The Jaguar XE Reims Edition is a limited-to-200 special edition that marks 65 years since the firm’s legendary D-type sports car claimed its first race victory.

Winning the 12 Hours of Reims in France was the first win in a run that included multiple Le Mans 24 Hours successes.

Costing £38,295, all 200 XE Reims Edition will be fitted with a 250hp 2.0-litre P250 petrol engine. The base car is the R-Dynamic S, enhanced by a series of special features.

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All will be painted French Racing Blue (the same colour notably used on the wild-child XKR-S and XFR-S), and have 19-inch five-spoke gloss black alloy wheels. The XE Reims Edition also comes with a contrasting black roof, door mirror caps and sill inserts.

The exterior Black Pack is standard, stretching the gloss black finish to the grille and surround, side vents and window frames. Tinted privacy glass is standard.

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Inside, there are heated seats and the Cold Climate pack which includes heated windscreen and steering wheel, plus headlight washers.

All revised Jaguar XEs also get all-LED headlights, Apple CarPlay, a rear-view camera and all-round parking sensors.

On sale now, the XE Reims Edition is the first in a planned run of Jaguar Factory Specials. These are described as ‘limited production run vehicles with bespoke features and details’ that mark famous locations, events or dates in Jaguar history.

You heard it here first. Our man Richard Aucock returned from the LA Auto Show with a bold prediction that blue will be the colour to be seen in next year.

Grey might be the dominant automotive hue in 2019, but blue is likely to steal its crown in 2020.

In Europe, grey leads the way with a 22.1 percent market share, followed by white (21.8 percent) and grey (21 percent). It wouldn’t take a big shift for blue to grab the top spot.

Indeed, blue leads the way in a couple of segments. It’s the most popular colour for small cars (24.5 percent market share) and medium cars (28.6 percent).

Why are we so confident that blue will lead the way in 2020? Let’s consider the evidence, darling.

The website Who What Wear has included blue in its seven biggest colour trends of spring/summer 2020. Of faded denim, it says: ‘This blue shade is as reliable and dependable as your go-to pair of jeans. The approachable hue conveys comfort and ease and looks chic when paired with bold and vibrant colours’.

Meanwhile, the paint industry says blue is set to be a ‘seasonal cornerstone, with the sea a main source of influence’.

In Los Angeles, Lexus unveiled the stunning LC 500 Convertible in Structural Blue, while Grabber Blue Metallic is one of three colours available on the Mustang Mach-E First Edition models.

Blue is a ‘safe haven’

Just don’t expect blue metallics to come cheap. Manufacturers will be quick to jump on any trends, charging extra for premium blue hues.

“Blue is a colour often associated with balance, it echoes parts of the natural world. At times of social and political unease, this colour space could feel like a safe haven. It is increasingly associated with mindfulness, environmental awareness and future mobility. Choosing blue is a way of showing optimism and openness, a desire for harmony.“ said Julie Francis, colour and material design supervisor at Ford of Europe

Dog owners, rejoice: Jaguar Land Rover has developed a new piece of technology so its engineers can make its cars more durable and dog-proof.

A 3D-printed dog paw has been created, to replicate in the test lab a dog’s claws scratching the bumper and paint before and after walks.

Thanks to the robotic dog paw test, Land Rover is able to confirm the new Defender is able to resist more than a decade of use by dogs.

Yogi the Labrador, from the National Guide Dog Breeding Centre, was test dog for the project. Their paw was modelled and a 3D-printed, spring-loaded replica was created.

The engineers called this RoboYogi.

Cleverly, the use of springs meant the robo-claws can follow car design contours and evenly apply pressure across the bumper. Just like a real dog.

Yogi was then tasked with jumping in and out of the new Defender’s boot; engineers recorded their steps with pressure-mapping technology.

This data was used to correlate Yogi’s 3D-printed paw to their real one.

JLR’s new standard test involves 5,000 cycles of RoboYogi randomly scratching the panel 10 times, followed by a linear sideway scratch. Senior engineer Julie Nicholls admitted it’s a bespoke test that’s a little different to the norm.

“Creating globally renowned vehicles means applying a quality mindset at every stage of a product’s lifecycle to ensure we meet the needs of our customers’ lifestyles. In this case we were able to achieve it by getting a dog, printing a paw and using a robot.”

The paw was produced by the JLR Additive Manufacturing Centre, which now produces more than 80,000 parts a year, largely for prototyping and design mock-ups.

The division does actually also produce 3D-printed parts for production cars, with the extreme Jaguar XE SV Project 8 among the first to use parts from the centre.