Jaguar XJ220

Jaguars are visually stunning and sensational in terms of performance. Leave alone the fact that their ownership changed several hands and were monetarily challenged on multiple occasions, Jags have shown how beautiful cars can be.

For three straight years, the Jaguar XJ220 wore the crown of the world's fastest production car before being tipped by none other than the Mclaren F1. The interesting story began one fine day in the year 1984 when Jag's director of engineering Jim Randle, hit upon a creative idea of creating a 500 bhp supercar. In the mid-80's, Jaguar was deeply engrossed in the work cut out for them and a supercar wasn't in any way associated to their agenda. After a few discussions, Jag planned to get together on Saturday mornings to work on this dream project and it took four long years to realize it.

The mid-engined 6.2-liter V12 supercar was displayed for the first time at the Birmingham Motor show in 1988. Sporting a stylish design and a much hyped scissor doors, its top speed was estimated to be well over the 200 mph mark.

Ford acquired Jaguar in 1989 but nevertheless, they too found this idea interesting and set out to produce it. But the production version had its differences to the concept car. It was eight inches shorter and the V12 was stripped and instead, a twin turbocharged 3.5-liter V6 filled the void. With that said, there was no compromise on power. The engine was powerful enough to generate 524 bhp which could take the beast to a record shattering 213 mph. 0-100 mph came in an eye-blinking 8 seconds! (Let's remind ourselves that we are in 1991)

Customers and motoring journalists adored the new supercar which was quite comfortable too. The only bad bit was the exhaust note which sounded a little non-supercarish (we made up that word). The XJ220 costed the earth. At 403,000 pounds it wasn't cheap. Sadly a lot of controversy surrounded this supercar after they sold a few and production was halted right after the 275th model was put together in 1994. 350 numbers were proposed initially.

A disguised version of the XJ220, the XJ220-C was a lighter car which emerged the winner at Le Mans in 1994 but was later disqualified due to a technicality. All in all, the XJ220 was the best supercar Jag made and the best ever made, some say. It had to bite the dust due to controversies and problems, a death that can be described unfortunate.