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• A Bunny and Her Kitty: Playmate of the Year Raquel Pomplun Receives a Jaguar F-Type [Video]

  In Fast Forward / By Tom Anderson / 14 May 2013

  

  Every year since 1960, the world’s favorite silk pajama hoarder, Hugh Hefner, has bestowed upon one of the 12 birthday-suited beauties from the past year’s issues of Playboy the title of Playmate of the Year. And every year since 1964, the Playmate of the Year has been awarded a new car (except when she’s instead been given a boat. Or a motorcycle. Or no vehicle at all.). And 2013’s winner and her prize are both knockouts.

  The lucky winner for this lap of the sun – 25-year-old Californian Raquel Pomplun, who will go down in history as the first Mexican-American PMOY – receives a one-year lease on a 2014 Jaguar F-Type (plus a check for $100,000). And while Ms. Pomplun’s curves make our jaws go slack and, er, other parts of us go taut, we have exponentially better chances of running our hands over the Jag’s curves than we do her’s…provided we’re unwilling to ignore the looming specter of a restraining order (Which we aren’t.). Anyway, congrats Raquel!

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• F-ing Sweet: XCar’s Alex Goy Samples the Jaguar F-Type [Video]

  In Fast Forward / By Tom Anderson / 24 April 2013

  

  A lot has happened since Jaguar built its last front-engined, two-seat, proper sports car: The Soviet Union fell, the NASA Space Shuttle program came and went, Elvis and Michael Jackson died, and the brand has been owned by two companies based in two former British colonies on opposite sides of the planet. Oh, and competitors like Maserati, Porsche and Mercedes-Benz have had an arseload of time to establish themselves as the dominant players in the market segments once dominated by the E-Type and its XK-series predecessors.

  So, is the Jaguar F-Type a textbook case of better late than never? XCar presenter (pardon our English-English) Alex Goy certainly seems to think so. And we don’t think it’s due to a case of patriotic chest-thumping, either. To us, the F-Type looks and – especially in maximum-firepower V8 S form – sounds just-this-side of pornographic. However, we’ll reserve final judgment until we try one out for ourselves. You know where to find us, Jaguar USA press office…

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• Final-E: Top Down in One of the Last Jaguar E-types [Video]

  In Fast Forward / By Tom Anderson / 10 April 2013

  

  When it comes to the Jaguar E-type/XK-E genealogy, the final evolution (a.k.a. Series 3, built from 1971 to ’74) is widely regarded as the redheaded stepchild. Sure, it has the big honkin’ 5.3L V12 under that monumental hood, but it was also the most watered-down of the bunch, mostly thanks to U.S. government regulations. As a result, purists tend to gravitate toward the Series 1 and Series 2.

  David Paddison, however, doesn’t care about any of that. As he explains in this video, a neighbor had a Series 3 Coupe when David was growing up, and when an acquaintance was selling this ’74 Roadster – supposedly the 60^th-to-last built – he had to make it is. So while Jag snobs might look down their noses at this pudgy, rubber-bumpered ragtop from the iconic model’s farewell season, Mr. Paddison is too busy cruising al fresco in the Georgia sunshine to care. Chew on that, haters.

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• The Top 10 Debuts of the 2013 New York Auto Show

  In Featured / By Tom Anderson / 28 March 2013

  

  For a town where most of the residents share cars, and those cars have their own dedicated tunnels with their own power supplies for their electric propulsion systems, New York’s annual international auto show sure has become one of the hottest expos on the calendar. For the 2013 New York Auto Show now underway, there’s a stellar cast of world debuts from both home and abroad on display. But which of those debuts are the ones that will be hard to fuggetabout? Our 10 picks to attain that status can be found – Where else? – after the jump.

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• Lyonheart K is a Love Letter to a Legend

  In Auto News / By Tom Anderson / 21 March 2013

  

  When the Jaguar E-Type (a.k.a. XK-E) debuted at the 1961 Geneva Motor Show, it made the motoring world wet the metaphorical bed. It made the Chevrolet Corvette seem positively ancient (which it most certainly was; 1949 Chevy passenger car chassis, anyone?). It made the Porsche 356 look even more like a coachbuilt VW Beetle. And it prompted Enzo Ferrari, who was notorious for handing out praise roughly once every fifth blue moon, called it the most beautiful car in the world.

  While there may never be a car that takes the industry’s breath away quite like this shapely cat from Coventry, that hasn’t stopped Jaguar from trying to go back to the well. Nor has it stopped other companies from producing their own tributes to the immortal E. And one of the most striking in recent memory is the Lyonheart K.

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• Petula Clark Supports the Sports Car Building Home Team [Video]

  In Fast Forward / By Tom Anderson / 8 March 2013

  

  Although most people are familiar with the male acts of popular music’s “British Invasion” of the 1960s (e.g The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Dave Clark Five, The Who, The Animals), not very many people – even some who were around then – can name the female British invaders right away. And that’s too bad, because there were some truly talented lasses on the scene in those days: Dusty Springfield, Lulu, Marianne Faithfull and Petula Clark all achieved some degree of notoriety on this side of the Atlantic.

