CarBrandLogos archive · Jaguar · 1992

JaguarXJ220

Promised with twelve cylinders and four-wheel drive; delivered with six and neither.

Photo: Brian Snelson · CC BY 2.0

The story

A defining chapter in Jaguar history.

Explore the ideas, engineering and context that shaped the Jaguar XJ220, then continue into its specifications and place in the marque's lineage.

Origins

It began as an after-hours project. Jim Randle, Jaguar's engineering director, and a group of colleagues designed a supercar in their own time and built it as a show car for the 1988 British motor show: a mid-engined coupé styled by Keith Helfet, with the company's V12, four-wheel drive and scissor doors. The reaction was extraordinary. Buyers put down large deposits — reportedly £50,000 each — for a car Jaguar had not committed to building.

Jaguar XJR10-3paddock-91wpb · Formulanone · CC BY-SA 3.0

Design and engineering

By the time JaguarSport, the joint venture with Tom Walkinshaw Racing, engineered a production version, the specification had changed fundamentally. Four-wheel drive was gone, the doors were conventional, and the V12 had been replaced by a 3.5-litre twin-turbocharged V6 with roots in Group B rallying. The result was lighter, more powerful and faster than the V12 car would have been. It was also, to many deposit-holders, not the car they had ordered — and the recession of the early 1990s had by then removed both their enthusiasm and, in a number of cases, their means. Litigation followed and some buyers walked away.

XJ220 Engine view · Jaguar Cars MENA · CC BY 2.0

Jaguar XJ220 top Heritage Motor Centre, Gaydon

In production

The car itself was formidable. At Nardò it ran beyond 210 mph, making it the fastest production car in the world at the time, and an XJ220C won its class at Le Mans in 1993 only to be disqualified afterwards in a dispute over catalytic converters that Jaguar contested.

Jaguar XJ220 top Heritage Motor Centre, Gaydon · Morio · CC BY-SA 3.0

Legacy

Of a planned 350, 282 were built at Bloxham between 1992 and 1994. Values collapsed on delivery and stayed low for two decades before recovering sharply, as the XJ220 was reassessed as what it always was: a very fast car that arrived at the worst possible moment.

At a glance

The facts that define it.

Produced

1992–1994

Units built

282

Engine

6222 cc Jaguar V12 engine

Designer

Keith Helfet under Jim Randle

Technical specification

The XJ220, in detail.

Production: 1992–1994; 282 produced
Class: Sports car (S)
Body style: 2-door coupé
Layout: Rear mid-engine, four-wheel-drive layout; Rear mid-engine, all-wheel-drive (concept) ; Rear mid-engine, rear-wheel-drive layout; Rear mid-engine, rear-wheel-drive (production version)
Engine: 6222 cc Jaguar V12 engine; Jaguar V12 (concept) ; 3498 cc twin-turbocharged Austin-Rover V64V engine; Jaguar JRV-6 V6 engine; V6 (production version)
Transmission: 5-speed manual
Designer: Keith Helfet under Jim Randle
Assembly: United Kingdom: Bloxham, Oxfordshire
Manufacturer: JaguarSport; ( Jaguar/TWR joint venture )