Jeremy Clarkson grew the flax used to build a one-off Jaguar with designer Ian Callum

A Jaguar F-Type that began life as a supercharged V6 roadster has been rebuilt as a one-off called the Flax-Type, with body panels made from flax that Jeremy Clarkson grew on his Diddly Squat Farm in Oxfordshire. The redesign was done with Ian Callum, the designer of the original F-Type, and the car was shown to the public in Italy on Oct. 17.

Help yourself and the planet: The Cool Down makes it easy to help yourself while helping the planet, with smart, simple changes to save more and waste less in your everyday life.

Get The Cool Down →

We may earn a commission if you sign up.

It is the centerpiece of a television special rather than a production model, and the details that have emerged come from the car’s first public appearances and from the streaming service that commissioned it. Several of the numbers and materials are worth separating from the hype around them.

A farm-grown body on an F-Type chassis

According to Carscoops’ report on the car, published Oct. 20, the Flax-Type is a one-off coachbuilt special based on the discontinued Jaguar F-Type. The flax, leather and wool in the build were grown or raised on Clarkson’s 1,000-acre farm, and the article suggests it may be the first organic Jaguar. The donor is a pre-facelift F-Type with a supercharged 3.0-liter V6 making 380 hp and 339 lb-ft of torque, and the rear-wheel-drive roadster’s mechanicals carry over unchanged.

The visible changes are all on the body. Carscoops describes lightweight flax-composite panels, a redesigned front bumper with aero flaps, wide fender extensions on both axles and bronze star-shaped five-spoke wheels on high-profile tires. The paint is Tonga Green, and the tailgate carries a tractor emblem and “Flax-Type” lettering.

How the project was announced

The car exists because of a Prime Video special. In an Amazon announcement dated Oct. 7, the service said Clarkson would grow and build a car from produce on Diddly Squat Farm, calling the project “a world first.” The base vehicle was named as a Jaguar F-Type V6S, and the plan was to use Diddly leather for the interior and wool carpets, along with flax grown to make a composite that Amazon described as a sustainable alternative to carbon fiber.

The same announcement says Ian Callum, founder of CALLUM and the designer of the original F-Type and the Aston Martin Vanquish, is helping redesign the Jaguar. The special, titled Jeremy Grows a Car: A Clarkson’s Farm Special, is set to stream in more than 240 countries and territories in 2027, and no exact release date has been announced. A separate summary of the announcement adds that Callum’s earlier work also includes the Jaguar XK and the C-X75 concept, and that the special is a stand-alone episode, so no prior viewing of Clarkson’s Farm is needed.

The Press Association’s coverage, carried by the Irish News, put the goal in the language of the show: Clarkson aimed for “style, luxury and performance” in the design and framed the flax composite as a “sustainable alternative to carbon fibre.” It also noted that Clarkson’s Farm, which is filmed on the 1,000-acre farm in West Oxfordshire, won the reality docuseries prize at the National Television Awards in September.

The first public showing in Italy

The Flax-Type made its first public appearance at Villa La Massa Excellence, a concours near Florence held Oct. 16 to 18 and organized with Canossa Events, where cars competed for the Coppa d’Oro. Luca Labate’s report for Automoto.it says Clarkson was in Italy to film the special, that the car was shown to the public on Saturday, Oct. 17, and that it won a special jury prize. Carscoops, by contrast, said only that Clarkson appeared to have won a trophy, so the jury prize rests on the Italian report.

At the event Clarkson also met Peter Grunert, a former Top Gear colleague who now directs the magazine The Road Rat, according to the same report. Carscoops adds that a YouTuber known as Varryx filmed a montage of the car, and that online reaction was mixed: commenters liked the spec, while some disliked the wheels and others pointed to a poorly fitting front bumper.

What remains unanswered

The interior is as farm-sourced as the body. Carscoops describes tan leather from Clarkson’s livestock, carpets made from the wool of farm-reared sheep, tweed inserts and a tractor logo embossed on the headrests. What nobody has published is the total cost of growing, processing and fitting the materials, and Carscoops wonders whether Clarkson will ever disclose it.

Nor is it clear how the flax composite compares with carbon fiber in strength or weight, since the sources describe it as lightweight without giving figures. More behind-the-scenes footage is expected in the coming months, and the finished special is not due until 2027. Until then, the car is best understood as a showpiece: a custom build that borrows Jaguar’s V6 roadster, Callum’s pen and an Oxfordshire flax field, and not a product anyone can order.

This article was produced with the assistance of AI and reviewed by Morning Overview editors prior to publication.

Help yourself and the planet: Get The Cool Down →

We may earn a commission if you sign up.