Reverting To Type

The S-TYPE was a huge car for Jaguar; the first model developed from the ground-up under Ford’s stewardship and its first mid-size executive car since the Mk2. Two decades on, how does it fare as a classic?

- Craig Cheetham

The Birmingham Motor Show in 1998 was one of the most significant ever, with major launches of four important British-built cars. They were the Rover 75, Land Rover Discovery 2, Vauxhall Astra and Jaguar S-TYPE, each one a critically important model in its own right.

Jaguar made sure it got its fair share of the available column inches with a spectacular reveal ceremony, where the new S-TYPE was unveiled on a raised plinth in front of a giant leaper hologram, flanked on both sides by over 50 separate video screens, each showing images of the new car and its predecessors. There was no mistaking the fact that the company was playing on its rich heritage to seed the car in the minds of potential customers.

Live Launch

The live launch was broadcast by satellite as far afield as Sydney, Tokyo, Berlin and Paris, which, back in the days before we were all signed up to the world wide web, was seen as an achievement in itself. Over 10,000 people across the globe watched the reveal. Small fry when you see the number of hits on YouTube that people get for simply falling over, but back then, this was big data.

Of far more significance though was the fact it marked Jaguar’s range expansion. Then owner Ford recognised that focusing on only the luxury and sports car niches was not a sustainable business model. Indeed, in many respects, the S-TYPE was the car that set Jaguar off on its current trajectory, where it has its widest model range ever.

The first car in the company’s sights was the BMW 5-Series, which had recently set a new benchmark in the executive car class with the launch of the E39 model.

Speaking at the car’s launch, the S-TYPE’s Project Engineer, Dave Szczupak, was unapologetic about trying to home in on the German brand’s core territory.