Jaguar Type 00 vs. Audi Concept C: Who Did It Better?

This article originally appeared on DMARGE Cars

You can tell a lot about a brand from how it launches a concept car. Some leak grainy photos on a Canadian social media account waiting for the chronically online car journos to pick it up and write 500 words on it. Others find the time to scream.

Jaguar, earlier this year, chose the latter, launching the Jaguar Type 00 with a blaring manifesto: “An original work of art. Bold. Unexpected. Fearless. A manifestation of everything we believe in. An exuberant statement of things to come.”

Jaguar’s Type 00 launched with neon bravado and manifesto energy, but the campaign drowned out the car itself. Image: Jaguar

The car itself was low-slung, flamboyant and brimming with futuristic sci-fi details. At first glance, I loved it. But I had to Google the model’s full name for the sake of the article. Like me, the world never really got to grips with its proportions because the launch was swallowed whole by the virality of the largely controversial campaign.

Jaguar drenched its own design in neon pink, hired a cast straight out of a Gen Z moodboard, and made sure everyone knew this wasn’t your grandfather’s Jag.

Of course, on that front, it succeeded, but the hashtag was louder than the hardware, and the car became a prop to be discarded once the cycle had reached its natural end. Despite its striking looks, the Jaguar Type 00 was remembered more for the discourse than the details.

Fast forward a year and Audi has just pulled the covers off its Concept C (whether the German auto brand meant to or not). And it could not be more different.

Quad-element headlights, a shrunken grille, and heritage nods to Auto Union give the Concept C a confident yet understated German identity. Image: Audi

For Audi, there was no self-congratulatory manifesto. No pink paint. No choreographed casting call. Just a car; a slick, pared-back folding hard-top roadster that quietly previews the future of the brand.

But before you even look at the way the two brands launched their concepts, the similarities between Jaguar’s Type 00 and Audi’s Concept C are undeniable.

Both look mid-engined in stance, even if they are really mid-battery. Both are radical reboots of each marque’s design language. Both draw on heritage cues: Jaguar with its E-Type DNA and Audi with its Avus wheels and R8 references. Both claim to embody the next decade of design.

Audi’s Concept C arrived quietly, a pared-back folding hard-top roadster with clean lines and production-ready restraint. Image: Audi

For all the criticism that headed Jaguar’s way, the British brand deserves credit for going first. It’s not a lot, but it’s something. And I’d bet my Sydney rental that Audi’s marketing department had a 9AM Teams WIP titled “Jaguar: What Not to Do” before giving the monochromatic studio shoot the proverbial green light.

A concept car, by design, is meant to provoke a response. “Here’s what you could have won,” you could say. And some 10 months later we’re still talking about the campaign and comparing it to Audi’s. When was the last time anyone mentioned a Jaguar concept car in the same way?

A cast straight from a Gen Z moodboard turned the Type 00 into a cultural talking point rather than a design milestone. Image: Jaguar

Audi’s Concept C takes the opposite tack. The design is neat and unfussy; confident and assured, rocking a shrunken grille that nods to the Auto Union Type C racer, quad-element headlights referencing both Bugatti Chiron, and Audi’s obsession with the number four. At the rear, no fake mesh, no cosplay exhausts. Just pure German design.

The interior is even more telling. There’s still a giant iPad glued to the dash for the rugrats to melt their brains watching Bluey, but there’s no oblong steering wheel masquerading as innovation for drivers more accustomed to ordring a late-night Uber than getting behind the wheel of a sportscar.

The Concept C’s cabin feel refreshingly analogue. Image: Audi

This is a car that already looks production-ready. Normal tyres, real mirrors, and space for a number plate. This concept feels ready to hit the Nürburgring this week.

For all their differences in presentation, the Type 00 and the Concept C arguably share the same start in life. Both want to be the car that restarts the conversation around their brands. Both wear their heritage. Both claim to embody the next decade of design.

No fake mesh, no cosplay exhausts. Just pure German design that looks ready for the Nürburgring tomorrow. Image: Audi

Add a lick of pink paint to Audi’s Concept C, park a cast of models next to it, and you could re-run Jaguar’s campaign almost shot for shot. Dial down Jaguar’s noise, spec it in gunmetal grey, and you would have something that looks remarkably like Audi’s leaked images.

Jaguar made a statement. But Audi made a car. Jaguar went first. Audi arrived later and better prepared. Either way, the result is the same: two concepts that hint at a future where sports cars are once again the halo products that define a brand. And if we are lucky, the next decade might belong to cars like these, not another parade of same-same SUVs.