Jaguar challenges Pasadena students to design sports car of the future

PASADENA, Calif. (KABC) -- Think ahead to the year 2030. What will you be driving, or rather, riding in? With all the talk of autonomous cars these days, it would seem that actual driving - and fun - will be a thing of the past.

The people at Jaguar think otherwise.

"Sports cars are very important to Jaguar," said Julian Thomson, the director of advanced design at Jaguar. "We've really got to identify what it means in a modern world, and to a modern, young customer what a sports car should be."

So the company put out a challenge to transportation design students at Art Center College of Design in Pasadena -- design a sleek sports car for 2030.

"Jaguar, of course, is about passion," said Stewart Reed, who chairs the Transportation Design Department at the school. "And so this is a theme about passion with responsibility. What's the responsible way to have a beautiful, passionate motor car in the future?"

The final designs vary, but all are supposed to carry the Jaguar DNA that the sponsor asked for.

"Make the next generation of the Jaguar sports car, and make it likeable. Make us love it, make us fall in love with it, challenge us, make us 'hate it' in a way," said design student Brad Kappel regarding the task laid before him and his fellow students.

"To make something new and futuristic about a brand that has a long heritage, but still keep the essence of Jaguar, but make it futuristic. So that was really challenging," said Maeva Ribas, another Art Center student who created a design, said.

Obviously, the way the Jaguar of 2030 looks is very important, but Art Center students also learn about designing interiors. After all, that's where you're going to spend all of your time if you're the driver of a Jaguar in the future.

The challenge here is to have it look attractive, but also perhaps pair technology with things like tactile feel - it's analog revenge, in a way. It's also about keeping the interior design consistent with the exterior.

"I try to carry character lines from the exterior right through the interior and out to the other end, to the back of the car, just to tie it all into one," student Sonny Fisher said about his entry in the interior portion of the project.

Impressing the professional designers can help a student with scholarship money from Jaguar - or maybe something like an internship or a job.

"I'm keeping my fingers crossed," said Kappel as the Jaguar design personnel reviewed the works he and the others created. "I'm looking around making sure they don't leave the room, just yet, because I've got my sketch book on me, what do you want to go through? Let's iron this out right now, let's iron it out!"

That kind of enthusiasm, along with skill, will be ushering in car design just 15 short years in the future.