MIKE CROSS INTERVIEW

O JAGUAR Land Rover, Mike

TCross was officially the vehicle targets and sign-off director. To three-time Formula 1 world champion and occasional colleague Jackie Stewart, ‘Crossy’ will remain, “The best driver outside motor racing”. Car magazines often called him, “JLR’s chassis guru”, which while undoubtedly true did rather undersell his larger oversight of vehicle development. But on 28 February 2022, aged 64, the understated West Midlander officially retired from JLR after 37 years of service.

JLR’s vehicle programmes boss Nick Collins summed up Cross’s contribution on the eve of his departure, saying, “Mike is that rarest combination of a modest, approachable leader and renowned industry legend. He has been instrumental in evaluating programmes from a customer perspective and guiding the development of our cars for both brands.

“His technical expertise and extraordinary road-feel have been crucial in refining the outstanding driving qualities of our world-class portfolio. We can credit Mike’s creativity, talent and driving passion for the development of vehicles which are critically acclaimed in the media and consistently praised by our customers the world over.”

Cross’s vehicle dynamics expertise has touched everything from the Jaguar XJ-S to the electric I-PACE (and for Land Rover from the Land Rover Discovery 3 to the latest Defender) and he’s worked through some of the biggest shifts the automobile has known. And if you’ve been to the Goodwood Festival of Speed, you’ve perhaps witnessed his car control first-hand.

He’s also been a key contact for journalists over the years, patiently explaining engineering nuances and driving characteristics to the likes of yours truly, often while swapping between passenger and driver’s seat over some of his favourite Welsh test routes – my first was the original XKR-S in 2008, followed by the XFR, F-TYPE, F-PACE, E-PACE and various Land Rovers.

Along the way I’ve got to know him pretty well, and appreciate his speed, safety and calmness behind the wheel. (Thankfully I’ve never binned a Jaguar while driving with him – or any other time for that matter – unlike a previous hack for The Telegraph who went ‘endover-end’, which does make him cautious of co-pilots.)

A couple of days before Croo oss departed, I jumped in the passenger seaa at of the final S-TYPE R with him (as featuree ed in our March 2022 issue, p24) to looo ok back at the highs and lows as he toured a regular test loop close to JLR’s Gaydoo on base, and to find out that it’s not pipe aa and slippers jj just yet…

As a youngster, Cross was inn nspired by Denis Jenkinson’s engrossing European drive stories, which he read in his dad’s Motorsport magazine. He studd died mechanical engineering, at Lanchester Polytechnic, which became Coventry University, and his career began as a student apprentice at Jaguar Rover Triumph in 1975, during the holidays, eventually securing a full-time role at Land Rover, though there was a brief pause when he spent 12 months outside the industry. “It wasn’t the dynamic place it is now, I was young and impatient… ” explains Cross. The unn nbroken run of service began from 199 984 at Jaguar.

Under then chairmaa an (Sir) John Egan and engineering boss, the late Jim Randle, the era was a turning point for Jaguar, freed from British Leyy yland, listed on the stockk k exchh hange, wii ithh h fff future LL Le MM Mans gll lory and the XJ220 supercc car not far away. “The XJ40 was being launchh hed when I joined, but one of my first jobb bs was a sports pack for the XJ-S. I was drivv ving and testing, that was absolutely where I wanted to be, ” he remembers. “Personal llly, I wanted to work in the car industry and interact with the products. A job that combined driving with a technical element was just perfect. ”

Outside of work, Cr rross also began to indulge his love of feisty rear-wheel-drive machinery – first a Ford Escort RS2000 Mk1 followed by a Vauxhall Chevette HS

LEFT: Showing what an early XK was capable of RIGHT: Mike often wowed the crowds at the Goodwood Festival of Speed including in 2009 when he drove the XKR Goodwood Special concept Mike sideways as usual in an XJR 100 from 2001

and HSR, the latter of which he’d hill climb at an amateurr r level.

