Everybody thinks they're a rebel at some point. Some feel that way from birth; others are tempted later in life after careers, families and education have been crossed off the 'to do' list. Or perhaps at some point in between, even if it's just a fleeting revel in waywardness.
But, as they say, sometimes the wildest spirit lives in the ones you least expect. Case in point: the very British institution that is Jaguar might not be seen as particularly rebellious. But on the big and small screens, mavericks and bad boys have all been seated behind the wheel of Coventry's finest.
Photography by Rhys Vandersyde
Bond villains have often prowled in Jaguars, most notably in Die Another Day (the XK fitted with missile launchers a particular highlight) and more recently in Spectre. The grizzled detective Inspector Morse wheezed around in an old Type 2 Jaguar, solving crimes in his own way, irritating his superiors, colleagues and the crims. And then there was the XK140 for Clint Eastwood's Hitchcockian psychological thriller Play Misty for Me.
Tapping into this image, Jaguar has created an advertising campaign around the British villain in popular culture. More importantly, it has matched this with a car that will stand the test of time and embodies much of what marks an individual as a rebel.
The V8-powered F-Type R kicks things off by being an incorrigible attention-grabber. Wherever you go in an F-Type, whether the bottom-of-the-range V6 manual or this particular 404kW supercharged V8, you will be noticed. The long, low bonnet obviously sends people of a certain age right back to the iconic E-Type of 1961, the car Enzo Ferrari described as the most beautiful ever made...
Read the full story on the Jaguar F-Type R in the Rebel Issue of Box Magazine, available now. Words by Peter Anderson, photography by Rhys Vandersyde.
