It seems like just yesterday that posters of Jaguar’s XJ220 were hanging on our bedroom walls, but 2012 marks the 20 year anniversary of Jag’s six-cylinder super car.
Looking to take on the best from Ferrari and Porsche, Jaguar unveiled the XJ220 in concept form at the 1988 British Motor Show. The show car was an instant hit and Jaguar approved the XJ220 for production just one year later.
Jaguar signed Tom Walkinshaw Racing (TWR) to help develop the car, and the first prototype of the XJ220 was completed in 1990. Jaguar and TWR continued tweaking the design for two more years before the first XJ220 was delivered to a retail customer in 1992 for the tidy sum of $740,000.
Powered by Jaguar’s first-ever V6 engine – a 3.5L twin-turbocharged unit developing 542 horsepower – the XJ220 could accelerate from 0-60 in under four seconds and hit a top speed of 213 mph, the latter a production car record for the day.
Jaguar also took the XJ220 racing with the launch of a XJ220 S model. The S models started life as pre-production cars but were then fitted with spare parts from Le Mans cars and were given a healthy boost to 680 horsepower. After their racing careers were done, Jaguar converted the XJ220 S models into road-going vehicles, with one of those examples recently crossing the auction block.
Production of the Jaguar XJ220 ended in 1994 with just 275 units built.
