Jaguar XJ220
Encyclopedia
The Jaguar XJ220 is a mid-engined supercar
produced by Jaguar in collaboration with Tom Walkinshaw Racing
as Jaguar Sport between 1992 and 1994. It held the record for the highest top speed of a production car (350 km/h, 217 mph) (although it was modified from standard to achieve this), until the arrival of the McLaren F1
in 1994. The XJ220 is unrelated to other XJ models
, despite sharing the "XJ" prefix.
racing category. He saw it as competition for cars such as the Ferrari F40
and Porsche 959
and wanted to re-capture the glory years of Jaguar racing from the 50s and 60s. He envisioned what was essentially an updated XJ13
- a lightweight two-seater with a powerful mid-mounted V12 engine
. Randle expanded on the idea by settling on all wheel drive and an integral safety-cage so the car could be safely raced at extremely high speeds.
, left over from a development project to test the viability of a quad-cam in the XJR-9 racer. 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 car was styled by Keith Helfet
and included scissor-style doors similar to those in use by Lamborghini
. The name "XJ220" was assigned as a reference to the targeted top speed of 220 mi/h.
XJ220 was never intended to be a production car; it was purely a demonstration, like so many concept cars, of the outstanding abilities of Jaguar's design and engineering team. However, following its unveiling at the British Motor Show at Birmingham in 1988 to overwhelming acclaim, demand for the car was so great that a feasibility study was carried out by Jaguar to see if the car could be made production worthy. TWR completed the study and confirmed that the car was viable, with the following specification: V6 twin turbo racing engine from the then current Jaguar Group C cars; 2 wheel drive, rather than 4 wheel drive; slightly revised body design, being shorter and with conventional doors.
The car was officially announced in 1989 with a price of £361,000 ($580,000 USD) and prospective buyers were asked 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 production to 350 units, many of those who put deposits on the cars were speculators
who intended to sell the car at an immediate profit. Jaguar took 1,500 orders for the car in a frenzy of bidding (taking £17m in deposits in one day) and had to whittle the order book down to just the 350 promised.
The production version of the car was first shown to the public in October 1991. JaguarSport was charged with producing the car and had several goals/rules: the car would be rear wheel drive instead of 4 wheel drive to save weight and retain racing car dynamics; would have a turbocharged
V6 engine
instead of the big V12 to improve weight and distribution; and performance goals of over 200 mi/h, 0 to 60 mi/h in 3.6 seconds, and the lightest weight possible.
The 6.2-litre V12 had been judged too difficult to get past emissions regulations and there were also some design problems caused by the size of the power plant. In its place was a Tom Walkinshaw-developed 3.5-litre V6 race engine as used in the Group C XJR-10/11
racers, fitted with twin Garrett T3 turbochargers, generating 542 bhp of maximum power at 7000 rpm and 476 lbft of torque at 4500 rpm. The engine was the first V6 in Jaguar's history and was essentially a 6 cylinder derivation from the Cosworth DFV Formula 1 engine, originally designed by David Wood for the Austin
Metro 6R4 rally car. It was also the first Jaguar engine to use forced induction
. In spite of the smaller displacement, the engine produced more power than the V12 and improved handling by being set lower and more centrally in the car.
As Autocar put it at the time, "Savage acceleration really is a given here. What’s really incredible about the XJ220 is its ability to provide such performance in a way that it never, ever intimidates. If we’re still looking for misconceptions, it would be forgivable to assume that a race-derived engine with a small capacity for its enormous output would deliver its power with the friendly progressiveness of a kick in the teeth.
Not so. Its throttle response and, just as important, the weighting of the accelerator pedal, means you can draw on the Jaguar’s performance with absolute accuracy. Use only half the pedal’s travel and it goes like a Golf GTi, moving smartly into Porsche 968 territory with a little extra pressure. A bit more and you have Honda NSX acceleration on hand. The next stage takes you into the domain of the Ferrari 512TR, from which you will only erupt if you nail the pedal to the floor, something you could not conceivably do by accident."
