2009 Jaguar Xk Convertible Rare Pearlescent Diamond Edition 1 Owner Msrp $93k on 2040-cars

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Reliving the Jaguar XJ220 with a father-son duo

Jaguar may have canceled the C-X75 project, but there was a time when the Leaping Cat marque did make supercars. Sure, there were the XJR-9 and XJR-15 homologation specials made by TWR, but more famous was the XJ220. Although its reign may have lasted only a year before the McLaren F1 came along, for a brief time in the early 1990s, the XJ220 was the fastest car in the world – which is even more impressive when you consider that it was only powered by a 3.5-liter twin-turbo V6 when its rivals were using mostly V8s and V12s. That makes the XJ220 a rather noteworthy supercar from the dawn of the 200-mph era. The thing is, while Jaguar has come to embrace the XJ220 as an exceptional part of its history, it doesn't have the time or energy to devote to servicing the 275 that were made between 1992 and 1994. So it turns to Don Law Racing. The father-son team – made up of a master mechanic and his hot-shoe offspring – is tasked with keeping the XJ220 alive both in body and in spirit, and do so with a great deal of well-deserved pride. Drive went out to their workshop in Staffordshire to tell their story.

Watch Felipe Massa put the Jaguar C-X75 through its paces

Automakers who run their own racing teams enjoy the benefit of having top-flight professional racing drivers on call to help out with development work. Jaguar, unfortunately, has no such racing team, having sold its F1 operation to Red Bull back in 2004. So when it came time to put the C-X75 through its paces in this latest video, it turned to Felipe Massa. Why Massa, you ask? For one thing, having driven for so long for Ferrari, the Brazilian driver is used to applying his F1 skills in testing a supercar designed for the road. But since switching to Williams, he hasn't been called upon in that capacity. For another, it was Williams Advanced Engineering as much as Jaguar itself that spearheaded development of the C-X75. So Massa was the natural choice. The C-X75, for those who don't recall, represented Jaguar's plan to build a hybrid hypercar of its own. Having debuted way back in 2010 at the Paris Motor Show, the concept followed hot on the heels of the Porsche 918 concept unveiled earlier that year in Geneva – a predated by far the emergence of the McLaren P1 and LaFerrari. The original design called for a revolutionary powertrain combining a pair of micro-turbines and four individual electric motors in the wheels. When that proved unfeasible, Jaguar switched to a more conventional setup with a turbocharged hybrid powertrain. Unfortunately plans to put even that version into production were shelved. But the concept was revived for the filming of the latest James Bond movie Spectre. Check out the C-X75 being put through its paces by the eleven-time grand prix winner in the video above. Related Video:

Jaguar working on 600-hp F-Type SVR

Thinking about buying a new Jaguar F-Type? You've got a number of supercharged engine options to choose from... and soon you'll have one more. According to Motor Trend, Jaguar and its Special Vehicle Operations unit are working on a new SVR version of the F-Type, and it's tipped to pack 600 or more horsepower. That's more than anything Jaguar (or for that matter Land Rover) has offered for public consumption to date, but follows a delineated progression of output. As it is, the 5.0-liter supercharged V8 offered at launch in the F-Type convertible was already churning out 500 metric horsepower. Then came the F-Type R coupe that bumped output up to 550, followed by the limited-edition Project 7 roadster with 575. Topping 600 would only follow naturally, then, but would give the F-Type a broad range of outputs, starting at 335 hp and nearly doubling once it hits the top. It would also handsomely eclipse the Mercedes-AMG GT S (503 hp) and Porsche 911 Turbo S (552 hp), rival the Aston Martin Vantage GT12 (592 hp), and give even the new Audi R8 V10 Plus (610 hp) a run for its money. The bigger question is what form the SVR model will take, and with what other equipment. Coupe or convertible, rear-drive or all-wheel drive, automatic or manual... it's too early to say at this point. But we can probably expect much of the equipment from Project 7 – active diff, carbon-ceramic brakes... the works – to reappear in the SVR as well.