Lexus GS gets Supercharged for SEMA 2012

A Lexus GS350 has been titivated and Supercharged by VIP Auto Salon ahead of a reeval at the 2012 SEMA Show. Last year – at the 2011 SEMA Show in Las Vegas – Lexus introduced us to the sporty side of the new GS with the debut of the GS F-Sport, a titivated GS with more aggressive looks and a more sporty character  But this year we’re getting something with a bit more oomph – a Lexus GS350 F-Sport with a nice meaty supercharger bolted on. We don’t actually get the GS350 in the UK – we have the choice of the GS250 with a 2.5 litre V6 or the GS450 V6 hybrid – but on the other side of the Pond they get the V6 we get in the 450h but without the hybrid gubbins, which offers 300 horses, and that’s the GS model VIP Auto Salon have given new life to.

Video: Jaguar's Julian Thomson on the importance of design values

Jaguar's Head of Advanced Design, Julian Thomson, appeared at this month's PSFK Conference in London giving a talk on design values. Thomson's talk, ‘Concepting Dreams, Making Reality Happen', dealt with questions of creating a design story as well as how Jaguar uses the value of its heritage while keeping things original and new. Thomson – the man behind the 2010 C-X75 and the recently revealed F-Type – said, "You can't get a good design story if you don't look at your heritage, where you came from, where your values came from." He went on to discuss the ‘sad years of Jaguar', from around 1968 to 2004 where Jaguar was too timid to develop and "essentially made the same-looking car." He put this down to a reluctance on Jaguar's part to move too far away from its successful models and, quite interestingly, because "not only did we start doing market research, we started asking Americans what they wanted." Watch the full video on the left.

Jaguar XJ gets the Startech treatment

Startech make the Jaguar XJ in to a luxury mobile office The Jaguar XJ has been given a makeover by Startech – sister company to Brabus – with subtle styling changes, upgraded interior and business tools. We’re not the biggest fans of some of the overblown styling modifications inflicted on very good high-end cars by aftermarket tuners. But the work Startech – sister company to Brabus – has done on the Jaguar XJ is very subtle and very appealing.