Jaguar XE – Two Cars One DNA

The Jaguar XE 300 Sport showcases its shared bloodline with the critically acclaimed Jaguar Special Project supercar, the Project 8. This film shows both cars in a high-performance situation, synchronising power slides down a huge beach. At the end of their run, we see they’ve created a huge helix, which gives rise to the slogan, “Two Cars, One DNA”.

We had an amazing time working for illustrious agency Foxtrot Papa on this car commercial, which took place on the vast beach at Pendine Sands in Pembrokeshire, South Wales. The weather was not very kind to us, and when the clouds closed in, we could have been in the middle of a desert.

Working with Director Jon Richards and a crew whose normal environment is a Top Gear shoot, we saw some epic precision driving, and some crazy camerawork, including digging a body-sized hole in the sand to fit a cameraman, and have that ‘cars drive over you’ shot.

Shooting schedules were strictly controlled by tidal movements, partly for obvious safety reasons, but also because we needed the ‘slate to be wiped clean’ of all the tyre marks so we could keep shooting. It’s amazing how quickly you run out of clean sand when fast cars are involved, even on a seven-mile beach!