The XJ220 was the first roadcar to exploit under-body airflow and venturi to generate downforce of around 3000lb for high speed stability. It used a Group C suspension configuration, leading to handling described by Autocar as "the finest handling supercar we have ever driven. Such is its damping that supercars we previously considered superlatively well-controlled over difficult roads now seem flawed and spongy after the Jaguar."
The car was produced in a purpose-built factory at Bloxham
near Banbury
, with the first cars delivered to customers in July 1992. Original customers included Elton John
and the Sultan of Brunei. The overall project was led by Mike Moreton, who has since written a book about the experience, "Jaguar XJ220: The Inside Story".
Some customers were dissatisfied with the increase in delivery price from the original £361,000 to £460,000 as a result of index-linking of their contracts. Another blow was the global recession which took hold between the car's announcement and its eventual release. This caused some 75 speculators to attempt to back out of their commitments, either because they were no longer able to afford them, or because they did not think they could sell the car on for a profit. Further complicating the issue was Tom Walkinshaw's offer of the XJR-15
which was based on the Le Mans
winning XJR-9. Some customers either sued Jaguar or threatened to sue; in any case, Jaguar gave customers the option to buy themselves out of the delivery contract. Nonetheless, some buyers challenged Jaguar in court, although presiding Judge Lord Donaldson ruled in Jaguar's favour.
A total of 281 road-cars were made. For the owners who took delivery of their cars, Autocar's verdict was "Right now, the XJ220 gives us a standard by which all other fast cars can be compared. For the few who will actually own and, hopefully, use their XJ220s, the fact that they are in command of the most accomplished supercar ever made should suffice."
TWR developed a further 6 XJ220S, built in carbon composite and with a higher state of tune at 680 bhp. These were essentially road-going versions of the XJ220C racer.
won its first race, a round of the BRDC National Sports GT Challenge
at Silverstone
. Three works XJ220C's were entered in the 1993 Le Mans 24 Hour
race, in the newly created Grand Touring
Class. Two of the cars retired but one XJ220, driven by John Nielsen
, David Brabham
and David Coulthard
took the checkered flag to take a class win. This, however, was revoked when the XJ220C was disqualified a month later for not running catalytic converters
. Although this was technically within the rules and Jaguar won its appeal, they were nonetheless disqualified as they had not - according to the authorities - lodged their appeal in time.
An XJ220 would also be used in the Italian GT Championship
in the early 1990s, although this car had no factory support.
and his brother Prince Jefri secretly bought hundreds of sports cars and had them custom appointed by various companies. One of these is a custom Jaguar XJ220 that has been heavily modified by Pininfarina. Modifications included fixed headlights, replacing the pop-up versions
originally installed, and a redesigned double-vane rear wing.
, Martin Brundle
drove an XJ220 to 212.3 mi/h. The car's catalytic converter
s drain the engine of an estimated 60 bhp, the catalysts were later disconnected and the rev limiter
was increased from 7200 rpm to 7900 rpm in a quest to enable the XJ220 to reach a higher top speed. On a later run with the modifications, Brundle took the XJ220 to 217.1 mi/h (the equivalent to approximately 223 mi/h on a straight road).
XJ220 also held the Nurburgring production car lap record, between 1992 and 2000, at 7:47:37, driven by John Nielsen.
Supercar
Supercar is a term used most often to describe an expensive high end car. It has been defined specifically as "a very expensive, fast or powerful car"...
produced by Jaguar in collaboration with Tom Walkinshaw Racing
Tom Walkinshaw Racing
Tom Walkinshaw Racing , was an auto racing team and engineering firm founded in 1976 by touring car racer Tom Walkinshaw.-History:TWR started by modifying BMW 3.0 CSLs, but soon was contracted to head Mazda's works program in the British Touring Car Championship. The TWR developed RX-7, with Win...
as Jaguar Sport between 1992 and 1994. It held the record for the highest top speed of a production car (350 km/h, 217 mph) (although it was modified from standard to achieve this), until the arrival of the McLaren F1
McLaren F1
The McLaren F1 is a supercar designed and manufactured by McLaren Automotive. Originally a concept conceived by Gordon Murray, he convinced Ron Dennis to back the project and engaged Peter Stevens to design the exterior of the car...
in 1994. The XJ220 is unrelated to other XJ models
Jaguar XJ
Jaguar XJ is the designation that has been used for a series of luxury saloon cars sold under the British Jaguar marque. The first XJ was launched in 1968 and the designation has been used for successive Jaguar flagship models since then. The original model was the last Jaguar saloon to have had...
