Jaguar marks 20 years of the XJ220

The first time a Jaguar XJ220 supercar reached a customer's hands was 1992. President George H.W. Bush was in office, and space shuttle Endeavor took its maiden flight. The XJ220 cost that first customer $846,000, and that was 20 years ago.

The car was conceived as a concept and debuted at the 1988 British motor show. Keith Helfet was the designer who signed off on production in 1989, with Tom Walkinshaw Racing as the partner.

TWR took the concept and deduced what it would take to make the XJ220 a production car. It came up with the following changes: a twin-turbo V6 instead of the concept's V12, two-wheel drive rather than four, conventional doors and a slightly revised body design.

The car was given the name XJ220, which was the top speed target at the time. In 1991 it clocked near there at 213 mph, with a curb weight of just 3,240 pounds. It was the fastest production car in the world for about a year, until the McLaren F1 took the crown.

Jaguar Sport, which was charged with producing the car, agreed with TWR's notes, and the production version arrived with a 3.5-liter twin-turbo V6. The doors closed horizontally, Lamborghini be damned. The V6 channeled power to the rear wheels via a five-speed gearbox and AP Racing twin-plate clutch. Bridgestone Expedia tires wrapped around 18-inch wheels. The XJ220 developed 542 hp and 475 lb-ft of torque. It got to 60 mph in the high three-second range, which was closer to that Endeavor shuttle than any other car on the road. Braking was done with four-piston calipers, also from AP.

Production ended in 1994, with 275 examples built.

Jaguar recently held its Jaguar Experience Day at the Heritage Motor Centre in the United Kingdom. The silver car--chassis No. 004--was in attendance. It's one of 10 preproduction vehicles. This one was used for high-speed testing in Texas, where it hit 213 mph with Andy Wallace behind the wheel.

The yellow example shown is an XJ220 S. It's the first example built and includes some spare parts from Jaguar's Le Mans cars. It gets a heaping dose of carbon fiber, revised springs and a claimed 690 hp. The interior got lightweight carbon-fiber trim and Kevlar seats. It's even rarer than the “base” XJ220.

Check out our old drive story of the car by Denise McCluggage from August 30, 1993.

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By Jake Lingeman