Cross believv ves the first Jaguars he truly helped influenn nce were the X308-generation off f XX XJJ J88 8 andd d XX X11 100 000 0 XX XKK K88 8, whh hii ichh h were bb bothh h introduced in the mid- to late-Nineties. “Back then, Jaa aguars were limousines really, and quite focuu ussed on the US. It wasn’t solely me, butt t we started to make them more dynamic, harking back to the heritage of the Sixties and Seventies – it’s interesting that tastes these days in dynamics are much more homogenous worldwide, which probably isn’t true for design. ”

When Ford pur rrchased Jaguar in 1989 and later established its Premier Automotive Group, Cross came into regular contact with engineering boss Richard Parry-

Mike during the Mille Miglia with journalist Mikey Harvey in the passenger seat

Jones and three-time F1 champion, Jackie Stewart, who was then on Ford’s books as a consultant. “They both became mentors. Jackie was a very able evaluator, as was Richard, but he backed that up with technical nous, so he could interpret what the car was doing in technical terms.” Parry-Jones fast-tracked Cross into a Ford corporate technical specialist role, which initially involved ride and handling work, from which he expanded to focus more widely on car integration – including noise, vibration and harshness (NVH), powertrain calibration and brake feel – to make sure the cars felt cohesive from a customer perspective. “We used to have separate teams developing separate systems, and that didn’t always integrate very well. My job was to ensure all attributes worked together harmoniously,” he recalls. “I also began to work with sales and marketing, helping define what the cars should be in the first place, to be consistent with brand DNA.” Cross was beginning to shape the bigger picture, not just polish the details. As Cross’s career really got into its stride, his wife began to fall ill with multiple sclerosis. She sadly died five years ago, but the illness began to take its toll from the early 2000s, leaving Cross to juggle his career, his wife’s care and help raise his two daughters (who are now in their early 30s, one a pharmacist, the other an architect). “My job was demanding, but I enjoyed work and that was a big positive – I do look back and think, ‘How did I cope with that’ and I did consider giving up at one point, 0e479381-0069-45af-b2a9-c0a37e1e14de 0e479381-0069-45af-b2a9-c0a37e1e14de

but my wife’s consultant advised me not to, and that was the right call. I was also lucky because JLR were very good about it.”

While the domestic situation did limit Cross’s horizons, a new challenge lay ahead with the 2004 Discovery 3, following Ford’s purchase of Land Rover 2000. “It’s a broad portfolio with Jaguar and Land Rover, and that’s enjoyable from an engineering perspective.

“I started to do the same job for both brands, guiding the development of the cars, evaluating them from a critical customer point of view, then signing them off when they were ready to pass through key bigger programmes,” he explains. “Land Rovers were clearly fantastic offroad, but I think the contribution Ford and Jaguar made was to make them better to drive on the road.”

The Tata takeover in 2008, he says, was a positive change. “Tata have been very good, they largely left the creative side to us, and Jaguar probably wouldn’t exist any longer without Ratan Tata. I got to know him quite well, doing several test drives with him. We’d spend a couple of hours in Jaguars and Land Rovers to understand the line-up, but he’s a real car enthusiast and we drove the classics as well – he really wanted to understand the brand.”

Along the way, Cross also helped to define such breakthrough models as the Range Rover Evoque (“Should it be like a Range Rover, or dynamic like a Mini, or somewhere in the middle, which is where we ended up”), manage Jaguar’s transition to the F-PACE and E-PACE SUVs built on shared platforms with Land Rover while maintaining a distinct, more dynamic identity, and give Jaguar a head start over the German premium opposition with the all-electric Jaguar I-PACE – a harbinger of Jaguar’s all-electric future, which begins from 2025.

“We decided to make the I-PACE drive like a Jaguar regardless of propulsion system, with good steering and ride,” says Cross. “I’m very pleased how it turned out, with a nice balance of performance and handling.”

