Jaguar working on lighter F-Type with C-X75's twin-charged engine?

Wed, 09 Jul 2014

Every automaker has its own agenda when it comes to concept cars. Some roll them out just to showcase where it's heading. Others create them to gauge public opinion for a potential production model. Still others only showcase a concept car to preview a model that's already well underway. Jaguar is just such a company.

In the last several years, Coventry has only produced a handful of concept cars, and each of them – the C-X16 that foreshadowed the F-Type, the C-X17 that previews the upcoming crossover and Project 7 that is now entering limited production – has led straight to the introduction of a new, commercially available model. Except for one: the C-X75.

The extreme lightweight supercar was set to succeed the XJ220 with a number of advanced technologies, but unfortunately Jaguar ended up pulling the plug to watch from the sidelines as McLaren, Ferrari and Porsche got all the attention for their new hybrid hypercars. But that doesn't mean that some of the technologies initially developed for the C-X75 won't find their way into other Jaguar products.

One project reportedly under consideration would be for Jaguar Land Rover's new Special Operations division to use the compact yet potent twin-charged engine in the F-Type. The 1.6-liter four-cylinder engine was designed as a replacement for the costly turbines in the original concept, but used both super- and turbochargers to deliver around 500 horsepower.

That's about as much power as the F-Type V8 S and a few steps short of the F-Type Coupe R, let alone the Project 7 speedster, but with half the cylinder count and less than a third the displacement, would weigh significantly less. That could mean extra space for a hybrid assist or enable spritelier dynamics all on its own, but if approved for production, we wouldn't expect it to come cheap: the engine was, after all, developed for a supercar. And if Jaguar were to make it, it could end up charging proper supercar prices for it, as well.

By Noah Joseph