Bertone Jaguar B99

Famed Italian styling house Bertone has taken it upon itself to pen a special Jaguar sedan, called the B99, for the upcoming Geneva auto show. Bertone says it is pitching the car as a design proposal to Jaguar, with an eye toward the British company re-entering the D-segment against the BMW 3-series and Audi A4. (You may recall that the last Jag  in that segment was the far-from-great X-type.) That said, while Jaguar gave Bertone the blessing to build the B99, it’s nowhere near approval for series production.


The design itself of the B99 is a departure from current Jaguar models, and looks more like an evolution of the XJC coupe of the 1970s—were it being reinterpreted as a mid-1990s concept car. Coming from Bertone, which can lay claim to such forward-looking beauty queens as the Lamborghini Miura and Lancia Stratos, this is a disappointment. Attractive? Sorta’. But it doesn’t represent any radical shifts, as did Jaguar’s XF, and we hope the B99 looks better in the metal at the Geneva show. We’ll know soon enough—the Geneva press days are March 1 and 2, at which point we’ll bring you photos and info live from the show floor.