As wide as the Thames, an engine from a Group B rally car and 90’s wrap around dials in the cock pit.
There’s always an element of roulette with a trip to Caffeine and Machine, you never quite know what will be parked up and arriving but you can guarantee it will be something epic.
On a most recent trip, sitting pride of place at the entrance to the bar was a deep green Jaguar XJ220. The pure size of it commanded presence, you’re struck by how long, low and wide the car is with long sweeping sleek lines.
Originally intended to be a four wheel drive, V12 powered monster, sat in front of us was a twin turbo V6, rear drive savage with an interesting back story.
Spawned out of the motorsport programme run by Tom Walkinshaw Racing you can trace the 220’s heritage back to the 1988 Le Mans winning XJR-9 (with the infamous Silk Cut livery). The then Director of Engineering, Jim Randle perceived the Le Mans cars were far too detached from the road going Jaguars of the time so began a project to develop a car within Jaguar that would be capable of winning Le Mans.
Jim, in Blue Peter style, over his Christmas holidays built a scale cardboard model for his idea which he took to his aero dynamics team who developed it into a couple of full sized mock-ups. The challenge Jim faced next was he still had no official approval for the project to be running which meant ‘The Saturday Club’ was formed with 12 volunteers giving up their weekends to work on the XJ220.
The name was a homage to the XK120, XK140 etc. where the number denoted the cars top speed , Jaguar were aiming for 220mph.
Jim called in a number of favours with his suppliers to cobble together a prototype of the then V12 powered four wheel drive XJ220 which was unveiled at the NEC in Birmingham during the 1988 British International Motor Show. The future for the 220 looked positive with a number of customers handing over blank cheques to secure a vehicle and Jaguar blew the display of the Ferrari F40 out the water with an additional 90,000 visitors heading to the show just to see the XJ220. The next challenge for Jaguar was bringing the car to life as up till now it had not been intended to be a road going vehicle.
Tom Walkinshaw Racing (TWR) conducted a feasibility study to conclude if a production programme was possible and financially viable, the conclusion, yes. A production run of up to 350 cars with an ex VAT price of £290,000 per car was announced in 1989 with perspective buyers needing to put down a £50,000 deposit (it was rumoured some 1400 deposits were taken).
WIth Jaguar needing to focus on their higher production models, the XJ and XJS, the responsibility of delivering the XJ220 was handed over to TWR.
The reasoning for the spec changes over the development of the vehicle seem to vary depending on who is talking about it. Some suggest that the change from four wheel drive to rear wheel drive was due to complexity and additional weight, some say it was the time to develop the 4WD system would have delayed the vehicle production, and others claim it was a cost cutting exercise. Similarly for the engine change, the twin turbo V6 was being used in the race cars due to the improved fuel efficiency over the V12 for endurance events however a lot of people elude to the V6 being used in the XJ220 because TWR had an abundance of the base Metro 6R4 engine available following Group B rally being disbanded.
Only 281 XJ220’s were made in total over the two years of production finishing in 1994. Spawned off the back of the programme was the racing XJ220-C built to compete in FISA GT with drivers such as David Brabham and David Coulthard. Developments of the racing cars allowed derivatives of the XJ220 to complete in GT1 class for the 1995 Le Mans and the Italian GT Championship in 1993. The final form was the XJ220-S, complete with carbonfibre body work and the engine tuned to produce some 700 horsepower. Six road going XJ220-S were produced with it setting a lap record at Milbrook during the Autocar review averaging 180.4mph.
Hopefully this tangent from seeing the XJ220 at Caffeine and Machine has been interesting, it certainly has been to write it.
While taking the long walk round the leviathan XJ220 the Don Law decal in the rear window was spotted. There is only one way to describe Don Law Racing, they are THE XJ220 specialist. They’ve been tickling 220’s for years to eek out as much performance out as possible and have undertaken some unique projects including creating an XJ220 powered Ford Transit which hit speeds in excess of 175mph. The team at Don Law Racing have a long history with racing Jaguars stretching back to the when the XJ220 was conceived and began racing along with the XJR15’s which were another TWR project well worth looking at. If you’re interested in learning more about Don Law this article by Petrolicious is exceptional.
Check out the rest of the photos below.