, despite sharing the "XJ" prefix.
Origins
In the 1980s, Jaguar's chief engineer Jim Randle, as part of an informal group called "The Saturday Club", began work on a concept car, code-named XJ220, which - if put into production - could compete in a potential new Group BGroup B
Group B was a set of regulations introduced in 1982 for competition vehicles in sportscar racing and rallying regulated by the FIA. The Group B regulations fostered some of the quickest, most powerful and sophisticated rally cars ever built. However, a series of major accidents, some fatal, were...
racing category. He saw it as competition for cars such as the Ferrari F40
Ferrari F40
The Ferrari F40 is a mid-engine, rear-wheel drive, two-door coupé sports car produced by Ferrari from 1987 to 1992 as the successor to the Ferrari 288 GTO. From 1987 to 1989 it was Ferrari's fastest, most powerful, and most expensive car...
and Porsche 959
Porsche 959
The Porsche 959 is a sports car manufactured by Porsche from 1986 to 1989, first as a Group B rally car and later as a legal production car designed to satisfy FIA homologation regulations requiring that a minimum number of 200 street legal units be built....
and wanted to re-capture the glory years of Jaguar racing from the 50s and 60s. He envisioned what was essentially an updated XJ13
Jaguar XJ13
The Jaguar XJ13 was a prototype racing car developed by Jaguar to challenge at Le Mans in the mid-1960s.It never raced, and only one was ever produced...
- a lightweight two-seater with a powerful mid-mounted V12 engine
V12 engine
A V12 engine is a V engine with 12 cylinders mounted on the crankcase in two banks of six cylinders, usually but not always at a 60° angle to each other, with all 12 pistons driving a common crankshaft....
. Randle expanded on the idea by settling on all wheel drive and an integral safety-cage so the car could be safely raced at extremely high speeds.
Concept car
The concept car used a quad-cam 6.2-litre version of Jaguar's V12 engineV12 engine
A V12 engine is a V engine with 12 cylinders mounted on the crankcase in two banks of six cylinders, usually but not always at a 60° angle to each other, with all 12 pistons driving a common crankshaft....
, left over from a development project to test the viability of a quad-cam in the XJR-9 racer. The all-wheel drive system was produced by FF Developments
FF Developments
FF Developments Limited was a British company founded by Major A.P.R. Rolt to exploit 4WD technology, Rolt had worked as Technical Director at Harry Ferguson Research for many years....
, who had experience with such systems going back to the 1960s and the Jensen FF
Jensen FF
The Jensen FF was a four-wheel drive Grand Tourer car produced by the British manufacturer Jensen Motors between 1966 and 1971. It was the first non all-terrain production car equipped with 4WD and an anti-lock braking system — the Dunlop Maxaret mechanical system used hitherto only on...
. The car was styled by Keith Helfet
Keith Helfet
Keith Helfet is a distinguished automotive designer.After demonstrating little academic promise in South Africa, Helfet turned to art. He had a natural affinity for automotive design and was accepted as a student into the most prestigious automotive styling programme in the world at the Royal...
and included scissor-style doors similar to those in use by Lamborghini
Lamborghini
Automobili Lamborghini S.p.A., commonly referred to as Lamborghini , is an Italian car manufacturer. The company was founded by manufacturing magnate Ferruccio Lamborghini in 1963, with the objective of producing a refined grand touring car to compete with established offerings from marques like...
. The name "XJ220" was assigned as a reference to the targeted top speed of 220 mi/h.
