Automobile

Ian Callum on design, and much more

Autocar Podcast with Ian Callum and David Fairbairn of Callum Designs

Robin Capper

10 Jan 2026 — 2 min read

The world’s first road-legal Jaguar C-X75, re-engineered and enhanced by CALLUM. With hundreds of improvements, one of only four surviving stunt cars from the James Bond movie Spectre has been extensively upgraded for road use.

In a conversation that ranges from their JLR careers, how a Jaguar concept car became Bond cars (and what moviemakers demanded to make that happen), to their own Callum Designs company work (like the Skye and C-X75 Ultimate) there are some fascinating revelations.

But most interesting are Ian's comments on the current state of car, supercar, design from about 0:43:00 onwards including:

"I've said this before, but, and this was always my job, it's all about the editing of the design and what you don't put in it matters as much as what you put in it. And I look at these supercars now, you mentioned scoops and apertures and oh my goodness, what a mess. And I look at some of these cars, I think, you know, the editor obviously didn't turn up that day. They let 15 kids loose in them and off they went."