Twelve Jaguar volunteers built a supercar on weekends, and it went 217 mph
Over Christmas 1987, Jaguar's engineering director made a cardboard model of a dream racing car. With no official backing, twelve colleagues built it in their evenings and weekends. Shown in 1988, the XJ220 drew hundreds of deposits, became the world's fastest production car, and then hit a recession.
Jim Randle, Jaguar's engineering director, felt the company's Le Mans racers had drifted too far from anything customers could buy. He wanted an in-house car that could win the race as the C-Type and D-Type once had. His quarter-scale cardboard model went to the styling studio, where Keith Helfet's version was chosen for looking more obviously Jaguar. The volunteers, nicknamed the Saturday Club, begged components from suppliers in exchange for recognition.
The concept was ambitious. It paired a 48-valve racing V12, from the family that powered the 1988 Le Mans winner, with four-wheel drive designed by Tony Rolt's firm, driving the front wheels through a shaft running down the engine's V. The name followed the XK120, which had been titled after its top speed; the target this time was 220 mph. The silver aluminium car had scissor doors and a see-through engine cover. It was finished at 3am on 18 October 1988 and unveiled at the Birmingham motor show eight hours later.
Demand was immediate: about 281 buyers paid £50,000 deposits for 1992 delivery. But the production version, developed with Tom Walkinshaw Racing, swapped the V12 for a turbocharged V6 to meet engineering and emissions rules. With a recession crushing demand for expensive cars, many buyers backed out, and only 275 were built between 1992 and 1994, each priced at £470,000.
Performance delivered all the same. At Italy's Nardo test track, with its catalytic converter removed, an XJ220 reached 217 mph, making it the fastest production car of 1992 and 1993. Jaguar says a prototype lapped the Nürburgring in 7:46.36 in 1991, quicker than any production car before it.
Source: Jaguar XJ220
