Corresponding with car makers

Image courtesy of myself

Hello you. The name is Luca, but you can call me Luca and today, I wanted to talk about my efforts in the past to send letters to car companies. Not to perhaps flaunt off "HOW BRILLIANT I AM", more because I'm happy that I have suggested the concept and it may be considered.

I started writing off to car companies when I was still in primary school, and it was after I had seen a Mercedes-Benz SLK55 AMG that had been fitted with the 5.4-litre supercharged V8 from a Mercedes-Benz McLaren SLR, and it had managed to beat a Ferrari Enzo in a drag race. I saw that and thought to myself, "The SLK55 pretty much already uses a detuned and non-supercharged version of the SLR's engine, surely it wouldn't be difficult to mass-produce that", or whatever I would say at the time with my limited vocabulary since I was barely 10 years old.

So I wrote off to Merc and they sent back a letter thanking me for my enthusiasm along with a 1:43 scale model of a McMerc SLR, and it was wonderful to know they at least acknowledged me. They never got round to making the car which in hindsight, I can understand because at the time of course, I had no concept of a best thing overall. Think about it, why would anyone buy an SLR when they can get an SLK which is much faster and most likely a fraction of the price?

Either way, it solidified a confidence in me and now we lead onto the story of how I got the image you're seeing up above. This one is a rather detailed story so here it goes; at some point back in probably 2007-08, we went to Bruntingthorpe where Fifth Gear used to film and I was driven around in a stripped out Ferrari F355, an Ariel Atom and funnily enough, an SLR that had been repossessed from a footballer.

It was an amazing experience there. I reached 155 miles per hour in the Ferrari, I was unable to get a helmet on for our drive in the Atom so I asked that we didn't go so quick so we went about 40 (Laugh at me all you want) and in the SLR, we reached 165 miles per hour, but not before I surprised the guy who drove me in the SLR by flicking up the switch on the gear lever and starting the engine. Not only that but I met someone, who was introduced to me as the next Lewis Hamilton, and whilst I don't unfortunately remember that much about him back then, my mum remembered him, he went on to become an F1 driver by making his debut at the British Grand Prix in 2011 (Which was only my second visit to a Grand Prix after the previous year's British GP) and now drives for Red Bull, Daniel Ricciardo.

The reason all of this feeds into this story, my mum fell in love with a Jaguar XJ220 that was being held there. I never really liked the XJ220 because when Jaguar were making it, they were promising big things with it when Jaguar announced they were making it. These included a 6.2-litre V12 powertrain, an all-wheel drive layout with scissor doors (Which open upwards), however the actual car had rear-wheel drive, regular opening doors but worst of all, the same 3.5-litre twin turbocharged V6 powertrain from a Austin Metro rally version.

That last bit was the main thing that bugged me, I don't really like V6 engines for big supercars but overall, the XJ220 was an ambitious project by Jaguar and my 9 years old nearly 10 self wanted 'redemption', even though really the world was not asking for it. So I wrote off to Jaguar and I remember the things I asked.

Because I did not know anything about variables and assumed all cars could be made with the best of everything, I asked for preposterous things like giving the 'New XJ220' things like racing suspension, a massive racing splitter on the front and semi-slick tyres. This being along with a V12 engine, an all-wheel drive system and scissor doors, and so many other huge details that whilst some were possible, others were not and whilst none of them were 'Machine guns', they were not things that would have been within Jaguar's grasp at the time or indeed now. Bare in mind, Jaguar were in the middle of a deep financial crisis and it was before their sale from Ford to the Indian car company Tata.

Nevertheless, if you didn't recognise the signature on the image that I have displayed above, it is that of Jaguar design director, Ian Callum. He is responsible for the design of such incredible cars as the Ford RS200, Ford Escort Cosworth, Aston Martin DB7, Nissan R390, Aston Martin Vanquish, Aston Martin DB9, and Jaguar's most incredible looking modern cars; the XK, XF, XJ, the F-Type and the C-X75 concept car that I do wish was put into production. Just a side note, the C-X75 was the car that Dave Bautista's character in the most recent Bond film used to chase Bond.

So in Callum's first letter to me which also included that design, he thanked me for the ideas and did tell me that it was in Jaguar's plan to do something of the sort in the future. This being in the months before Jaguar announced that their top line models would start using a brand new 5.0-litre V8 as appose to their 4.2-litre V8 that they had used in so many models the proceeding years.

Being the now 11-year old over-enthusiastic kid that I was, I reckon I became the thorn in Ian Callum's side because I sent back so many ideas that were so unrealistic and if I was him, I would have probably been annoyed as well. Back in that period, following my reply from Ian Callum, I saw a magazine from Auto Express with this image on it. By the way, this image isn't the actual car.

Image courtesy of www.autoexpress.co.uk

I was obviously delighted, thinking that this will get made and it was going to have all the things I had suggested to Ian Callum, but I read it and was like "NO! They're not going to give it a V12!" and instead it was going to have the same 5.0-litre Supercharged V8 powertrain that was going to be in their XK-R and XF-R. Now 11-year old me was gutted because the whole point of putting this together was to redeem what the XJ220 promised and never delivered.

