Not since Mr Marks made himself known to Mr Spencer has a commercial alliance shown such promise as the agreement between the Ford Motor Company and PSA Peugeot-Citroen to jointly develop a family of diesel engines.
Hardly had the ink dried on the partnership agreement than the first of these joint-venture engines reached the market place to general acclaim from the press and customers alike. The first to break cover, in 2001, was the 1.4-litre common-rail unit, used to such good effect throughout the Ford, Peugeot and Citroen supermini ranges.
A 1.6-litre engine followed close behind and, more recently, a 2.0-litre common-rail engine, which is just beginning to enter the market - the Ford Mondeo 2.0 TDCi being just one example.
Much of the development work for this family of four-cylinder engines was under the control of the French connection - PSA Peugeot Citroen being acknowledged leaders in common-rail technology. But when it came to upping the ante and developing a high-performance V6 unit, Jaguar took up the reigns and applied their considerable expertise to the task of designing a premium-class engine to challenge the likes of BMW, Mercedes-Benz and Audi.
The result is the 2.7-litre V6 common-rail engine, revealed to an international press corps at a high-powered presentation last week. Fittingly, the event took place at Jaguar's engineering centre at Whitely, near Coventry, and was presided over by Sir Nick Scheele, President and CEO, Ford Automotive Operations, and Jean-Martin Folz, CEO of PSA Peugeot-Citroen. The presence of these elder statesmen of the global motor industry was intended to underline the significance of this new engine to the future of both partners.
In recognition of its leading role in the 350 million-Euro development programme, Jaguar will debut the new engine in the S-Type range in June 2004, with Peugeot and Citroen models (including the 807 and C8) following close behind. In due course, other Jaguar models will no doubt take the new engine, along with cars from Ford's extensive premium-car stable, which includes Land Rover and Volvo.
But regardless of the badge behind which the new engines will be installed, every one of them will be built in a revitalised plant at Dagenham, in purpose-built premises in which development engineers and technicians will work alongside the production line - an arrangement made possible by the ultra-modern, open-plan design of the new facility.
An exemplar of latter-day material technology, the new V6 engine combines strength with lightness and enough computing power to generate within the engine management system 3,000 control maps every 10 milliseconds - that's 30,000 every second and 1.8 million every minute. This massive computing power - linked to 20 sensors and 23 separate actuators - enables up to five pulses of fuel to be injected into the combustion chamber on every power stroke. These comprise two pilot injections, one main injection and two post injections, an arrangement intended to optimise power and minimise consumption and emissions.
Operating at 1650 bar common-rail pressure and with an unusually low (for a diesel engine) compression ratio of 17.3:1, the new engine promises to be fast, quiet and ultra efficient. Jaguar was reluctant to be drawn on final fuel-consumption and emission figures as under EU regulations these can be measured only on a production-ready car, a stage not yet reached. But the company was happy to talk of an optimum torque output of 440 Nm and a power rating of 207 PS (205 bhp), which they claimed would produce performance equivalent to a premium spark-ignition engine with none of the associated fuel or emission penalties.
It will be some time yet before the motoring press will be given the chance to get behind the wheel of a V6 diesel S-Type, but Jaguar seldom disappoints, and therefore the promise is that of a market-leading product that will shift perceptions, convert the petrol-only diehards, open up fresh markets, and give the rivals pause for thought.
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