Cliff Ruddell started at Jaguar as an apprentice in technical drawing in the chassis department, from 1968. He worked on ABS and on suspension systems under the direction of Sam Pasking. Then he joined the body design branch and has since devoted himself to sedan design. Later, when Geoff Lawson became head of the Jaguar design department, he mainly worked on the production of vehicles intended for Group B racing, and on styling development for the famous XJ40. In the eighties, he looked into a possble successor for the gigantic Daimler Limousine, also known by the code name DS420. Today, he exclusively reveals the secrets behind his style experiments and much more.

Recently, on our Facebook group, our archivist Michel Beaurain opened a topic on the Daimler Limousine. Strangely, I've always liked this car, and, trying to learn more about it, I came across drawings of a possible replacement. Coducting my investigation, I came to you. Would you like to share with our dear club members the design secrets behind this project?

Cliff Ruddell: It would be my pleasure. Obviously, in the 1980s, the existing Daimler, based on the Mark X chassis, was technically archaic. There were two periods of work on a replacement for the DS420. One based on the original design, using the XJ40 chassis, with a wheelbase extended by 711 mm and improved headroom. The other, still based on the XJ40, but in a style closer, in terms of design, to a limousine.

These drawings were discussed with Keith Cambage, the head of the limousine operations department, who wrote comments on the back of concepts 2 and 3. At that time, it was a normal project that I worked on during office hours. [note by hjt-webmaster: Mr. Cambage's comments are shown on the webpage "A successor to the DS420?"]

Did the arrival of Geoff Lawons as the head of Jaguar design change the game? Indeed, the second work period came in 1984 when Geoff Lawson replaced Doug Thorpe. At that time the visual transformation with my favorite design was discussed with Geoff. I remember him recommending that I remove the three spires, the hallmarks of Coventry, from the background, as it made the design too exaggerated. So I covered the right side of the design with duct tape, and immediately regretted it. A few years ago I was able to recreate the original drawing in Photoshop. It was a life lesson to always follow your instinct as an artist.

Although Keith Cambage asked me to design a few concepts for the interior, Geoff forbade me from working on it because there was no budget allocated for the limousine. However, he told me that I could follow up on that request in my free time. So I started to work on it. Unfortunately, I have not kept the results. However, I remember that the dashboard had been redesigned, and that the front compartment now had two individual seats.

[this translation was based on Google translate, and "cleaned up" by myself (hjt - webmaster).]