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Jaguar releases C-X75 concept build story

If you want to know what was going through the minds of decisionmakers at Jaguar when the company decided to build the batty C-X75 Concept, look no further than the quick video after the jump. Jaguar set about building a car with the performance of a Bugatti Veyron, the electric range of a Chevrolet Volt and the emissions of a Toyota Prius, and they turned to a legendary engineering firm to help make it happen. Williams, the same crew behind Williams F1, helped Jaguar stitch the concept car together, and the result is unlike anything we've seen before.
The twin-charged 1.6-liter four-cylinder mounted amidship is paired with an electric motor at each wheel for a combined output of over 850 horsepower. And, since the whole chassis is hewn from carbon fiber, a production version would've been light enough to give machines like the McLaren P1 and Ferrari LaFerrari a run for their money. Shame they apparently couldn't make the business case work. Watch the concept build story in the video below for yourself.

Jaguar C-X75 production run canceled

"We feel we could make the car work, but looking at the global austerity measures in place now, it seems the wrong time to launch an 800,000-pound to 1 million-pound supercar."
Those words are from Jaguar Global Brand Director Adrian Hallmark, and as true as they may be, it still stings a little bit. After all, we've been looking forward to the Jaguar C-X75 ever since word came from Jolly Olde that it was green-lit for a short production run.
Some of the cool bits and pieces the world will now be without: a powerful but relatively miserly 1.6-liter turbocharged and supercharged four-cylinder engine, two electric motors driving all four wheels and a carbon fiber chassis developed by Williams F1. Sigh.

Jaguar practiced the E-Pace barrel roll - wait, how do you practice a barrel roll?

Jaguar launched the E-Pace compact crossover by literally launching it into a barrel roll. But to get to the point where the company could do the stunt in front of the press naturally took plenty of preparation and planning, and the company documented much of it in the video above. It turns out that the early stages of preparing the stunt are about as entertaining as the stunt itself. The video spends a little time showing some of the computer modeling and designing of the stunt, but most of the video covers the practice runs done with a test car. Jaguar set up its prototype offset ramp for initiating the roll, and had a massive airbag set up for the test car to land in. And early on, to make sure the stunt driver wasn't hurt, they rigged up a Land Rover Evoque with autonomous driving equipment to do the first runs. Later the stunt driver took a few turns. The testing resulted in flips and tumbles you've only seen with Hot Wheels cars. It's so strange and fun to see a full-size car launched this way. Once the team finally had the jump pretty well dialed in, the stunt driver was able to test it launching from ramp to ramp, and then eventually do it in the production E-Pace at the crossover's reveal. Related Video: Image Credit: Jaguar Jaguar Crossover Luxury Videos jaguar e-pace