As the prosperous 1980s unfolded, a growing number of rich car enthusiasts demanded more and more motoring excitement, so a select number of supercars were designed to satisfy them. With the exception of the McLaren F1, the mid/rear-engined Jaguar XJ220 was the fastest and most practical of all.
By any standards this was a car of huge excesses: very powerful, very fast, very beautiful, and very expensive. It was high geared and somehow bulky, so even a millionaire would not choose it for everyday use, especially as it was strictly a two-seater and, frankly, hard work to drive.
But with such exceptional good looks, no-one seemed to care. The original prototype of 1988 was only meant to be a one-off, and was even bigger than the production car which followed, using Jaguar’s famous V12 engine, and four-wheel-drive. Although it had not even turned a wheel when exhibited, it carried the XJ220 title as an indication of its proposed top speed.
Reaction was so positive that Jaguar handed over the project to Tom Walkinshaw’s Jaguar Sport organisation (with whom it was in partnership), to turn it into a reality. The ‘Walkinshaw’ XJ220 was shown a year later, this time significantly smaller than before, with a twin-turbo V6 engine of the type being used in current Jaguar racing sports cars, and only with rear drive. |
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Not that this deterred the customers, for although Jaguar said they would only build 350 cars at a newly-developed factory near Banbury, more than 1,200 customers wanted to buy one, and priority of orders had to be applied.
Built around a relatively conventional light-alloy hull, the XJ220 was really a civilised version of a race car, though with equipment which included air-conditioning and a fully-trimmed cockpit. Surprisingly, ABS anti-lock braking could not be developed in time for sales to begin in 1992.
Even though the XJ220 was tested at 213 mph, and everyone seemed to love its styling and general behaviour, Jaguar could do nothing about the general collapse in economic confidence in the early 1990s. In 1989 every customer had been obliged to sign a legal agreement when ordering the car, and to make hefty payments towards the £403,000 price, but many of them tried to wriggle out of the contract while the cars were being built.
The result was that only 271 cars were produced in three years, many of which languished un-delivered at Jaguar until the late 1990s. Amazingly, this supremely fast and beautiful Jaguar supercar now goes down in history as a commercial failure, tainted by the economic conditions of the day, rather than its own shortcomings. The question is who can possibly afford to run such a car in the future?
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