Celebrating 20 Years Since the Jaguar XJ220

Originally launched in 1992, the Jaguar Xj220 is a car that was either a major success or horrendous failure depending on your outlook.

When it was new, the car's 213mph top speed made it the fastest street car ever produced, but its name came from its planned 220mph top speed that it never was able to manage. Although, the McLaren F1 broke that record when it was released a few months later. 

When concepts of the XJ220 were shown in 1988, Jaguar had planned for it to use a 6.2 liter V12, but that engine proved too large for the car and would not pass emissions tests. So instead, Jaguar used a 3.5 liter turbocharged V6 with 543hp and 475lb-ft of torque and a five-speed manual transmission. This engine was actually a modified version of the famous Cosworth DFV and had been used in Jaguar's Group C racecars previously. It weighed in a 1,470kg (3241lbs). 

The production car was delivered in June 1992 and cost £470,000, that would be about £759,000 or $1.2 million today. Jaguar completed 275 cars, plus six racing versions, by the time production ended in 1994. In 1993 one of the racing versions took a class win at the 24 Hours of Le Mans with John Nielsen, David Brabham and David Coulthard behind the wheel. 

The XJ220 even got its own videogame on the Sega CD and Commodore Amiga. A video of the game is posted below.