2006 Jaguar XK8

You might think the Jaguar Advanced Lightweight Coupe looks conservative for a concept car. It has no curiously levitating body parts. No double-digit-cylinder engine. No 24-inch handcarved "not-for-highway-use" tires. No faked-up plasma instruments hanging in a milled-titanium dashboard that's airbag- and air-con-free. Instead, it looks ready to park in your driveway. There's a reason for that. This is basically the 2006 XK8 coupe you'll be able to buy from your friendly local Jaguar dealer, its show-car disguise is as transparent as a false wig and plastic strawberry nose.

Fortunately, in getting the feasibility in, Jaguar didn't let all the desirability drain out. This is one wow of a luxury sport coupe. It's also a signal about what Jaguar isn't--heritage can be used as inspiration without being abused into rehash. Jaguar is no longer about reworking old designs.

We're in an age where automotive beauty often has to take a back seat to attention-grabbing drama. The XK8's chief rival is probably the BMW 6 Series, and while the Bavarian certainly catches your eye, few would say it's instantly, heartbreakingly gorgeous. But the new Jaguar has bathed in the waters of beauty.

Sure, it's inherited genes from the current XK8--so much so that some observers expecting a real future-shock were mildly disappointed. But look again, and you'll see the new coupe is as modern as tomorrow. There's a tightly drawn sleekness to it, spare of decoration. The side-window graphic is familiar, but it's pulled extra taut now. The air intake up front is a perfect ellipse. The proportions have been given a complete makeover--there's more visual mass toward the base of the body pinning the car to the highway, and the pumped rear haunches give it the starting-block squat of a 100-meter sprinter. The wheelbase is longer, and the overhangs shorter and more tapered so they disappear from sight as you look at the car from an angle. The result is like a big cat that's stretching its feet wide, giving it a stable base to pounce from.

Taut lines help you read the shape, like the ridge at the peak of each rear fender. It gives your eye a fix on those wide, flat fender tops and exaggerates the visual muscle out back. The hood gets a central power spine, and it's defined at each side not by a simple line but by a small V. Drive ahead of an XK, and in the mirror you'll see those cutout Vs at the base of its windshield.