Overview

The Jaguar XJ220 was a supercar produced by Ford's Jaguar luxury marque in collaboration with Tom Walkinshaw Racing between 1992 and 1994. It held the record for the highest top speed of a production car (217 mph) until the arrival of the McLaren F1 in 1994.

Origins

In the early days of the company, certain Jaguar employees had created an informal group they called "The Saturday Club" (so-named because they would meet after-hours and on weekends to work on unofficial pet-projects). In the 1980s, Jaguar's chief-engineer Jim Randle, as part of that group, began work on what he saw as competition for cars like the Ferrari F40 and Porsche 959. He envisioned what was essentially an updated XJR13 - a lightweight two-seater with a powerful mid-mounted V12 engine. Randle expanded on the idea by settling on all wheel drive for increased traction and better handling and an integral safety-cage so the car could be safely raced at extremely high speeds. From the outset, the intention was to create a vehicle capable of exceeding 200 mph (322 km/h).

Concept Car

Jaguar executives who saw the concept were sufficiently impressed to formally commit company resources to producing a car for the 1988 British Motor Show. Tom Walkinshaw Racing was tapped to produce a 6.2 L version of Jaguar's legendary V12 engine with four valves per cylinder, quad camshafts and a target output of 500 hp (373 kW). The all wheel drive system was produced by FF Developments who had experience with such systems going back to the 1960s and the Jensen FF. The styling of the car was done by Keith Helfet and included scissor-style doors similar to those in use by Lamborghini in several of their cars. The name XJ220 was assigned as a reference to the targeted top-speed of 220 mph (354 km/h).

The prototype car was significantly heavier at 1560 kg (3440 lb) than other Jaguar racers like the XJR-9. But as it was intended to be, first and foremost, a roadcar, it would be more appropriate to compare it with something like the XJS; in spite of being 30 in (762 mm) longer and 10 in (254 mm) wider and even with the added weight of the all wheel drive system, the XJ220 was still 170 kg (375 lb) lighter than the XJS.

The car was officially announced in 1989 with a price of £361,000 ($580,000 USD) and prospective buyers were expected to put up a deposit of £50,000 ($80,000 USD) to be put on the waiting list for delivery. Because Jaguar promised to limit initial production to 220 units and that total production would not exceed 350, many of those who put deposits on the cars were speculators who intended to sell the car at an immediate profit.