On the cold, grey morning of November 12, an ultra-modern office complex in the British Midlands transformed into a locked-down fortress hiding sensitive intelligence. A series of dark, dignified Land Rovers delivered lone agents from around the world to the building’s glass entrance for a top-secret briefing.
While grim security guards in suits and ties monitored proceedings, each attendee surrendered his or her phone at the door before staffers led them through hushed hallways to an isolated exhibition space where the subject of all the cloak-and-dagger proceedings hid in the dark behind a pristine, diaphanous metallic screen.
The covert visitors that day were automotive journalists, and they flew into London and rode to the corporate headquarters of Jaguar in Gaydon to see the car that would redefine and rebrand an 89-year-old automaker that’s worried about seeing its 100th birthday.
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