The new E-Pace is an important car for Jaguar, which meant a normal launch program simply wasn't going to cut it. Instead of hiring some #influencers or using a motor show press conference, the British marque decided its smallest SUV would arrive on the scene with a world-record-breaking barrel roll. Here's a look at how they did it.
Jumping a car isn't easy – as anyone who's tried it at home will know – so the barrel roll you saw at the E-Pace launch was the result of extensive pre-launch preparation. A lightly-modified E-Pace was subjected to 33 test jumps, a process which saw it land on its roof, sides and rear-end multiple times.
Having finally nailed down its approach speeds and angles, Jaguar slotted stunt driver Terry Grant into the driver's seat. He was subjected to forces of 5.5G on the jump, which was over in just 1.5 seconds. After a whopping 756 hours of engineering simulation time, the driver had just a 10 mm (0.4 in) margin for error.
"As far as I am aware no production car has ever cleanly completed a bona-fide barrel roll and therefore it has always been an ambition of mine to perform one ever since I was a boy," says driver Terry Grant. "After driving the Jaguar F-PACE in the record-breaking loop-the-loop, it has been amazing to help launch the next chapter of the PACE family in an even more dramatic dynamic feat."
Check out a mini-documentary about the jump below.
Source: Jaguar
Lands on roof: still shiny. Er, yes please!
Still hasn't. Like the AMC Matador in "The Man with the Golden Gun" and the AMC Jevelins in the Joey Chitwood stunt show and the Chevrolet Sonic, they've all used special modifications including a wheel or skid as a 'kicker' offset to one side between the rear wheels. The James Bond and Chitwood stunts also had a section of the ramp collapse to help start the roll.
The nifty bit with this stunt is the original for the movie was the first stunt modeled with computers. The display was primitive wireframe but the physics was mathematically modeled and perfected with a computer.
If Jaguar or anyone else really wants to impress, build a special ramp that can roll a 100% stock off the dealer lot vehicle, with nothing added except for a safety seat and cage around the driver. When they add things like a full belly pan, a kicker wheel or skid, moving the driver to the middle, adding lots of ballast weight and other things, it's no longer a "production car".