Jaguar C-X75 and Land Rover DC-100 at Dubai Motor Show
Future visions of earth-friendly supercar and earth-churning off-roader
By Shahzad Sheikh
Two concepts on display from Jaguar and Land Rover – and one of them IS to be put into production.
Just two months ago Land Rover unveiled the rather controversial DC-100 mooted as a potential replacement for the long-running and much-admired Land Rover Defender. This is the car which itself is derived from the original Land Rovers, the sort of cars that fought wars, conquered terrains and went exploring.
As Land Rover says, like no other vehicle, the Defender has inspired affection and loyalty the world over. And because of those strong feelings towards this fabled car, the reaction to the DC100 wasn’t entirely positive.
However the Dubai Motor Show will not only give us here in the Middle East a chance to see the concept up close and in the flesh, but Land Rover is also promising some ‘notable changes’ to the car and we wonder if these are in response to some of that feedback. All will be revealed at the show.
Meantime Jaguar will be putting the stunning C-X75 on display. This concept may already be a year old having debuted at the Paris Motor Show last year (and I saw it at the Goodwood Festival of Speed), but there’s a new sense of purpose behind this outing with Jaguar having announced, earlier this year, that this car will be put into production for 2013-2015.
That’s the good news. The bad news is that it will cost $1,095,000 and it won’t come with a real version of the sensational hybrid electric motors aided by a range-extender engine that consists of a couple of tiny, but very fast and very clever, turbines. Instead it will feature a slightly more conventional hybrid engine but will still be good for 0-100kph in 3.4secs and a top speed of 330kph.
Still with looks like that, if you can afford the money, will you care?
Meantime, there’s still no word on whether the ‘baby XK’ the C-X16 will also be on show.