Underpinning all those cars has been an ever more complex array of electronic systems. “Electronics has been one of the biggest steps throughout my career,” agrees Cross. “ABS, traction control, brake steer, electronic diffs, integrating the chassis with the powertrain... We’ve got much more sophisticated tools for designing the car, so you do the mechanical bits more quickly, but there are now many more systems on the car to tune, there’s a lot of polishing, so the overall task is actually about the same.”

Pushed to pick a favourite car or two, Cross is quick to mention the XFR from 2009, with its potent 5.0-litre supercharged V8 engine. “The S-TYPE R had 400bhp, it’s comfortable, it’s dynamic,” he says of the car he’s currently guiding over a regular West Midlands test route, “but I think often Jaguar was hamstrung because we didn’t have the hardware to compete with rivals. The XFR took everything a stage further with an electronically controlled diff, which enabled us to lift power over 500bhp, plus it had adaptive dampers – it won magazine group tests against the BMW M5, and the

Mike reckons the S-TYPE R was hamstrung because Jaguar didn’t have the hardware to compete with rivals

Mike thinks the F-TYPE was a great project but still wanted to develop a sports car on an allnew platform M5 is a pretty formidable competitor.”

For Cross, the latest Defender comes a close second. “That was an interesting car – it wasn’t a clean-sheet, but the way it was supposed to drive wasn’t clearly defined initially, so it could’ve driven like a Range Rover or a Discovery, but it’s different, it has a more robust feel –mechanical, connected.”

The Jaguar XE saloon is also right up there, with its clean-sheet architecture, and dynamics that saw it triumph against the BMW 3-Series in group tests, if not deliver commercially. But for all the diversity of products he’s helped hone over such a long career, there’s still one box Cross regrets he didn’t get to tick: a bespoke sports car. “I would have really liked to do a clean-sheet sports car,” he reveals. “The F-TYPE was a great project, but it wasn’t an all-new platform, even though it was shortened and significantly developed [from the XK], so a

mid-engined architecture with connections to the past would’ve been top of the list. ”

Cross spent his last full-time day at Jaguar Land Rover lapping the proving ground in a Defender V8, touring the design studio and having a cuppa with JLR’s CEO, Thierry Bolloré. His leaving gift was a gold spinner from a C-type (driving a C-type on the Mille Miglia was, he says, a career highlight).

He now plans to enjoy the freedom he didn’t have as a full-time dad and carer while he’s still young enough to, as well as indulge his passion for motorbikes. It’s a big part of why he retired slightly early in the spring. “I don’t have a moderating influence now, so I cover all the bases with a VW Transporter, a new Defender V8 and five motorbikes, ” he grins, “I’m not very good on motorbikes, but I ride on track and I like to go touring, I just enjoy riding them. ”

A classic Jaguar is not currently in the plan, although if funds permitted a C-type would be top of the list. “They were groundbreaking at the time, and still look great today, ” he says. Cross also admits it can be difficult to stop constantly looking for faults after a career spent trying to make cars as polished as possible, and to underline the point he wiggles gently at the S-TYPE R’s steering wheel. “The tyre pressures feel a bit low, I don’t think we’d have signed it off like this, ” he notes.

His preference to keep busy and not entirely lose touch with the automotive industry means Cross will stay on as a consultant to JLR, the details yet to be fleshed out, but he’ll perhaps help develop and teach vehicle evaluators, and perhaps steal a go in a few new models to satisfy his curiosity, though he’s keen not to step on Matt Becker’s toes, who Cross admits he once tried to recruit from Lotus “around two decades ago” and joins the engineering leadership team from his previous role at Aston Martin. JLR is also at pains to stress Becker is not a direct replacement.

The truth is, replacing someone with Mike Cross’s breadth of experience will be no easy task.

BB

Behind the wheel of the final S-TYPE R

Mike wanted the I-PACE to drive like a Jaguar regardless of propulsion system, with good steering and ride

The Jaguar XE from 2014 was one of Mike’s favourite cars during his 37-year career with the company

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