Jaguar’s New Working Class Hero - Wheels Blog - NYTimes.com

Jaguar’s New Working Class Hero - Wheels Blog - NYTimes.com: "September 29, 2008, 4:02 pm
Jaguar’s New Working Class Hero
By Phil Patton

The diamond, or 60th, anniversary of the Jaguar XK 6-cylinder engine – that’s one date that slipped by even the geekiest of my auto geek pals.

The occasion was more than a sufficient excuse to gather a hip young crowd on Thursday night in Times Square for a party with Wayne Burgess, Jaguar’s chief designer for the XF sport sedan.

Jaguar introduced the engine at the London auto show in October 1948, under the hood of the XK120 sports car. It built the engine in many different variations until 1994. The XK name is still in the Jaguar product line, which is now controlled by Tata Motors of India.
Wayne BurgessWayne Burgess (Patrick Butler)

“He’s the guy with the blond Mohawk,” said a hostess, directing me to Mr. Burgess, who wore a designer T-shirt under his jacket, along with dog tags and Maltese cross belt buckle that lent him a certain punkish tone. Retro Adidas were on his feet.

“I’m from Stoke-on-Trent,” Mr. Burgess told me. “A working class background. Went to design school in Coventry.”

He said that Jaguar had “gotten away from the sort of retro cars we did before with"