How many Jaguar Easter Eggs can you find?
No, we’re not talking about a chocolate shaped leaper (although, that would be pretty neat), and we’re also not talking about a mere Jaguar themed wrapping on a regular chocolate egg.
We’re talking the other kind of Easter Eggs… the little secrets, messages, jokes and hidden features that filmmakers and video game producers often put into their products. Maybe a million people will find it funny, or maybe no one will notice at all. This is the beauty of a good Easter Egg.
Easter Eggs are most prevalent in video games, and for this example we look to the immortal Gran Turismo 5. Keep your eyes peeled while driving the Trial Mountain Circuit, and you may just spot a Monkey sitting in one of overhead trees. On the same track, there’s one particular lake where you can just make out the Loch Ness Monster, if you stop in exactly the right position.
Believe it or not, carmakers sometimes put Easter Eggs into their own products. The next time you find yourself driving a Tesla Model S, hold down the ‘T’ logo on the infotainment screen, enter code ‘007’ when prompted, and the vehicle display systems will turn themselves into those from the submersible Lotus Esprit S1 from The Spy Who Loved Me.
There’s no real point to Easter Eggs, but they are good fun, and Jaguar regularly gets in on the act. It’s a sign of a happy and healthy working environment when the designers and engineers feel like they can incorporate these little details into their work.
The E-Pace family tree
It follows that if the F-Pace is a true Jaguar, then the E-Pace, Jaguar’s smallest SUV, is the cub. This little hint is incorporated into the black outline surrounding the windscreen, where a small cub can be seen following a full-sized Jaguar through the prairie.
Big cat inspiration for the small E-Pace
The Jagaur-as-animal theme continues to the inside of the E-Pace. Look closely at the textured finish on the rubber matting inside the centre console and glovebox – it’s designed to neatly replicate a real Jaguar’s fur.
Secret Star Wars reference on the F-Type
We bet that nobody has ever noticed the Star Wars design cues in the F-Type, but reportedly, the design of the projector globe and its reflector is intended to mimic the famous Tie Fighters from the blockbuster Star Wars series.
This one stretches our imagination a little, but it has allegedly been confirmed by the Jaguar design team that it is, indeed, a Star Wars reference.
Jet fighter inspiration on the F-Type V8
From the Buick Le Sabre concept of 1951 to the current generation of Lamborghinis, placing design cues from fighter jets onto aspirational sports cars is nothing new. But did you know that the four exhaust tips of the F-Type V8 take direct inspiration from the afterburners of a fighter jet?
True, some of that perforated lining was needed to correctly engineer the right acoustic properties into the F-Type’s exhaust system, but not all of it. The rest is just there because it looks like an afterburner, and afterburners are cool as heck.
The famous XJ purple glovebox lining
Some would argue that this isn’t an Easter Egg, however we think that it is so striking and surprising that it almost has to be. Around the year 2013, when you specced your new Jaguar XJ Supersport’s interior with black trim over black leather, the inside of your glovebox and centre console was automatically trimmed in a bright purple suede-like fabric called Mauveine.
No other XJ models with all black interiors came with Mauveine, nor did XJ Supersports wearing any other shade inside. It’s almost as if Jaguar themselves have noted how sinister this colour combination is, and have then raised you one. Is this the coolest Easter Egg ever?
The I-Pace concept knows its roots
Jaguar first revealed its I-Pace concept to the world in 2017, and it is a car that is set to reshape the company’s history like nothing before it. The I-Pace represents a departure, but its designers have not forgotten their roots. On the console panel of the prototype is stamped the GPS coordinates of the Jaguar design studio – a place where many of the more traditional Jaguars were born.
Jaguar first made a name for themselves by bucking the trend, and redefining the limits with cars like the C and E Types. This is kind of a cool nod to their heritage, right?
Have you noticed any other Jaguar Easter eggs? Let us know in the comments below.
Happy Easter from the Jaguar Enthusiasts’ Club!
