Jaguar XJ220

Jaguar looks back to a long history, in which the company changed its owner several times. From the late 1960s Jaguar belonged to British Motor Corporation (BMC), which shortly afterwards became the British Leyland Motor Corporation (BLMC). However, with this they were trapped into the corporation, which tore down much of Britain’s car industry, as internal manager disputes, strikes and the resulting poor building quality of the cars resulted in an increasingly bad external image among potential buyers and suppliers. In the mid-1970s, this eventually led to the group being placed under government supervision due to poor liquidity. Many brands were transferred into the Austin Rover Group, while Jaguar and Daimler formed the new Jaguar Car Holding. This new freedom was used not only to improve the models with better building quality, but also for a new motorsport program, which was launched together with the racing team Tom Walkinshaw Racing (TWR).

From Group C successes to the Saturday Club

In addition to operations in the touring car scene, for which TWR used the luxury Coupé XJ-S with suitable modifications, there was also a program for pure sports car prototypes in the Northamerican IMSA series as well as in the Interseries and World Sports Car Championship with Group C regulations. Here, the British brand was highly interested in winning the season highlight, the 24 Hours of Le Mans. In 1987, 1988 and 1991 Jaguar won the World Championship, in 1988 and 1990 also the French endurance race. These successes led to Jaguar’s chief engineer Jim Randle forming a group of other employees into the Saturday Club. In their spare time after work and on weekends, they developed a modern supercar with the naturally aspirated V12 engine from the Group C racecars. They set a special development goal, as they wanted to set a new speed world record for street-legal cars with a topspeed of 220 mph. This also led to the name XJ220.

Concept car with all-wheel drive

After a short time, the boardroom of Jaguar learned about the project and gave green light for a first prototype, which should debut at the 1988 Birmingham Motor Show. In addition, the directors wished for an all-wheel drive system, which was commissioned at FF Developments. This company, led by former racing driver Tony Rolt, had already developed an all-wheel drive system for the Jensen FF in the 1960s. While during the presentation in Birmingham everybody just spoke about the XJ220 being a concept study, a year later the decision fell to produce the supercar. Despite an announced price of 413,000 GBP back in those days and a limited edition of just 350 cars, Jaguar immediately received more than 1,500 orders from all around the world. This was largely due to the economic situation at that time, which allowed speculators to earn a lot of money with sports cars and luxury vehicles within a very short time. Accordingly, Jaguar demanded a deposit of 50,000 GBP from potential buyers.

Jaguar together with TWR founded the new subsidiary JaguarSport in order to develop the XJ220 to series production. Within a very short time two problems arose, that led to serious changes in the technical features of the supercar. For one thing, the racing V12 was not domesticated enough and wouldn’t have been driveable in city traffic, let alone the horrendous fuel consumption. On the other hand, the FF all-wheel drive system proved to be too complicated in the assembly process. Thus, both points were omitted from the specifications and the search for adequate replacement started. While the change to rear-wheel drive required no lengthy consideration, it was not quite so easy to find a new engine. After all, Jaguar still wanted to reach the set speed target. Ultimately, they opted for a 3.5-liter V6 engine with dual turbocharging. It is based on the engine from the mid-engined Group B rallycar MG Metro 6R4. In the Jaguar XJ220 it delivered 404 kW/549 hp and 642 newtonmeters of torque, which was enough to accelerate the supercar in just 3.8 seconds from zero to 62 mph (100 kph) and in 12 seconds to 124 mph (200 kph). This was also impressively expressed with a lap time of 7:46.36 minutes around the Nürburgring Nordschleife, making the XJ220 the fastest road-legal car there in 1991.

Top speed record achieved, target missed

In the British city of Bloxham near Banbury, a new production plant was built, which was used in 1991 for the construction of seven pre-series prototypes. One of them was tested by racing driver Andy Wallace at the Firestone proving grounds in Fort Stockton/Texas, reaching a maximum speed of 212.3 mph. Although the XJ220 was the fastest production car in the world with this, it missed the target by almost eight miles per hour. With another prototype, that received a raised rev limiter and an exhaust system without catalysts, succeeded in Nardó/Italy in 1992 with a topspeed of 217.1 mph. In addition to the pure pace, the XJ220 offered rich standard equipment including a cassette radio and air conditioning. Nevertheless, the curb weight of 1,470 kilograms was well below that of the concept car.

No sales success

Between summer 1992 and 1994 the production of the XJ220 ran. Due to the drastical technical changes and the now-busted speculative bubble, a massive drop was visible in the orders, with some former interested parties even renouncing their deposits only to get out of their contracts. Jaguar and TWR then raced with three XJ220 racecars in the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1993 to boost sales. In fact, they also won the GT category, but were subsequently disqualified, because they had misread the technical regulations, which prescribed the use of catalystic converters mandatory. Among the well-known owners of the road vehicles was next to Flavio Briatore and Sir Elton John also the brother of the Sultan of Brunei, who also ordered a few copies with a special bodywork by Pininfarina.

Silver copy at Girardo & Co

For the production version, Jaguar offered the paint colors ‘Le Mans Blue’, ‘Daytona Black’, ‘Silverstone Green’, ‘Monza Red’ and ‘Spa Silver’. A copy with certifiable history, in silver paintwork, first registered in 1995, is currently offered at Girardo & Co. Despite being a LHD car, it originally went to a Mr Corrado Morelli in Northern Ireland. The documents belonging to the vehicle include the MOT certificates and various service invoices. In 2013 the car received a modified trunk compartment by Don Law in the UK, allowing longer trips with light luggage. Before a new owner will take possession of this XJ220 with a mileage of just over 14,000 kilometers, it will be checked extensively at Jaguar Classic. Girardo & Co will tell you the purchase price on request.

Images: Girardo & Co