The new Jaguar F-Type has completed its journey from sketchpad to showroom with a unique tour – in Hot Wheels® model form – of the Jaguar Design Studio.
The 1:64 scale sports car model, complete with perfectly recreated black and white camouflage wrap, navigated 25 loop-the-loops, three gravity-defying jumps and 44 corners along the 232-metre long Hot Wheels orange track laid out around the studio.
On the way, it raced from a design review of original sketches, past digital renderings, colour and materials samples and a clay model, revealing the details of new F-Type’s purposeful, beautiful and timeless design before coming to rest beside the real thing.
Julian Thomson, design director, Jaguar, said: “As a designer and huge car enthusiast, Hot Wheels models have been a part of my life since childhood. They capture the imagination, make owning the car of your dreams a reality, and give you the first opportunity to actually ‘drive’ a car.
“We are used to creating models in clay but seeing such a finely-detailed 1:64-scale model of the new F-Type race around the studio, showcasing every stage in our design process, was a truly unique experience.”
Working in close collaboration, designers from Jaguar and Hot Wheels used the CAD data of the real car to craft the precise 3D-printed model, recreating every beautiful detail of the new F-Type, including its striking new clamshell bonnet, distinctive super-slim Pixel LED headlights and more sculpted front and rear bumpers.
The Hot Wheels team also faithfully recreated the Velocity Blue colour from the SVO Premium Palette, and even hand-painted the F-Type badge on the back before the model was camouflaged ahead of its own ‘reveal’ in the film.
While the Hot Wheels model features a full interior, you need to step inside the life-size F-Type to truly experience the rich, luxurious materials such as Windsor Leather and Noble Chrome which define the new F-Type’s driver-focused cabin.
Beautiful details surround the occupants, such as the monogram stitching in the seats and door panels and ‘Jaguar Est. 1935’ markings in the glovebox release button surround – a subtle reference to the year when the Jaguar name was first used by company founder Sir William Lyons to brand one of his beautiful cars.
Where the model relied purely on gravity to accelerate it up to speed, the new Jaguar F-Type is available with a range of powerful and efficient engines: a 300PS turbocharged four-cylinder, 380PS supercharged V6, and 450PS and 575PS supercharged V8s. The latter is exclusive to the new F-Type R and, combined with all-wheel drive, delivers truly extraordinary performance in all gears and in all conditions. Launching from 0-60mph takes just 3.5 seconds.
The tiny F-Type reached scale speeds of up to 300mph along the custom-built track which was designed and developed with the guidance of Official Hot Wheels master track designer Paul Schmid.
Bryan Benedict, senior manager of product design at Hot Wheels, said: “We’ve been working with Jaguar for over 40 years but this was an opportunity to do something really special with a car that was not yet on sale. To go behind the doors of the top-secret Jaguar Design Studio and work with the talented design team to bring this car to life and reveal it on our unmistakable orange and blue track was a unique opportunity.”