  Ms. Clark in particular found success on these shores, racking up many appearances on the go-to TV show for entertainers in those days, The Ed Sullivan Show. However, it is her appearance on the April 17, 1966 episode of Mr. Sullivan’s really big shew that catches our attention. Specifically, that matched set of red convertibles from Pet’s homeland: An Austin-Healey 3000, a Jaguar XK-E Series I, and an Aston Martin DB5. Did Britain’s Board of Trade (as it was known back then) have a hand in the automotive casting for this performance? Probably not, but then again, Aston Martins weren’t exactly dime-a-dozen in 1960s Manhattan. Also, we aren’t sure what’s more impressive: The fact that the Jag was able to move under its own power on cue, or that Petula is still performing and still looks great today at the age of 80!

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• Exploring the Treasure Trove that is the Petersen Museum’s Basement [Video]

  In Fast Forward / By Tom Anderson / 28 February 2013

  

  It should go without saying that any gearhead visiting the Los Angeles area absolutely needs to make time for a visit to the Petersen Automotive Museum. Located in a former Ohrbach’s (and before that Seibu) department store on the southeast corner of Wilshire and Fairfax on the Miracle Mile, this incredible, immersive museum – which traces the automobile and its impact on Southern California from the tail end of the 19^th century to today – has been educating and entertaining since its founding by magazine magnate Robert E. “Pete” Petersen and his wife Margie (both now deceased) on June 11, 1994. And you’re pretty much guaranteed to see something different every time you go.

  The museum is able to change up the exhibits fairly frequently thanks to a basement (the former underground parking garage of the department store) stocked to the brim with an incredible variety of cars and trucks, from hopped-up Toyotas to prewar Bugattis. The basement, or “the Vault” as the museum calls it, has been strictly employees only (and the occasional VIP or party) pretty much since day one. However, since this past Holiday Season, the museum has been offering extra-cost guided tours of the Vault to ordinary peons like us. MotorTrend YouTube channel host Jessi Lang tags along with museum curator Leslie Kendall for a walk through this garden of automotive delights for her bi-weekly show, “The J-Turn.” What are you waiting for? Find a way to get to the Petersen!

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• Arden Jaguar XKR-S is a Quantum Leaper over Stock

  In Tuning / By Tom Anderson / 13 February 2013

  

  Even though it’s not as effortlessly beautiful as the immortal E-Type, nor is it as much of an out-and-out sportscar, the Jaguar XK is still a mighty fine machine. Step up to the supercharged XKR and it becomes a hoot-and-a-half to drive. Step up to the super-dupercharged XKR-S and you have a legitimate AMG SL hunter.

  However, even though the XKR-S is a limited edition proposition, they aren’t exactly as rare as jackalope droppings. This is particularly true in locales like, say, the French Riviera or the UAE, where there’s at least one high-end car per city block (give or take). Fortunately, the German Jaguar specialists at Arden have some fixes up their collective sleeves.

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• 2012 LA Auto Show: The Top 10 Debuts

  In Featured / By Tom Anderson / 29 November 2012

  

  A traditional post-Thanksgiving rite here in Southern California (along with shopping on Black Friday, all the while hoping you aren’t trampled, stabbed, shot etc.) is the Los Angeles Auto Show. Granted, it’s not a very long-lived tradition, the show having moved from its previous January date opposite the Detroit Auto Show just a few years ago, but in car-dependent (if not car-loving) L.A., it has become a major happening.

  Recent major international auto shows have had relatively even mixes of fire-breathing performance cars and squeaky clean and green electric and hybrid vehicles making their debuts, and the 2012 Los Angeles Auto Show is no different. But which premieres happening next door to Staples Center are the most noteworthy. Here, in a semi-random, non-chronological, are our picks.

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• Mecum Auctions Holds Its First Collector Car Sale in Anaheim

  In Featured / By Tom Anderson / 20 November 2012

  

  When we heard a few months ago that Mecum Auctions would be holding a collector car auction at the Anaheim Convention Center (located literally across the street from Disneyland), we were beyond stoked. Yes, we’ve been to a couple of Barrett-Jackson auctions before, and have watched countless Barrett-Jackson and Mecum auctions on TV, but we were curious to experience a Mecum sale in-person. Also: We rarely turn down the chance to check out hundreds of cool cars and trucks all in one place.

  So behind the Orange Curtain we ventured, and into the main hall we walked (The auction occupied three of the convention center’s four sprawling ground-floor halls.). Immediately, we saw row upon row of gleaming sheetmetal (and, in the case of the scores of Corvettes on offer, fiberglass). And much of the content of many of those rows was really high quality. The paint, panel fitment and other indicators of how much time, money and effort were spent on a restoration on dozens of cars was terrific.

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