JAGUAR

XJ220

The Jaguar XJ220 began as an after-hours passion project by a group of Jaguar engineers known as "The Saturday Club", led by engineering director Jim Randle, who unveiled a stunning V12, four-wheel-drive concept styled by Keith Helfet at the 1988 British International Motor Show in Birmingham. Public reaction was so overwhelming, with buyers waving 50,000-pound deposits, that Jaguar green-lit production through JaguarSport, its joint venture with Tom Walkinshaw Racing, in a dedicated factory at Bloxham in Oxfordshire. The production Jaguar XJ220 of 1992 swapped the concept's V12 for a 3.5-litre twin-turbocharged V6 producing 542 bhp, driving the rear wheels through an aluminium honeycomb chassis clothed in sleek aluminium bodywork. In 1992 the XJ220 was timed at 217 mph at the Nardo test track, making it the fastest production car in the world, a record it held until the McLaren F1 eclipsed it in 1994. The early-1990s recession and the switch from V12 to V6 led some depositors to walk away, and production ended in 1994 after 281 cars, with a handful of unsold examples still available as late as 1997. A racing version, the XJ220 C, won its class at Le Mans in 1993 on the road, and today the Jaguar XJ220 is celebrated as one of the great analogue supercars.