Andrew Frankel: After Jaguar’s relaunch comes the real, enormous challenge

You’ll have been deluged with the images, goggled at the inexplicable video and been bombarded with all shades of opinion, but I just can’t not mention the Jaguar concept car. Jaguar’s strategy for relaunching its own brand has worked both better and worse than anyone at the company could possibly have conceived. Worse because I cannot remember a promotional video of any kind attracting such opprobrium (though Aston Martin once got close with an ad for the Rapide which is the most unintentionally funny thing I’ve ever seen). Sadly but unsurprisingly the video seems to have been taken down from all locations but if you can find it (entering the search term ‘keen harpist’ usually helps) make sure you watch it alone unless you’re happy crying in public. Better because if the job was to get people talking about Jaguar, it’s succeeded beyond wildest expectations.

The car itself has no shortage of detractors, not least because Jaguar took the courageous decision that one of the two show cars should be pink but actually I’d say the majority were pleasantly surprised. The gut reactions of those who attended a small press preview held weeks before the public unveiling (myself included) were far more positive than negative. So, in all, I imagine Jaguar will be pretty pleased by how things panned out.

But if I were in charge there I’d not be slapping myself on the back just yet, because the challenges facing Jaguar remain enormous. First it has to deliver a production car whose shape is not so diluted by rules and regulations that everyone doesn’t just sigh in disappointment. Then they have to make a car that will surely weigh close to 2.5 tonnes handle and perform like a Jaguar – at that weight it would be hard enough with an ICE engine, but the EV powertrain makes this at least doubly difficult.

“The change from real to the CGI world in Senna is never less than jarring”

It must also hope – no, pray – that the current scepticism towards EVs of all kinds has become a thing of the past by the time the first of three new Jaguar EVs goes on sale two years from now. And finally it has to convince customers to pay close to Aston Martin and Bentley money for a brand far better known for selling cars for less than half that amount – and if it can’t do that, however good the car may look, however well it may drive, it is still sunk. So heads down boys and girls: you’ve done the easy bit – the hard work starts here.

I’ve started watching the Netflix drama about Ayrton Senna, and very good it is too: so far it seems to be very faithful to the truth, meticulously researched and the lead characters are as convincing in their roles as you could reasonably expect. I have just one reservation: the racing scenes are utterly unrealistic. The change from the real to the CGI world is so abrupt and so obvious the effect is never less than jarring.

To be fair, as I write this some weeks before you’re reading it (Christmas deadlines being what they are), I’ve only just got through the Formula Ford stuff but I’d be surprised if the F3 and F1 eras are any better. And even when you’re looking at real on-track action you can tell the cars are going slowly because they have to follow a tracking car, the overtaking is entirely unrealistic and it’s the only time when the acting becomes completely wooden. Not that it’s entirely alone: I remember thinking exactly the same when watching Le Mans ’66 and Ron Howard’s Hunt/Lauda biopic Rush.

But it doesn’t need to be like that. Just look at what John Frankenheimer achieved in 1966 with Grand Prix or Lee Katzin and John Sturges managed six years later in Le Mans. As films with plots both have nothing compared to Senna, Le Mans ’66 or Rush, but because what you were watching was so believable, I bought into them in a way I fear I never will with the modern way of filming. The irony that the old films are made-up stories while the modern ones are based on truth is not lost on me.

Why do they do it? I expect because it’s cheaper and I know it’s incalculably safer. Famously David Piper lost part of a leg during the making of Le Mans and Derek Bell was seriously burned. And I’ll never forget James Garner telling me about the day at Brands Hatch his ‘Yamura’ was scripted to go up in flames. “I was meant to have a double but he wasn’t around and time was running out so I said I’d do it. They’d rigged a bottle of butane in the cockpit and said that if I pulled a lever there’d be a small fire and I was just to get out, no problem. Except when I pulled the lever there was a very big fire – it went whumpf, right up in my face. So what you see on the screen is for real. Still, we got the shot…” Different times I guess.

They’ve put a 30mph limit on a stretch of road near me nowhere near any form of dwelling, at a stroke halving the speed at which drivers are allowed to travel along its length. The effect of this is to divide motorists into two distinct groups – those who obey the absolute letter of the law and those who regard it as a total nonsense they have no intention paying attention to. Result? The road has become full of the latter who’ll try anything to get past the former. It’s never been more dangerous.

Ford Capri Premium 

“The legend is back”, say the ads… 
Names matter – ‘M5’, matters. ‘Capri’ is promising that this will be an interesting car to drive. And it just isn’t. It’s not bad as a family holdall, but an Explorer does it better. I thought Ford would not blow such a great name on a car that makes no effort whatsoever to live up to it. I was wrong.

Verdict: Bodie and Doyle will be aghast.

Ferrari’s electric leap

Rivals will follow suit if the sales are bouyant 
We could see Ferrari’s first pure electric vehicle as soon as the end of 2025. If it flies, expect a tranche of rival product to follow rapidly in its wake. What form will it take? Expect something like a Purosangue but with a four-digit power output to make up for the drama lost under the bonnet.

The bigger they are… 

Outspoken Stellantis chief is axed 
No one is untouchable in this business, as Stellantis boss Carlos Tavares discovered when, days after he announced he would step down in 2026, he was booted out of the company. In his drive to cut costs and return profitability to the Detroit-based brands under his control, he went further than the company was prepared to go.