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Clichéd it may be, but how many young motoring enthusiasts didn’t dream of being a car designer when they grew up? I know I did, but while my designs never got closer to reality than a pencil drawing on the back of my maths exercise book, Ian Callum saw his dream through, and he’s a designer of Jaguars too. Not many people can say that… Now, while Ian’s journey to be a car designer in the fi rst place would be worthy of a feature in its own right, in this issue we’re celebrating the ten years he has spent at Jaguar, and ten signifi cant years they have been too (see pages 24-30). When Ian joined Jaguar its model range was (X100) XK, S-TYPE and (X308) XJ. The latter’s replacement, the X350, was all but signed off , and the X-TYPE was a done deal too. Fast forward ten years and all of those models have gone, today’s range comprising the all-aluminium XK, the XF, and the recently unveiled new XJ which will go on sale early next year. As Ian reveals, however, getting those three cars into production has not been the idealistic and simplistic process that young would-be designers dream of. As well as determination and belief in his ability to wield a pen creatively, it’s clear that Ian has also needed to be a diplomat, negotiator, manager, and possess excellent presentation abilities to see his visions through to production. He’s also needed to be quite a strategist. For those that think concept cars are a waste of time, think again.