FIVE CONCEPTS THAT WE WISH JAGUAR HAD PUT INTO PRODUCTION
I always think that Jaguar never gets full credit for just how pioneering the company was during the 20th Century. The XK120 back in the ’40s and ’50s was the world’s fastest production car and started Jaguar’s Le Mans success, continued by the C-Type and D-Type.
Then came the sacred lightweight E-Types followed by an era of V12s that then spawned a resurgence in endurance racing through the likes of the XJR-9 driven by the motorsport giants that are Martin Brundle and Andy Wallace.
Thankfully the stunning XKSS did make it into production, if only in limited numbers
Since then, Jaguar has still been innovating and pushing technological boundaries but – due to financial strains in the past – many concepts from the Gaydon skunkworks never came to being. So it’s time for the world to know just what we missed out on from this quintessential British brand.
THE V12 JAGUAR XJ220
The initial ideas for Jaguar’s supercar of the 90s were truly mouth-watering. Created by a team known as ‘The Saturday Club’ during weekends, the XJ220 started with Jaguar’s racing V12, all-wheel drive, it was mid-engined, featured rear-wheel steering and had an all-Aluminium body. With Jag’s aim being to create an ‘in-house’ Le Mans winner like the C-Type and D-Type, another goal was to create a car that would achieve a top speed of 220mph, hence the car’s name.
After being received so well at its launch, Jaguar decided to put the car into production as a road car but sadly had to tweak the design to make it financially viable. That culminated in a heavily modified V6 powertrain from the MG Metro 6R4 (including a couple of turbochargers), rear-wheel drive and the dismissal of the rear-wheel steering system.
The production XJ220 never made it to 220mph but still took the title of fastest production car in 1992 with 213mph before being swiftly dethroned by the McLaren F1. If only that original 6.2-litre, 48-valve V12 power unit had survived the design meeting…
JAGUAR XK180
Positioned as the ‘replacement’ for the E-Type, the XK180 shows many lines and curves reminiscent of the X100 and X150 XKs. Unveiled at the 1999 Paris Motor Show, this beautiful concept was built to celebrate 50 years of the XK car, starting with the XK120 back in the late 1940s.
It featured a supercharged 4.0-litre V8 producing around 450bhp and 445lb ft of torque which was mated to a five-speed transmission. Performance was impressive through a 0-62mph time of 4.5 seconds and a top speed of 180mph along with the suspension setup from the XKR of the time, making the XK180 a genuine contender against the likes of Porsche and Mercedes.
Unfortunately it never made it to production and was simply a showpiece for what the Jaguar engineers could do. There is light at the end of the tunnel however, as companies have popped up that will build convincing replicas from XK and XJ-S donor cars.
JAGUAR R-D6
The thought of a Jaguar hatchback rival to a Volkswagen Golf or Audi A3 may seem a bit far-fetched now, but it almost became a reality back in 2003. Featuring a 2.7-litre diesel V6, this striking Ian Callum design would have taken on the likes of the BMW 1-Series in the luxury hatchback market.
Sadly, production priorities meant that the R-D6 never made it past the ‘idea’ stage and simply became another showcase of British engineering that never went anywhere. Sharing its powertrain with the diesel S-Type, the R-D6 would have produced 230bhp and 369lb ft of torque and may have sold extremely well if it had made it to the market place.
JAGUAR XKR-R
A project from Jaguar’s SVO unit, the XKR-R was essentially an XKR turned up to 15. After the XK8 started off the show with a naturally-aspirated 4.0-litre V8, the XKR increased its power through a supercharger before both cars then moved on to 4.2-litre units. The XKR-R then took that block and cranked the power output to somewhere around 450bhp and added some driver input to the mix through a six-speed manual transmission.
It was only ever a prototype but there’s no question the limited-slip differential-wielding Jag would have stepped all over the Aston Martin DB7 and been a genuine rival to the Porsche 911 Turbo of the early 2000s.
JAGUAR C-X75
The most tragic story for the company comes in the shape of the hypercar that was years ahead of the Porsche 918, McLaren P1 and LaFerrari in terms of performance and powertrain development. Built in-tandem with Williams Advanced Engineering in 2010, the C-X75 was originally conceptualised with electric motors at each wheel which would be charged by two gas turbines in a rear-mid-engined position. This radical power source was then changed to a Formula One-derived 1.6-litre engine that was dual-boosted (turbocharged and supercharged) to produce 502bhp.
The four-cylinder internal combustion engine was then mated to an electric motor that pushed the total power output up to a staggering 850bhp, with 738lb ft of torque to top things off. This all made for a theoretical top speed of 220mph, with the car physically tested to over 200mph. Add in active aero and a slick seven-speed auto ‘box and the C-X75 could have quite easily turned the latest ‘Holy Trinity’ into a tantalising quaternity.
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