XJ220 was never intended to be a production car; it was purely a demonstration, like so many concept cars, of the outstanding abilities of Jaguar's design and engineering team. However, following its unveiling at the British Motor Show at Birmingham in 1988 to overwhelming acclaim, demand for the car was so great that a feasibility study was carried out by Jaguar to see if the car could be made production worthy. TWR completed the study and confirmed that the car was viable, with the following specification: V6 twin turbo racing engine from the then current Jaguar Group C cars; 2 wheel drive, rather than 4 wheel drive; slightly revised body design, being shorter and with conventional doors.
The car was officially announced in 1989 with a price of £361,000 ($580,000 USD) and prospective buyers were asked 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 production to 350 units, many of those who put deposits on the cars were speculators
Speculation
In finance, speculation is a financial action that does not promise safety of the initial investment along with the return on the principal sum...
who intended to sell the car at an immediate profit. Jaguar took 1,500 orders for the car in a frenzy of bidding (taking £17m in deposits in one day) and had to whittle the order book down to just the 350 promised.
Production version
Turbocharger
A turbocharger, or turbo , from the Greek "τύρβη" is a centrifugal compressor powered by a turbine that is driven by an engine's exhaust gases. Its benefit lies with the compressor increasing the mass of air entering the engine , thereby resulting in greater performance...
V6 engine
V6 engine
A V6 engine is a V engine with six cylinders mounted on the crankcase in two banks of three cylinders, usually set at either a right angle or an acute angle to each other, with all six pistons driving a common crankshaft...
instead of the big V12 to improve weight and distribution; and performance goals of over 200 mi/h, 0 to 60 mi/h in 3.6 seconds, and the lightest weight possible.
The 6.2-litre V12 had been judged too difficult to get past emissions regulations and there were also some design problems caused by the size of the power plant. In its place was a Tom Walkinshaw-developed 3.5-litre V6 race engine as used in the Group C XJR-10/11
Jaguar XJR Sportscars
The Jaguar XJR Sportscars were a series of race cars used by Jaguar-backed teams in both the World Sportscar Championship Group C and the IMSA Camel GTP series between 1984 and 1993.-History:...
racers, fitted with twin Garrett T3 turbochargers, generating 542 bhp of maximum power at 7000 rpm and 476 lbft of torque at 4500 rpm. The engine was the first V6 in Jaguar's history and was essentially a 6 cylinder derivation from the Cosworth DFV Formula 1 engine, originally designed by David Wood for the Austin
Austin Rover Group
The Austin Rover Group was a British motor manufacturer. It was formed in 1981 as the mass-market car manufacturing subsidiary of British Leyland...
Metro 6R4 rally car. It was also the first Jaguar engine to use forced induction
Forced induction
Forced induction is the process of compressing air on the intake of an internal combustion engine . A forced induction engine uses a gas compressor to increase the pressure, temperature and density of the air...
. In spite of the smaller displacement, the engine produced more power than the V12 and improved handling by being set lower and more centrally in the car.
As Autocar put it at the time, "Savage acceleration really is a given here. What’s really incredible about the XJ220 is its ability to provide such performance in a way that it never, ever intimidates. If we’re still looking for misconceptions, it would be forgivable to assume that a race-derived engine with a small capacity for its enormous output would deliver its power with the friendly progressiveness of a kick in the teeth.
Not so. Its throttle response and, just as important, the weighting of the accelerator pedal, means you can draw on the Jaguar’s performance with absolute accuracy. Use only half the pedal’s travel and it goes like a Golf GTi, moving smartly into Porsche 968 territory with a little extra pressure. A bit more and you have Honda NSX acceleration on hand. The next stage takes you into the domain of the Ferrari 512TR, from which you will only erupt if you nail the pedal to the floor, something you could not conceivably do by accident."
The XJ220 was the first roadcar to exploit under-body airflow and venturi to generate downforce of around 3000lb for high speed stability. It used a Group C suspension configuration, leading to handling described by Autocar as "the finest handling supercar we have ever driven. Such is its damping that supercars we previously considered superlatively well-controlled over difficult roads now seem flawed and spongy after the Jaguar."
