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As I’m sure you’ll know, 2008 marks the passing of 60 years since the XK engine’s debut in the XK 120, and so the start of the XK lineage – a fact celebrated in this issue. Also in this issue is a review of the latest version of the X-TYPE, a model that didn’t have quite so successful a beginning when it was launched in 2001. Seven years on and despite its freshening up – a job that has been done very well – there’s no escaping the fact that the X-TYPE is an ageing car. In modern car terms, seven years is very long in the tooth. Yes, Jaguar has had models that have stayed in production for far longer, but often not through choice. After all, even the XK 120 – a car far ahead of its time when it was unveiled in 1948 – was replaced by the XK 140 six years later. So why update the X-TYPE? Why not just replace it or, as many a doomsayer has predicted for a long time, give the model the chop altogether? Well, Jaguar’s official line is that the X-TYPE, though not meeting the sales volumes originally forecast for it, is doing very nicely, thank you. In the absence of model-by-model sales figures it’s impossible for us to know for sure how well it’s really selling, but the way the X-TYPE range has evolved indicates it seems to have found a niche and it’s one that Jaguar appears, at present at least, to be committed to. Accomplished though the original four-wheeldrive petrol models undoubtedly were, it was the introduction of front-wheel-drive diesel X-TYPEs, first the 2.0-litre and then the quicker 2.2, that have ensured the model’s survival to date. To underline that fact, today only two petrol four-wheel-drive X-TYPEs remain in the range – all the other 16 models are diesel-powered.