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15/05/2011
REVIEW by EWAN KENNEDY
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When we spoke to Jaguar’s design chief Ian Callum at his unveiling of the Jaguar C-X75 concept car at the 2010 Paris Motor Show he denied it would go into production. However, the Jaguar supercar, styled in celebration of the British marque’s 75th anniversary has received so much praise that it may be revived and turned into reality.
Callum, a fellow Scot I’ve known for many years, was arguably being truthful about the car not going into production, at least not as it was displayed in Paris. Because the concept car proudly boasted a pair of tiny jet engines and four electric motors, one to each wheel to provide all-wheel drive.
The jet engine plans have been put on the back burner, but the electric motors remain - now working in tandem with a high-performance petrol engine. Details of the engine aren’t being given other than that it will be a small capacity unit with a very-high pressure supercharger.
The really astonishing thing is that Jaguar says it can get the emission levels of the C-X75 supercar underneath 100 grams of CO2 per kilometre. The only cars currently able to do this are small hatchbacks with special low-power diesel engines. To achieve this in a big sports machine capable of accelerating from rest to 97 km/h in under three seconds on its way to a top speed of 320 km/h seems like a pipe dream. Yet the Brits are obviously very serious about proving their technical prowess and feel they can make it work.
Longtime Formula One team Williams will be working with Jaguar on the C-X75 project and will be able to provide not only high-performance small-capacity engine designs, but also ways of keeping the big Jaguar’s weight to a minimum by using carbon fibre and other racing car materials.
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Ian Callum’s design for the Jaguar C-X75 shows strong cues to sports Jaguars of the past, particularly the famed E-Type. Just look at front grille and the shape of the rear and rear-side windows. Jaguar spotters will also note shades of the body of the Jaguar XJ220 of the early 1990s. It can even be argued there are traces of the current model Jaguar XK sports in the C-X75, hardly a surprise as Callum penned that vehicle in striking coupe and convertible formats.
Jaguar says only 250 of this very special C-X75 will be made and that it will be priced at about $1.2 million in Australia, to which will have to be added the normal on-road costs plus a hefty slice of luxury car tax. The result could be a price tag not far short of two million dollars.
Cynics are saying this announcement by Jaguar of the latest C-X75 is purely a promotional exercise. The media event certainly achieved a huge amount of airplay on major international TV stations so was a major success from that point of view.
Can Jaguar deliver the goods and produce a car that’s a big step forward from today’s best technology? Who knows, but it would certainly be great to see the British marque with a strong sports and racing heritage give it a solid go. |
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