Looking through the prism of its past to foretell its future is a popular activity with car companies, though it's unlikely any firm is on safer ground doing that than Jaguar.
So it is the the legendary English company spent time gazing at the pictures in its historic design files and as a consequence has presented us with the R Coupe Concept, which will debut at the Frankfurt auto show on September 10.
It's unlikely the pewter-colored R-Coupe will ever be built, but themes displayed there presage upcoming cars bearing the famous leaping cat hood badge, most likely the next version of the XK coupe.
"The four-seater luxury coupe is the first vehicle to explore and demonstrate the new design philosophy at Jaguar," says Sue Callaway, the LA-based general manager of the North American arm of the venerable British firm that's owned by — welcome to the global car business — Detroit-based Ford.
"Faithful to core Jaguar values from the past," says Callaway, "the R-Coupe interprets them in modern form."
The core value from Jaguar's past that Callaway would like you to remember in this case is the E-Type coupe, which always gets mentioned when car lovers sit around and argue about which is the most beautiful car ever built.
According to Ian Callum, director of design for Jaguar Cars Limited and the lead hand on this concept, "the R-Coupe demonstrates that you can maintain traditional Jaguar design values — proportions, stance and graphic cues — and create an advanced car around them."