Jaguar XJ220
Jaguar

Jaguar XJ220 – The Tumultuous Birth of the Sensational Supercar

Avatar photoDjordje Sugaris

For the most part of the 20th century, Jaguar had been a dominant force on the race tracks around the world, winning the 1951 and 1953 Le Mans with the C-Type and 1955-1957 renditions of the race with the D-Type. But ever since the jinxed XJ13, the company was reluctant to put all its efforts into creating a spectacular road car. And then, the early 1990s saw the Jaguar XJ220, a futuristic teardrop-shaped two-seater and a not so subtle reminder that Jaguar has still got it.

This epiphanic moment gave birth to the most spectacular Jaguar in a long time and one of the company’s most iconic creations. On the other hand, the story of the XJ220’s genesis is also tumultuous and full of unexpected turns.

Tags
Avatar photo
Djordje Sugaris
Lifelong car lover, fancy word enthusiast. Good at combining these two. I am an automotive journalist with 10 years of experience, starting from my teens. In fact, every job I ever had was about cars one way or another. In 2013, I co-founded Autoslavia, a project covering classic car heritage and car culture in Southeastern Europe. Published on Airows, Sports Car Digest, eManuals and more.
Related
Members only$29 / year

Keep going. This is where it gets good.

Sports Car Digest Membership is for people who'd rather spend an hour with one chassis number than skim ten headlines. The rest of this story — and every other one like it — is a few seconds away.

  • 5,000+ members-only stories

    Concours, auctions, race history, driven classics and the full archive.

  • No ads. None.

    The whole site reads like a magazine, on every device.

  • The market, every week

    Auction results and classic-car values from the people who were there.

  • 30% off the shop

    Every Sports Car Digest shirt and piece of merch, all year.

Join Sports Car Digest — Keep Reading

$29 a year. Cancel anytime, no hoops.
Already a member? Sign in

BY CAR PEOPLE, NOT A NAMELESS MEDIA COMPANY. Your membership keeps a small independent team of historians, photojournalists and racing drivers doing this.

Join — Keep Reading $29/yr