The car was produced in a purpose-built factory at Bloxham
Bloxham
Bloxham is a village and civil parish in northern Oxfordshire on the edge of the Cotswolds, southwest of Banbury.-Early settlement:Under Roman rule between the 1st and 5th centuries there were several farms and a burial site in the Bloxham area....
near Banbury
Banbury
Banbury is a market town and civil parish on the River Cherwell in the Cherwell District of Oxfordshire. It is northwest of London, southeast of Birmingham, south of Coventry and north northwest of the county town of Oxford...
, with the first cars delivered to customers in July 1992. Original customers included Elton John
Elton John
Sir Elton Hercules John, CBE, Hon DMus is an English rock singer-songwriter, composer, pianist and occasional actor...
and the Sultan of Brunei. The overall project was led by Mike Moreton, who has since written a book about the experience, "Jaguar XJ220: The Inside Story".
Some customers were dissatisfied with the increase in delivery price from the original £361,000 to £460,000 as a result of index-linking of their contracts. Another blow was the global recession which took hold between the car's announcement and its eventual release. This caused some 75 speculators to attempt to back out of their commitments, either because they were no longer able to afford them, or because they did not think they could sell the car on for a profit. Further complicating the issue was Tom Walkinshaw's offer of the XJR-15
Jaguar XJR-15
The Jaguar Sport XJR-15 is a RMR layout sports car produced by British automaker Jaguar between 1990 and 1992. Only 50 were made, each selling for US$960,165...
which was based on the Le Mans
Le Mans
Le Mans is a city in France, located on the Sarthe River. Traditionally the capital of the province of Maine, it is now the capital of the Sarthe department and the seat of the Roman Catholic diocese of Le Mans. Le Mans is a part of the Pays de la Loire region.Its inhabitants are called Manceaux...
winning XJR-9. Some customers either sued Jaguar or threatened to sue; in any case, Jaguar gave customers the option to buy themselves out of the delivery contract. Nonetheless, some buyers challenged Jaguar in court, although presiding Judge Lord Donaldson ruled in Jaguar's favour.
A total of 281 road-cars were made. For the owners who took delivery of their cars, Autocar's verdict was "Right now, the XJ220 gives us a standard by which all other fast cars can be compared. For the few who will actually own and, hopefully, use their XJ220s, the fact that they are in command of the most accomplished supercar ever made should suffice."
TWR developed a further 6 XJ220S, built in carbon composite and with a higher state of tune at 680 bhp. These were essentially road-going versions of the XJ220C racer.
Racing version
A racing version called the XJ220C was built to compete in GT racing. The XJ220C, driven by Win PercyWin Percy
Winston "Win" Percy is a former motor racing driver from England. He competed in many classes of motorsport during his long career, but is perhaps most famous as one of the greats of touring car racing. Joe Saward of Autosport magazine once described him as being "often regarded as the World's...
won its first race, a round of the BRDC National Sports GT Challenge
British GT Championship
The Avon Tyres British GT Championship is a sports car racing series currently based in the United Kingdom, although they have had select races outside of Britain in the past few years. The series was created by the British Racing Drivers' Club in 1993 and for its first two seasons was called the...
at Silverstone
Silverstone Circuit
Silverstone Circuit is an English motor racing circuit next to the Northamptonshire villages of Silverstone and Whittlebury. The circuit straddles the Northamptonshire and Buckinghamshire border, with the current main circuit entry on the Buckinghamshire side...
. Three works XJ220C's were entered in the 1993 Le Mans 24 Hour
24 Hours of Le Mans
The 24 Hours of Le Mans is the world's oldest sports car race in endurance racing, held annually since near the town of Le Mans, France. Commonly known as the Grand Prix of Endurance and Efficiency, race teams have to balance speed against the cars' ability to run for 24 hours without sustaining...
race, in the newly created Grand Touring
Grand tourer
A grand tourer is a high-performance luxury automobile designed for long-distance driving. The most common format is a two-door coupé with either a two-seat or a 2+2 arrangement....
