The Jaguar XJ220 may remain the brands latest supercar for a while, now that the C-X75 project has been axed. Only 281 production units were made between 1990 and 1992, which makes the XJ220 a very rare car.
Naturally, Jaguar also built five development prototypes, which were used to solve the cars packaging and tyre safety problems. The first two of these prototypes were smaller and featured radically different A-pillars. The cars were driven at their limits by racing drivers including Andy Wallace, John Neilsen and David Leslie.
This brings us to the Prototype 002 (although one photo reads Serial No. 005), a car which recently surfaced on the i-bidder website. The ad description says this particular Jaguar XJ220 prototype was often driven by 1988 Le Mans winner Andy Wallace and has been responsible for two XJ220 development milestones: it reached 186 mph (299 km/h) at the Bruntingthorpe circuit and successfully completed 24 hour durability tests at the Millbrook proving ground.
The cars original color was silver, but it was painted red while being evaluated by Jaguar Sports test drivers. The prototype is 18 cm (7 in) shorter, 15 cm (5.9 in) narrower and circa 180 kg (397 lbs) lighter than production Jaguar XJ220s. It is powered by a twin-turbo Heidegger racing engine said to be closely related to the unit in TWR Racings XJR-11 Group C cars.
With a displacement between 3.2 and 3.5 liters, the unit is linked to a five-speed FF Developments transaxle gearbox. The ad description says the car took 791 man hours and £69,690.05 (80,650) to be restored. The current owner also says the 002 prototype has the same chassis, red livery, engine/gearbox, dashboard, Betron Foray seats and Dymo labelling with which it ended the testing period. It was road registered in late May 2009 with help from the Jaguar Daimler Heritage Trust.
By Dan Mihalascu
Shout out to Max for the submission!
