Jeremy Clarkson Wants to Grow a Sports Car, and His Flax-Bodied Jaguar F-Type Plan Is Less Crazy Than It Sounds

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Jeremy Clarkson has spent five seasons showing that farming is mostly a way to lose money slowly. Now he wants to find out whether a field can also grow a sports car.

Amazon’s official announcement confirms that Prime Video has approved a stand-alone episode called Jeremy Grows a Car: A Clarkson’s Farm Special, and Amazon calls the project a “world first.” There is no premiere date yet, only a year. It will stream exclusively on Prime Video in more than 240 countries and territories in 2027. aboutamazon

What’s actually going in the ground

The title sounds like a stunt, but the plan underneath it is fairly coherent. The starting point is a Jaguar F-Type V6S, which Clarkson sees as the right balance between analog driving fun and modern practicality. Clarkson’s reason for building rather than buying is that he’s frustrated with modern motoring, which will surprise nobody who has watched him argue with a lane-keep assist system. aboutamazon

The farm supplies the materials. The car gets Diddly-branded leather upholstery and wool carpets, and Clarkson will try to grow flax and turn it into a composite that Amazon presents as a sustainable alternative to carbon fiber. aboutamazon

The leather and wool are the easy part. Any competent trimmer can retrim a cabin. The flax is where the real engineering is.

Flax isn’t a joke material

Plant-fiber bodywork has a solid record in motorsport. Porsche’s 2019 race car was the first production race car with natural-fiber composite body panels: its doors and rear wing used a fiber mix based on flax or hemp, with weight and stiffness close to carbon fiber. Porsche later went further. Its natural-fiber body kit went to the Nürburgring 24, and Porsche said these composites take less energy to make and work best in areas that aren’t part of the vehicle structure, or are only partly structural. porsche porsche

That last point is the one owners should remember. Flax is suited to skins, wings and trim. It is not a replacement for the F-Type’s crash structure. If Clarkson’s car ends up with flax doors, hood and fenders, that is a realistic and sensible goal. A flax chassis would be a television fantasy.

Growing flax is also a long way from having a usable panel. The stems have to be retted and processed into fiber, woven into fabric, and then laid up with resin. Unless Clarkson has worked out how to farm epoxy, the car’s binding agent will come from outside the farm gate.

The right designer

Clarkson is working with Ian Callum CBE, founder of the design and engineering company CALLUM, who drew the original F-Type and the Aston Martin Vanquish. So the man who designed the car is helping redesign it, which should keep Clarkson’s enthusiasm for angle grinders in check. The aim is a Jaguar that reflects what Clarkson thinks the brand should stand for: style, luxury and performance. aboutamazon

That brief is a pointed one, given the timing. Jaguar’s own release confirmed that the last F-Type built at Castle Bromwich would go into the Jaguar Heritage collection. In the same release, Jaguar said it was preparing a bigger transformation, led by a four-door electric GT that it promised would be a “copy of nothing.” Clarkson is effectively making his own argument for what a Jaguar should be, using a car the company no longer builds. jaguarlandrover jaguarlandrover

What this means for real owners

Before anyone in the comments announces a flax F-Type build, here’s what it would cost you besides time:

Insurance: Non-factory body panels and a retrimmed interior are modifications. Tell your insurer before you drive the car, not after a crash.
Repairs: A dented composite panel can’t be beaten out like metal. Repair means patching or making a new part. With hand-laid, one-off panels, a parking-lot scrape becomes a craft project.

Resale: Bespoke cars with celebrity connections can sell well. Anonymous copies usually sell for less than an unmodified original.
Sensors and fitment: Modern cars hide parking sensors and mounting points behind the bodywork. Every new panel has to accommodate them, or something stops working.

Flax is also already in road cars, which makes Amazon’s line about automakers taking notice believable. Polestar describes working with Bcomp to turn its woven flax material into a visible surface finish inside the car. polestar

When to watch

Viewers who want to catch up have time. All five previous seasons are available globally on Prime Video, and Season 6 is also due in 2027. In the U.S., Prime costs $14.99 a month or $139 a year. aboutamazon aboutamazon

The flax will either show a sensible way forward for sustainable bodywork, or it will rot in the field while Kaleb laughs. Either outcome makes good television. Which are you betting on: does flax get as far as a body panel, or does Kaleb get the last laugh?

Images Via: Wikipedia

Eve Nowell

Administrator

Eve Nowell writes about cars for Backfire News, and she comes by it honestly—she grew up in a racing family, around engines and pit lanes before she was old enough to drive. That world isn't a beat she picked up; it's just where she's always been. At Backfire News she covers off-roading, classic car culture, motorsports, and the people behind the machines. She writes with the enthusiasm of someone who genuinely loves this stuff, but she's a stickler for getting the details right—the kind of writing that holds up with actual gearheads. She's still early in her career and building her own voice, bringing a fresh take to a world she's known her whole life. Her work runs across racing coverage, truck and off-road culture, collector vehicles, and the wider lifestyle that comes with all of it. When she's not writing, she's usually trackside, out in the garage, or chasing down the next story worth telling.

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