Let's Remind Ourselves How Gorgeous The Original Jaguar F-Type Concept Was

17 years ago yesterday at the Detroit Auto Show, Jaguar revealed one the most stunning concept cars it’s ever made. The name is one you’ll be familiar with: F-Type.

It has nothing to do with the F-Type of today that we know and love, other than the fact it’s a Jag with two doors. It looks like the lovechild of an XK8 and the old E-Type, and all these years on, it still looks drop-dead gorgeous.

Much of the design work was done by Jaguar Design Director Geoff Lawson shortly before his death in 1999. It was significantly shorter and narrower than the XK8, and powered by a V6 borrowed from the S-Type saloon.

It came from a time when Jaguar’s styling department seemed to be looking backwards rather than forwards, but unlike the awkward-looking, retro pastiche S-Type, the F-Type concept presented a drool-worthy blend of past and present. And the best part? A production version beckoned.

The only issue was translating the concept into a road-legal production car without bastardising its pretty lines. Speaking to Top Gear a few years ago, Ian Callum - who succeeded Lawson as Jaguar Design Director - noted the difficulties in redesigning the concept to meet various regulations relating to windscreen and bonnet height.

The answer proposed by Callum was to make the car mid-engined. The resulting machine - set to be powered by a transverse V6 - is said to have reached an advanced state of development, when it was canned by Jaguar to focus on the introduction of diesel engines to the brand.

It wasn’t until 2011 that Jaguar revealed the C-X16, a concept which eventually became the F-Type that’s on the road today. It did without the kind of retro-inspired styling which was infused within the 2000 F-Type concept’s shapely flanks, and is arguably all the better for it.

But still, the idea of a pretty, compact, mid-engine Porsche Boxster rival from Jaguar certainly makes you wonder what might have been.