For Jaguar's XK, safety is the watchword

CAT SANS CLAWS: Jaguar goes to great lengths to ensure its cars are safe for drivers well as for those on the roads.

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The cat – iconic car brand Jaguar – is in the Tatas’ bag. CNN-IBN in association with National Georgraphic channel presents Driving Dreams - a documentary on the great auto-maker. The makers of the Jaguar go to great lengths to ensure that the car is safe for those behind the wheels as well as for those on the roads.

New Delhi: Right at the beginning of the XK program, engineers were looking at new technologies for the car. One of the breakthrough design elements is the use of aluminium.

The new XK is designed to crash well because of aluminium.

"In an accident, there are only two things that really matter, how fast you're going and how heavy you are," said Jaguar’s Chief Technical Specialist, Mark White. "The combination of those two then results in the force on the occupants. So, if we lower the mass of the vehicle, we take less energy into the accident. So that's the number one benefit."

"Benefit number two is aluminium actually absorbs more energy per kilo than conventional steel. Number three is we make the cars very stiff to ensure that we absorb as much energy of the crash in the front structure and ensure that we don't have any intrusion into the passenger cell,” he explained.

The XK is one of the safest cars for people in the car and for people on the road.

"The hood was designed specifically for pedestrian impact. It's made up like a mattress; instead of having lots of very stiff beams in it, we've divided it up into smaller beams and we've made them hexagonal shapes. And each of these beams allow the hood to deform locally if it's hit by a head or a shoulder. At the same time, there's a sensor in the bumper that says 'we're about to run someone over. I'm going to deploy the bonnet away from all the under-bonnet hard points'. It almost acts a little bit like a trampoline because it's on an air bag, effectively. So, there's a cushioning effect, as well," White said.

The building of the new XK takes aerospace technology and applies it to cars. The bodies are bonded and riveted together, producing a super-strong structure.

Like an aircraft factory, the Castle Bromwich plant is clean and quiet, with everything built under one roof.

Jaguar produces more aluminium cars than any other company in the world.