Autoblog

Even though Jaguar and Land Rover might only have a foot or so of visibility into the fog of their business futures, they continue to plan for long-term success. The latest step is a $4 million investment in a "virtual reality center" that will create three-dimensional projections for designers and engineers to study, saving the time and expense of having to build individual models.

Jag and Land Rover worked with four suppliers to create the four-walled studio. Projecting power will come from eight Sony SRX-S105 projectors, each one of them as powerful as the best cinema-standard projector and each one having four times the resolution of HD. With that kind of capability, designers -- wearing 3-D glasses -- will be looking at photorealistic representations of their creations.

When finished in the spring of 2008, it will be the most advanced design studio in the world. We're glad to see the two embattled marques focused on nothing but getting better. Now if Jag could use that studio to make a kick-ass XJ replacement, and make the XF -- as good as it is -- everything it could be, then they'd really have a blockbuster studio on their hands.