Jaguar C-X75

About this model

2010 celebrated the 75th anniversary of Jaguar, and, in May of that year, also marked the launch of a particular high-tech supercar. Dubbed the C-X75 (Concept Experimental 75th), it was a collaboration between Jaguar SVO (Special Vehicle Operations) and Williams Advanced Engineering, a subsidiary of the famed F1 team. It launched at the Paris Auto Salon that year to immediate fanfare, but never fully made production.

Its design brief was to be as fast as a Bugatti Veyron 16.4 but have the emissions equal to a Toyota Prius, and the all-electric range of a Chevrolet Volt. That would be a challenge, but luckily the team at Jaguar had an ace up their sleeve: gas turbines.

Gas turbine engines have rarely been seen in production cars. The Chrysler Turbine Car of 1963 was about the only semi-successful one - if you’d call getting recalled and destroyed ‘successful’ - but the theoretical principals were there. Turbine engines are very smooth, very light respective of their power output, and able to be powered on a variety of fuels. For Jaguar, they would choose micro-turbines, miniature units that produced about 95 bhp each but charged the batteries for the four electric motors. A total of 780 bhp and 1179 Ib/ft of torque was expected, as well as an EV-only range of 68 miles.

The electronics involved were something to behold as well. Complicated traction control, torque vectoring and stability control systems did their best to transmit the power to the pavement. But, if the driver was to wish for a calmer, more refined drive, the C-X75 could turn into tame, fuel-efficient transportation at the push of a button. This was all from a car that Jaguar claimed could hit 60 mph in 3.4 seconds, and push onto 205 mph.

The C-X75 was to be part of a £5 billion investment plan, which would see Jaguar launching 40 ‘significant new products’ over a five-year period. The C-X75 was announced for production in May 2011 with a base price of £700,000, and a planned run of 250 units, produced between 2013 and 2015. However, this production model would be very different, as it would now use a small, forced induction petrol engine instead of gas turbines and a carbon fibre chassis. The silhouette remained the same, but the EV range dropped to 31 miles.

The chosen engine was a 1.6-litre, Jaguar proprietary four-cylinder fitted with both a supercharger and turbocharger. This, quite amazingly, resulted in an output of 502 bhp at 10,000 rpm, the world record for an engine of its size. The electric motors were also Jaguar’s own, and produced 194 bhp on each axle, making for a total in excess of 850 bhp. Mind-blowing, especially considering it was three times stiffer than a Lamborghini Murcielago, able to run for 40 miles on just electric power, and fairly friendly to the environment.

Then, as all was set to go, Jaguar dropped the project, citing the global recession as the wrong time to launch such a car. Were they wrong? Well, hindsight can be a wonderful thing considering the success of the would-be rivals Ferrari, Porsche and McLaren, but Jaguar made the right call for the time. In total, only five prototypes had ever been produced, with Jaguar keeping two and selling off the rest.

Jaguar later received a call from the producers of Spectre, the twenty-fourth film in the James Bond series. Aston Martin was the obvious choice for the hero character, but they needed a futuristic-looking for the villain - Mr Hinx - to drive. Therefore, the C-X75 was revived, in a way…

Despite looking like the C-X75s of before, the cars used in Spectre were completely different underneath. Built more like World Rally Cars rather than supercars to survive the rigours of filming such a flick, they used a tubular spaceframe chassis, extra-travel suspension and a dry-sump version of the V8 seen in the F-Type, mated to a six-speed Ricardo transaxle. The all-wheel-drive was also dropped in favour of traditional rear-wheel-drive, and a paddle shifter and hydraulic handbrake were fitted to aid filming. All seven cars survived the shooting process.