VIRTUAL REALITY - JAGUAR XJ220

When Jaguar unveiled the XJ220 concept, it looked like it was doing 220mph standing still, yet in many eyes the production car missed the mark

By Craig Toone

Jaguar has often been the custodian of the world’s fastest car, the XK120 & XK180 triumphantly boasting of their claimed top speed in their title, the XKSS was a road going Le Mans winner and the XJR-15 was cut from a similar cloth. When the XJ220 broke cover at the 1988 British motor show however, it dropped the jaws of everyone present. It even slackened ones as far away as Maranello & Stuttgart.

Jaguar was riding the high of its recent Le Mans victory and the confidence showed in the XJ220. It was a clean, slippery shape, a UFO with alloy wheels and a number plate, shorn of the typical aerodynamic aggression that had come to define the Ferrari’s & Lamborghini’s of the decade but retaining all the important supercar signatures - impossibly wide, obnoxiously long and lower than a snakes belly. The quoted spec sheet had the Italians covered too – Jaguars own V12 engine had been bored & stroked to 6,222cc, given four valves per cylinder and double overhead camshafts, titanium con rods, a dry dump and extensive use of magnesium.

No official output was declared but the rumour mill put it comfortably north of 700bhp, enough for the 220 in the name to carry similar significance to the XK120 & XK180. The body was crafted from aluminium whilst the chassis used know-how from the successful Le Mans campaign with technical additions – four wheel drive, rear wheel steering, active suspension & aerodynamics. Yet despite all this the interior maintained the luxurious craftmanship Jaguar was renowned for – at least in comparison to the Ferrari F40.

When the XJ220 broke cover at the 1988 British motor show however, it dropped the jaws of everyone present. It even slackened ones as far away as Maranello & Stuttgart.

The XJ220 had never been intended for production – it was an unofficial product put together by the ‘Saturday club’ – a team of passionate engineers who put together the concept car in their spare time before presenting the concept the Jaguars chairman, who signed off the unveiling. The car was only completed 24 hours before its scheduled debut and Jaguars marketing department hadn’t even clocked eyes on it, not something you could imagine happening today, unless you work at BMW…

But it was obvious from the reaction the concept car Would become a production reality – a purported 1500 deposits at £50,000 a pop had been secured off the back of the show - and after a feasibility study the project was rubber stamped in 1989. TWR, Jaguar’s Le Mans and long term motorsport partner had been awarded the build contract. So with so much mouth-watering promise, why do some regard the XJ220 as a charlatan?

When the production car broke cover in 1992, the styling had been carried over faithfully from the concept but the V12 hadn’t – both the number of cylinders and driven wheels had halved. In the engine bay sat a 3.5 litre twin turbocharged V6 from a Rover Metro hatchback of all cars. But this wasn’t any ordinary city car powerplant, it was sourced from non-other than the legendary 6R4 Group B rally car. Breathing fire, the output was 542bhp & 475lb-ft. of torque, enough for a sub four second 0-60 sprint.

Jaguar put the decision down to changing regulations in prototype racing and the V12’s struggle to meet emissions regulations. Jaguar was also struggling financially and the company was acquired by Ford in 1989 who reigned in the purse strings – the next victims were the complicated four wheel drive system, active aero and active suspension. The initial promise of a sci-fi supercar had devolved into the dinosaurs it aimed to make obsolete. A combination of a global recession in 1990 and Jaguar breaking promises meant many of the original deposits were not fulfilled. When production ended in 1994, 275 (or 281 depending upon who you listen to) XJ220’s had rolled out of the factory gates.

Another minor gripe was the XJ220 never quite hit its claimed Vmax, but somehow the XJ213 doesn’t quite have the same ring to it, and 213mph was still enough to claim the world’s fastest car title by some margin. However we can forgive Jaguar of the slight faux pas, after all a claimed 150mph maximum never did the E-Type any harm, but perhaps the Jaguars greatest undoing was another British supercar. In 1992 McLaren introduced its F1 road car, the XJ220 was instantly outclassed and the supercar landscape was never the same again.