Jaguar kept us waiting two years, and what rolled out in New York on Tuesday looks suspiciously like a very expensive Braun radio on wheels. The tail is a wall of horizontal metal slats stretched across a windowless rear deck, and the nose wears a matching slatted box that could have been borrowed from a vintage hi-fi. I mean that fondly, sort of. The Type 01 starts at $130,500 in the US, with orders opening in early 2027 and deliveries in the second half. At that price, I would like the car to look like somebody finished it.
Carbon Noir’s Type 01 Sports Edition concept is the cure, and it works almost entirely by editing. The slatted front panel stays but now sits inside a black carbon surround that ties it to the headlights, so the nose reads as one band instead of a box stuck on a face. A lower stance, stepped overfenders, and open black wheels with gold calipers fix the proportions, and the blue-gray paint helps the carbon trim blend in. Out back, a red light bar carrying the JAGUAR wordmark, a finned diffuser, and a big pedestal wing give the tail something to do. Everything recognizable from Tuesday’s car is still there, just dressed for dinner.
Designer: Carbon Noir
Why the stock Type 01 looks blank from the side
Stretch a tape measure along the Type 01 and you get about 17 feet (5.2m) of car that stands only around 4.6 feet (1.4m) tall, according to Autocar. Almost all of that length is a single satin silver slab from sill to shoulder, interrupted by a charge flap and a pair of flush door handles. A strip of bronze sits low on the door, and it is the only thing out there that looks like a design decision. The car rolls on 23-inch wheels, yet the flat turbine-style covers read as gray discs from any distance. A wheel that size should look like jewelry, and these look like dinner plates.
Hagerty reports that the production car came first and the Type 00 concept was developed from it, so those slab sides are the design rather than something watered down on the way to the showroom. Jaguar has a rear three-quarter pressing it calls the Impossible Panel, where the aluminum is formed across five planes with three feature lines meeting at a single point. That is serious metalwork, and in a flat satin finish it is hard to appreciate. Panels that clever deserve some shadows to play with. A body kit happens to be a shadow delivery system.
Stance, wheels, and a nose with a point of view
Lowering the car and wrapping each tire in a stepped overfender does more work than any wing. The factory car has a visible gap between tire and arch, so the body seems to float above its wheels. Carbon Noir closes that gap, and the fenders flare out in layers that finally give the long flank a rhythm. Open black wheels with gold calipers replace the flat covers, and suddenly the wheels look as big as they are. The dark blue-gray paint pulls the carbon into the body, so the trim looks grown rather than glued on.
Tiered carbon canards stack up the lower bumper, and their edges pick up the same bronze tone as the strip on Jaguar’s door. That is a smart little callback, since it turns one stray detail on the stock car into a theme for the whole kit. A pair of sculpted vents also cut into the hood, which is dead flat on the factory car. Together they give the face a head-down, ready-to-pounce posture, which seems fair for something named after a big cat. The slats stay, the headlamps stay, and the Jaguar-ness survives the surgery.
A tail with a wing, and what Jaguar could borrow
The factory tail is one uninterrupted surface, with bright slats edge to edge, a black band below, and a plate floating in the middle. Carbon Noir splits it into zones. A red light bar with the JAGUAR wordmark crowns the slats, a finned diffuser anchors the bottom, and a pedestal wing perches on the deck like a tray on a butler’s arm. A wing that size would look silly on a small car, but a 17-foot GT has the deck space to carry it. Copper trim traces the diffuser edges too, which keeps the back tied to that door strip.
Carbon Noir is the designer who gave a few weeks ago, so jumping from a three-wheeler to a $130,500 British GT is quite the commute. Both projects show an eye for the shape already hiding inside a design. Managing director Rawdon Glover told Robb Report that more than 50,000 people have registered interest and 78 percent are new to Jaguar. Newcomers spending six figures will probably notice what the stock car leaves unfinished. Orders open in early 2027, which leaves Jaguar plenty of time to scroll Instagram. Jaguar gave us the radio, and Carbon Noir added the subwoofer.
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