All Entries Tagged With: "XJ220"
Jaguar XJ220 Redux? Jaguar Plans To Build C-X75
by Gunnar Heinrich ::: img Jaguar ::: Jaguar C-X75
DETERMINED to make the C-X75 “as striking on the road as it was in concept form,” Jaguar and its design director Ian Callum are set to transform what was originally a celebration of 75 years of Jaguar’s most feline car art into a limited production, £700,000 ($1.1 million) reality. History shows that they’ve been here before. Can Jaguar succeed this time round?
This Week @ Coys: Jaguar XJ220
by Gunnar Heinrich ::: img Coys ::: 1994 Jaguar XJ220
IT just didn’t seem fair.
Jaguar was teasing us Yanks! Coventry’s 549 horsepower, 473 torques, 217 mph demon – the XJ220 – was featured prominently in an advert in R&T in the early 90s. Mid-engined, menacing, the archetypal exotic. The fastest production car in the world, they said.
The $650,000 XJ220 was, nonetheless, not for sale in these United States. Look but no touch. Just for us Brits and everyone else. You Yanks can make do with our XJS.
And for what reason? None that justified its absence. Needless to say, examples have found their way Stateside since. Who knows, perhaps this example offered by London-based auto auctioneer Coys might, too.
This Week @ Coys: Exotic Dreams Revisited
Fuel for a young imagination.
By Gunnar Heinrich | IMG via RapidCars.com
WHEN the eighties turned into the nineties, there were three 200+ mph supercars that diverted my attention from grammar school studies and fueled my passion for cars.
They rank as follows: Bugatti’s EB110, the McLaren F1, and the Jaguar XJ220.
Of the three, the Bugatti was my favorite for being a) Italian - molto bene! b) blending luxury with exotic performance and c) all-wheel drive.
IMHO back then, the true blue EB110 would’ve been the perfect choice for replacing the family Volvo in taking yours to and from school.
Indeed, yours was taking practical considerations into account.
The all-wheel drive would ensure that I’d make it to class on snow days; a selfless act of sacrificing liberation from school.
The EB110′s four turbochargers, performance shoes, and decisive lack of ground clearance didn’t factor in my assessment.
Time rolled on, our Volvo 740 (not-so-good in the snow) was replaced by a 940 (truly dismal polar performer) and then an 850 (damn near unstoppable), and history forgot the first and last of the super three to remember only the McLaren – a stripped down bullet that like the XJ220 wasn’t sold Stateside.
Back then, American emissions standards barred entry. And since then, we’ve all grown more practical and pragmatic. Or have we?
