The first official pictures of the MULE to test the new Rolls Royce SUV.

In its open letter on 18 February this year, Rolls-Royce Motor Cars gave an undertaking to inform stakeholders of the progress of Project Cullinan. Keeping this promise, Rolls-Royce Motor Cars has today published photographs depicting the first key milestone in the vehicle’s development programme. The photographs are of the first engineering mule, which will be seen on public roads this week.

This early engineering mule, based on a shortened Phantom Series II body, has been created purely to begin the development of an all-wheel drive suspension system that will deliver a ride that will be Effortless … Everywhere. 

The body may hint at the size of the new car, but it features no design aspects of the eventual high-sided, all-terrain motor car announced by Rolls-Royce Motor Cars in February this year.

The mule rides on the first iteration of an all-new suspension that will assist Rolls-Royce engineers in developing a final all-wheel drive system that delivers Rolls-Royce’s hallmark “magic-carpet” ride not only on the road, but off-road too.

The first series of tests will focus on Project Cullinan’s on-road behaviour from suspension throw to high-bodied stability, and will test the new suspension across all types of international road surface specification at test facilities, as well as on public roads. Test surfaces will include; Belgian Pavé, cobblestones, corrugated concrete, noise development and measurement surfaces, resonance road, and acceleration bumps.

Project Cullinan engineering mules will spend equal amounts of time testing on-road and off-road to ensure that the customer will experience the same unrivalled ride quality on loose surfaces and challenging terrain as they do on the road today.

The Jaguar XS, the ACTUAL CAR, NO XF disguise.

This is the long-awaited Jaguar small saloon car, codenamed: X760. We’ve spied Jaguar testing elements of the car in hacked-about XF test mules, but that’s all over now.

This is the actual car, and CAR is first to clap eyes on it. Jaguar is testing the X760 on British roads – and these are the first pictures.

Jaguar X760 – the styling

It’s clear this is no shrunken XF. The compact front overhang and chopped backside give the baby Jag an agile, dynamic look in profile. The slim LED headlights and grille are low-set for a snouty feline face, but the bonnet actually rises quite high – blame pedestrian impact legislation for that feature.

Jaguar has disguised the car’s roofline with a fake rear section to make its new baby look boxier than it really is. Don’t be fooled by the Skoda Superb rear pillar, however. A closer look at that steeply raked rear screen reveals the true nature of that seductive roofline, tailing off to a pert bootlid with a small upturned lip at its edge.

Taillights wrap around into the sides of the car, as per the XF saloon and F-type sports car. The bold ‘shelf’ down the car’s flanks hides a more subtle styling line that fires down the side of the car from a front wing vent, again following F-type cues.

So it should be a looker, the baby Jag?

Indeed – it’s based on the same ‘iQ Al’ aluminium platform as Jaguar’s forthcoming 4x4, previewed by the C-X17 SUV concept shown at the 2013 Frankfurt motor show (pictured, right). The well-received design will donate many cues to the X760, including the muscular bonnet, squared-off grille, and big alloys – an Ian Callum classic formula.

Jaguar says it hasn’t pursued a BMW 4-series Gran Coupe/Audi A5 Sportback template for the X760 – a true four-door ‘coupe’ could arrive later instead, along with a drop-top X760 cabriolet.

What else do we know about the Jaguar X760?

The range will stretch from a four-cylinder turbodiesel good for 99g/km to a supercharged 550bhp V8 ‘R’ model that’s capable of 186mph. Using aluminium rather than steel for the body saves Jaguar around 100kg, allowing the British-built engines from Jaguar’s new £500m Wolverhampton facility to offer optimum frugality and performance.

The entry-level car is purported to cost less than £30,000 – a BMW 320d saloon makes the cut at £28,410.

And no, it won’t be called X-type: the badge of the folly from last decade conjures up too many negative connotations. With Jaguar looking to build on its 19 per cent sales rise in 2013, which saw it sell 425,000 cars, a fresh start with a new name is needed.

With a sumptuous XJ-inspired cabin, refreshing styling and massive investment in chassis and powertrain tech, the new baby Jag will enter the small sports saloon party with a bang in late 2014. Over to you, Jaguar…

With thanks to CAR MAGAZINE

By Ollie Kew and Phil McNamara

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