Tip your hat and adjust your monocle for the car that could've kept Jaguar in British hands, ladies and gentlemen.

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The Jaguar Kensington concept of 1990. A car that showed that Italdesign could see into the future, even if Jaguar couldn't.

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Immaculately clean lines. Modern roofline. Restrained yet vogue lighting shapes for the time. And a big, old, beast of a V12.

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While based on the prehistoric XJ of the time, the Kensington represented such a stylistic leap (weak Jaguar pun) for the brand that it would've looked fresh if launched a full decade later. Not only was this a fantastically modern shape for 1990, when the Taurus was considered an aerodynamic marvel, it represented a completely new style and direction for Jaguar that finally would rid it of its self-imposed ties to the good ol' days.

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Italdesign had correctly red the tea leaves of automotive design evolution. Boxy was out, sleek and restrained was in. In short, it would've been just the kick in the pleats that Jaguar would need as the large sedan wars heated up in the '90s. And basing it on an existing platform was genius from a positioning standpoint, as it meant that Jaguar could conceivably do it in its cash-strapped state - even if Italdesign likely used it simply because it was available.

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If Jaguar had put this design into production, the XJ would have been a credible S-class, A8 and 7 series competitor. They could even have scaled it down onto a modified XJ or forthcoming XK platform to make a smaller 5 series competitor with the same lines. There's no way it would fail - I mean, this was the decade that had people being EXCITED to buy an Intrepid, after all. Jaguar would have made tons of money, added new models with similar styling, and turned into a bonafide competitor to the Germans - just like they did in WWII.

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And just loooooooook at this interior:

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Good lord. Now that I've wiped up the gallons of saliva off my shirt from staring at those supple green thrones of wonder, think about how this would have presented thirty-two years ago. It would've blown minds!

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I mean, that dash is basically straight off an Acura TL or Lincoln LS that came a full decade later. Hell, that green leather curve on the passenger side of the center stack previews luxury trends from the 2010s. Look at an F06 BMW 6 series and tell me that those dashboards aren't almost exactly the same shape.

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This wouldn't have just been a design language shift for Jaguar - it would've been a complete paradigm shift.

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A paradigm shift that it finally embraced in the late 2000s with the XF and last generation XJ. But by then the financial wheels were long since flung into the ditch, and Tata had to come to the rescue of the big cat.

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Even with a V8 from the XJ, this thing would've ruled. My opinion is that the older platform would not have mattered much to luxury buyers at the time, who would be wowed by the graceful styling. Especially since it was a full decade of the Germans applying swoop language to their big sedans.

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Instead, we got this.....

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Retro nonsense. Don't get me wrong, I love that era of XJ. Especially in snarling XJR form. But this is not the symbol of progress that the world and Jaguar's balance sheet was looking for. This was a cynical, egotistical decision based on post WWII thinking that the British knew best.

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That people still wanted J gate shifters. Or dashboards that had the same angle as the side of a grandfather clock. Or a rear decklid that slopes down like a Daimler filled with cigar smoke and tweed jackets from the swingin' sixties.

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No, what people wanted was modernity. Futuristic lines. Cars that looked fast, but the new version of fast. Sleek, not boxy. The proliferation of personal sport coupes of the mid-eighties should've shown them that, and in fact someone was listening at Jaguar for the XK to be born at all.

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Italdesign envisioned the perfect concept design. One that's rooted in realism, both with the platform and lines, yet looking far enough into the future to be worth throwing away an existing design language for. The Kensington was exactly that. A golden opportunity for a home run that was spoon-fed to Jaguar.

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A design that could arguably be the inspiration for a wide variety of classic, beautiful designs from the 2000s and even 2010s.

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But no.

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India bought Jaguar. And Korea bought the Kensington.

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We got the same old Jaguar, and a swoopy new Daewoo.

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What a time to be alive.