After showing the heavily previewed XK Coupe at the IAA Frankfurt Motor Show, Jaguar has also revealed the XK Convertible. Designed in parallel with the coupe as a model in its own right, the new XK Convertible uses the same aluminium body structure technology to achieve rigidity while minimising weight.
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At 1,635kg, the new Convertible is described by Jaguar as the lightest car in its competitive set. A 300bhp, 4.2-litre V8 engine and Jaguar Sequential Shift steering-wheel-mounted gearchange controls yield a 0-60mph in 6.0 seconds (0-100kmh in 6.3 seconds) and an electronically limited top speed of 155mph (250kmh).
The triple-lined, fabric roof – which can be powered up or down in less than
18 seconds – stows fully out of sight beneath an aluminium tonneau cover when retracted. A roll-over protection system comprising two ‘hidden’ aluminium hoops that deploy in the event of an incident is standard on all XK Convertibles.
“The all-new XK was designed from the outset to be a beautiful convertible. It is a statement of confident Jaguar design, elegant as well as powerful and with the performance and driving dynamics to match its looks”, commented Jaguar Design Director, Ian Callum.
The all-new XK Convertible will be available from early 2006.
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By GlobalDataJaguar also revealed a ‘Pyrotechnic Pedestrian Deployable Bonnet System’ (PDBS) safety feature for the XK sports car series, claiming a world first.
In the event of a pedestrian impact, the deployable bonnet on the new XK automatically ‘pops’ up a few inches, to create a cushioning effect between the engine and the bonnet. This helps to isolate the pedestrian from hard points in the engine compartment – and takes place in less than a tenth of the time it takes to blink an eye, Jaguar says.
Jaguar says that it is one of the first manufacturers to meet Phase One of new European safety legislation using an active deployable bonnet system. The new standards are designed to help mitigate the severity of injuries to pedestrians in the event of a collision with a car.
Legislation in the European market requires manufacturers to commit to a two-phase introduction of a range of active and passive safety improvements on all new cars to improve the protection of pedestrians in case of accident.
“The Jaguar design team embraced the idea of using a deployable bonnet when it was first considered during early concept discussions on the new XK. This clever feature saves between 50 and 65mm in height off the bonnet surface and a similar amount off the roofline, allowing the design team to maintain a very low, sleek Jaguar sports car profile on the new XK,” said Ian Callum, Jaguar Cars Design Director.
The active system fitted to the all-new XK is complemented by a passive bumper system, the design of which helps to mitigate leg injury through the use of crushable foam and plastic covering. An advanced sensing system is mounted in the front bumper to help discriminate between a pedestrian collision and any other possible front-end collisions. The speed of the sensing time in the system is around one tenth of the time it takes to blink an eye.
The system has been extensively researched across wide-ranging scenarios, using 120 man-years and thousands of computer simulations, as well as tested in practice at Jaguar’s Engineering Centre at Whitley in Coventry, England. While all pedestrian impact research has been carried out using virtual tools, analysis of previous ‘real world’ incidents has played an important part in the development process.
The system is that it can lift the bonnet (which weighs 18kg) in around 30 milliseconds, which requires an acceleration rate of about 50 times the force of gravity (50g).
The Jaguar pyrotechnic pedestrian deployable bonnet system normally operates at vehicle speeds where it provides the most benefit and is automatically disabled outside of this speed range. The system is completely separate from any other crash protection system on the vehicle, including airbags.
