Jaguar Sport [a separate company owned 50/50 by Jaguar and TWR to build sportier models] and, at the board meeting, Tom Walkinshaw said, ‘We could build that.’”

Now called Project XX and under Walkinshaw’s control, it was still a Jaguar product and Keith remembers writing a brief on behalf of the studio director at the time, Geoff Lawson, explaining what could and couldn’t change to the design. But, unbeknown to Keith, Jim and everyone else at Jaguar, Walkinshaw had already approached Ford with an idea that the car be badged as an Aston Martin, also owned by the American giant, because it could then ask for a higher purchase price. Ford’s bosses agreed. So, in 1994, the DB7 was born. When I ask Keith if he was upset that his creation was no longer a Jaguar, and it being taken away from him, he thinks for a minute before replying, “I am pleased that it lived on; it would have been such a waste otherwise.”

The remaining XJ41 prototypes languished in various workshops before being handed over to the Jaguar Heritage Trust, but sadly the clinic cars were destroyed in the early 2000s, leaving just the red convertible and grey targa development hacks as proof the project ever existed. It’s not known what happened to the white coupe, but it, too, was probably destroyed. Due to a continuing feeling by many that Jaguar should have built the car, they were rarely displayed, although they did appear on the front cover of the July 1998 issue of JaguarWorld, when Paul Skilleter compared them to a then-new XKR. When I took over the reins as editor in 2012, I regularly saw both cars in Jaguar Heritage’s former warehouse in Coventry, covered in dust and looking forlorn, their place in Jaguar’s history uncertain.

Thankfully, times have changed. With Jaguar now having a two-seater sports car there is less anxiety felt towards the XJ41, so the red convertible is currently proudly displayed at Jaguar Heritage’s new Collections Centre.

Despite it being a development mule, I’ve always been taken aback by how well it was made. The steel exterior panels fit perfectly, while inside is a fully finished interior. Yes, there are some parts sourced from the XJ-S, but many of the touch points are unique to the car and everything fits together perfectly; with little or no gaps, it is a testament to the £50million Jaguar invested into the project and of using computer-aided manufacturing. The interior is very modern but, dare I say, ordinary compared to the contemporary XJ-S’, lacking the angular lines and unusual barrel instruments that still give the older car a big personality.

Tellingly, like a recovered watch from the Titanic with hands forever pointing to 1.45am, under the XJ41’s bonnet there’s a handwritten sticker for the air filter, dated August 1989, the time the project ended. Although the electrics still work allowing us to lower the windows and raise the lamp covers, when I ask the always-helpful Heritage volunteers when was the last time the car started, they just shrug. A long time ago. As a prototype of a car that never reached production and therefore has little PR value, I doubt it ever will.

When Keith arrives at Jaguar Heritage and sees his creation once again, he is visibly pleased. It has been 25 years since he last saw the car, yet he still knows every curve, line and nuance, in the same way a parent knows their child’s face. The world might have forgotten about the XJ41, but he hasn’t.

Despite its problems, the XJ41’s importance to Jaguar’s history shouldn’t be overlooked: it was the final Jaguar with input from Sir William Lyons, linking the car directly to the XJ6, XK 120, 140 and 150 etc, all the way back to his little Austin Seven Swallow of 1927. Also, after years of the XJ-S’ hard lines, the XJ41 recaptured Jaguar’s voluptuous curves – something that Jaguar would return to again with the X100 generation of XK8. And, finally, as a pointer towards the future, the XJ41 was the first Jaguar to feature a blown engine and all-wheel drive, both popular options with the current range.

Fast, good-looking and with an impeccable heritage, it remains the best car Jaguar never built.

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