Class. Two of the cars retired but one XJ220, driven by John Nielsen
John Nielsen
John Nielsen won the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1990. Previously, he won the Macau Grand Prix in 1984. He was also a 3-time champion of the European Formula Super Vee Championship from 1979 to 1981....
, David Brabham
David Brabham
David Brabham is an Australian racing driver and one of the most successful and experienced specialists in sports car racing. He has won three international Sports Car series and is one of four Australians to have won the Le Mans 24 Hour sports car race, winning the event in...
and David Coulthard
David Coulthard
David Marshall Coulthard, MBE, , sometimes known as DC, is a British former Formula One racing driver from Scotland.Coulthard, who was born in Dumfries and raised nearby in Twynholm, made his Formula One debut in 1994 and won 13 Grands Prix in a career spanning 15 seasons...
took the checkered flag to take a class win. This, however, was revoked when the XJ220C was disqualified a month later for not running catalytic converters
Catalytic converter
A catalytic converter is a device used to convert toxic exhaust emissions from an internal combustion engine into non-toxic substances. Inside a catalytic converter, a catalyst stimulates a chemical reaction in which noxious byproducts of combustion are converted to less toxic substances by dint...
. Although this was technically within the rules and Jaguar won its appeal, they were nonetheless disqualified as they had not - according to the authorities - lodged their appeal in time.
An XJ220 would also be used in the Italian GT Championship
Italian GT Championship
The Italian GT Championship is an Italian sports car series founded in 2003 and organized by the Automobile Club d'Italia and the Commissione Sportiva Automobilistica Italiana . It replaced a previous supercar-based championship which ran from 1992 until 2002 when it was folded due to a lack of...
in the early 1990s, although this car had no factory support.
Pininfarina-designed version
During the mid-nineties, the Sultan of BruneiHassanal Bolkiah
General Haji Sir Hassan al-Bolkiah Mu'izzaddin Waddaulah GCB GCMG is the Sultan and Yang Di-Pertuan of Brunei Darussalam, the 29th Sultan of Brunei and the first Prime Minister of Brunei Darussalam...
and his brother Prince Jefri secretly bought hundreds of sports cars and had them custom appointed by various companies. One of these is a custom Jaguar XJ220 that has been heavily modified by Pininfarina. Modifications included fixed headlights, replacing the pop-up versions
Hidden headlamps
Hidden headlamps, also commonly known as pop-up headlamps or headlights, are an automotive styling feature that conceals an automobile's headlamps when they are not in use...
originally installed, and a redesigned double-vane rear wing.
Speed record
In 1992 at the Nardò RingNardò Ring
The Nardò Ring, is a high speed test track located near the town of Nardò, Italy, in the southern region of Apulia, in the province of Lecce....
, Martin Brundle
Martin Brundle
Martin John Brundle is a British racing driver from England, known as a Formula One driver and as an F1 commentator for ITV Sport from 1997 to 2008, the BBC from 2009 to 2011 and Sky Sports from 2012....
drove an XJ220 to 212.3 mi/h. The car's catalytic converter
Catalytic converter
A catalytic converter is a device used to convert toxic exhaust emissions from an internal combustion engine into non-toxic substances. Inside a catalytic converter, a catalyst stimulates a chemical reaction in which noxious byproducts of combustion are converted to less toxic substances by dint...
s drain the engine of an estimated 60 bhp, the catalysts were later disconnected and the rev limiter
Rev limiter
A rev limiter is a device fitted to an internal combustion engine to restrict its maximum rotational speed. This is usually carried out to prevent damage to the engine, however sometimes these devices are fitted to prevent an engine reaching the point at which it develops maximum power...
was increased from 7200 rpm to 7900 rpm in a quest to enable the XJ220 to reach a higher top speed. On a later run with the modifications, Brundle took the XJ220 to 217.1 mi/h (the equivalent to approximately 223 mi/h on a straight road).
XJ220 also held the Nurburgring production car lap record, between 1992 and 2000, at 7:47:37, driven by John Nielsen.