 

Fast forward though to 2014, I've had many years to become a reasonable (ish) human being. I started thinking about the possibilities and I wrote back to Ian Callum, apologising for being a hyperactive child who couldn't see past what I could conjure. I then requested that as soon as Jaguar planned to make a mid-engine sports car that could compete with the likes of the Ferrari 458 Italia, the McLaren MP4-12C and Lamborghini Gallardo LP560-4 (Which now would be the Ferrari 488 GTB, the McLaren 650S and the Lamborghini Huracán LP610-4), to let me know so I could give them some grounded and realistic aims.

 

Mr. Callum was kind enough to respond and he told me that Jaguar were busy with making the F-Pace SUV (Which will be featured in next June's Kingsman sequel!) and they had no immediate plans to make a mid-engine sports car. But very soon, who knows? All I know is, when they do, I have ideas for it that aren't over the top.

 

This car doesn't have a name as of now so let's just call it - since Jaguar like referring to all their concepts with names like this - the X56 since my favourite number is 56. The X56 would have the same 5.0-litre Supercharged V8 that Jaguar are using in all their top line vehicles, but this one would have more in common with the one used in the top of the range F-Type SVR which churns out 575 horsepower @ 6,500 revolutions per minute. Who knows? Maybe when the X56 rolls around, Jaguar will

 

The X56 would also utilise the same 8-Speed ZF Automatic transmission with paddle-shifters offering manual override and it would also have the same all-wheel drive system as seen on the F-Type SVR. Yes this is a wish list but it is a lot better for Jaguar than what I was asking years ago, a V12 with racing tyres etc. I could request for scissor doors on the X56, but it would not be a necessity.

 

I'd love to see this. Mainly because the Jaguar cars nowadays are so incredible with pretty much everything, and the X56 could be a worthy rival to the equivalents at Ferrari, McLaren, Lamborghini and mainly the Audi R8. For me - despite my biases - the X56 despite it being so down on speed to the Ferrari, McLaren and Lambo, would have the advantage of having a Jaguar interior, which in recent years has been the best thing about Jags among many great things.

The main thing about the X56 concept here, there will not be alternative engine models. You won't see one of these with a diesel powered V6 engine, just the F-Type SVR's 575 horsepower 5.0-litre supercharged V8 powertrain, but maybe possibly after seeing the C-X16 model's 92 horsepower electric motor, Jaguar could implement that alongside the X56's V8 to make it a hybrid in the same way the new Honda NSX, the McLaren P1 and Porsche 918 Spyder all are as well.

Hopefully Jaguar think about creating the X56 concept for real, not with that name as I just made that up for a concept name. Competing with the likes of the Ferrari 488 GTB, McLaren 650S, Lamborghini Huracán, Audi R8 etc., which would mean a price range north of £150,000 for a hard top and £160,000 for a foldaway roof model, at least I am estimating. There's a world of difference between estimation and reality.

Now I want to move swiftly onto the most recent correspondence I had with a car maker. If any of you remember my article on my personal favourite cars in GTA Online, I ranked the Enus Windsor Drop as one of my favourites and said that I would love to see an equivalent to it created in real life.

Image courtesy of myself

After I wrote that, I decided to write off to Rolls Royce requesting that they do create a four door Drophead model. I even sent them a birds eye view design, and even asked if they would start using the 9.0-litre V16 powertrain that was made popular in Johnny English Reborn.

I got a letter back from the front of house manager and he told me that he had handed my proposal over to the designers, and told me that the cars in their range would do just fine with the V12 6.75-litre engine that has been long used since the Phantom was introduced. I can live with that, but asked that should this four door drophead make production, that they at the very least let me have someone drive me and my mum whilst we are in the back. That would be all, even though my friend Ahmed insists I should request to have a model for myself for no money at all.

Though I have proposed a name for the four door drophead model. Initially in my first letter, my friend Ahmed said that the last known four door convertible in the Rolls Royce family tree was the Silver Cloud so I suggested they resurrect that heritage name, but when writing back, I proposed either resurrect the Corniche name or have an entirely new name, and that would be the Maketh.

From the William Harmon quote which was made popular by Kingsman: The Secret Service, 'Manners Maketh Man'.

But that's all I can think to tell you. There's no overall message here, it's just something I would like to tell you guys and I hope the Jaguar X56 concept and the Rolls Royce Maketh make production very soon and that some lucky souls get to enjoy them. Mostly oil billionaires in the Middle East or Simon Cowell, but nevertheless as long as they're out there and people see them as great cars. As far as me getting to drive them, I'll just wait until the next Gran Turismo game.

Alright! That is it from me. If you guys liked what you had to read here and want to stick around for more, look to the top right if you're on a desktop version of this site and there will be a 'Follow By Email' option. Type your email into that, and you will be sent all my future articles directly to you. You can also follow me on Twitter @TheLucaFormat and I'll be tweeting out every time when I have posted something new.

So until we meet again.
Luca.