Teamspeed First Drive: The Jaguar C-X75

The man from Williams Advanced Engineering, brandishing a laptop, seemed impressed. You hit 269kph back there, he said. That’s 167mph. Not bad for my first time out in the mighty Jaguar C-X75 supercar. I’m sure I could have easily topped that, too. Sadly, because Jaguar is not going to build the C-X75, we’ll never get the chance to find out. Dang.

This run was a one-off, to celebrate what Jaguar and Williams achieved with the C-X75 supercar project. After this, it was straight off to the Oldtimer Grand Prix at the Nurburgring, to show the final prototype on static display. Nothing static about this run, held at a secret airfield in southwest Germany, though.

Bit first, we had a presentation about the car itself. By, fittingly, the technicians from Williams that had done so much to create it, rather than from Jaguar engineers themselves. First, they said, it was vital to frame the project. Williams Advanced Engineering’s Ian Cluett explained that Jaguar had a strict mark in the ground, making the creation of a ground-up supercar even more of a challenge.

It had to, instructed the firm, look just like the concept that had wowed the Paris Motor Show in 2010. Take that supercar, produce it for limited-series production (the target was 250 cars) – but don’t change how it looks at all. All well and good if you were actually producing the show car, mini jet engines and all. But Williams wasn’t.

It soon became clear that the futuristic powertrain wasn’t going to work. You don’t see many road cars with turbine jets and there’s good reason for that. You do see lots with internal combustion engines, though, and it was one of these (albeit, as we’ll see, an eye wateringly exotic one) that Jaguar and Williams chose to use.

This was back in May 2011. At Germany, we were to hear about something very close to its final engineering state, before going to drive one of the five fully working prototypes built. Fully working: that’s how quickly Jaguar and Williams worked here. Particularly amazing when you consider the C-X75 has a carbon fibre ‘monocell’ centre tub, full hybrid powertrain, advanced electronic control systems and myriad other technological developments necessary to challenge the Porsche 918 Spyder, Ferrari LaFerrari and Bugatti Veyron.

Yes, Bugatti Veyron. Jaguar and Williams were even clearer here: the C-X75 had to match it on performance, so had to run 0-62mph in less than three seconds and go on to “at least” 220mph. Well, no point making a supercar if you’re not setting targets high…

Jaguar threw in a couple of other targets too. Be as green as a Toyota Prius. And go as far as a Chevrolet Volt in EV mode. There’s setting targets high and there’s setting them like this. Incredibly though, Jaguar and Williams still believed it all possible.

Supercar-spec battery

This green target is why it gave the C-X75 a battery pack as big as the one in a Nissan LEAF, and mounted it right in the middle of the car, behind the occupants. The entire drivetrain is actually built around the battery, with the engine sitting in the middle of it and everything else around it. “The cooling challenges were considerable,” said Cluett. “that’s why we currently have 14 radiators…”

You get an idea of just how considerable when the spec of the engine is revealed: 1.6 litres and four cylinders, supercharged and turbocharged, producing 503hp and revving to 10,300rpm. That’s not an engine, that’s a rocket (and certainly at 314hp per litre, the most power-dense IC engine the world has ever seen). Added to the electric motors on the front and rear axles, this means the C-X75 produces at least 850hp, channeled through a seven-speed automated manual gearbox at the back, directly driving the axle at the front.

So, let’s get this right. The original compact turbine jets were changed for a regular IC engine. Power output was upped to stratospheric levels. Yet the styling wasn’t allowed to alter in order to make it all more viable, despite presumed nuclear-like cooling demands? Nope – and it is to the engineer’s credit that the prototype C-X75 looks so much like that beautiful concept car. Even better, in fact. It’s somehow crisper, better defined, more balanced (changes included taking an inch out of the wheel size to make it ‘sit’ better on the road).

Look hard and you’ll see where the cooling channels have been squeezed in – those inlets on the rear arches are new, and the original didn’t have a nose quite so packed with radiator inlets as this – but really, you’d be hard pushed to circle many changes if challenged to. Quite incredible.

All this stuff is 90 per cent of the way to production-readiness, we were told. If you were to buy a C-X75, likelihood is this is how it would look. The interior is less well advanced, probably around half the way there. You can tell: it looks not unlike the concept’s stark layout has been enhanced with parts-bin sharing with the F-Type (admittedly, there are worse parts bins to use). The fundamentals are right, including the ultra-low driving position and repositioned A-pillars that give such a good view out – but there’s still plenty more to needed to be done in order to make this a match for a Ferrari and Bugatti.

Experiencing the Jaguar C-X75

Not that I cared what I was strapped into as Simon Newton from Williams Advanced Engineering first took me out for a sighting lap in the C-X75. We were riding in the Jaguar supercar that sadly is never to be, before actually going out to drive it ourselves (one of less than two-dozen outside Williams and Jaguar to actually do so). I could live with a bit of generic style, thanks.

The first objective was to demonstrate the electric-drive systems that are such a key part of this car. It’s thanks to this ability that it is able to emit less than 89g/km CO2 and return such exceptional fuel economy – the European drive cycle tests allow electric running to be included in the official reckoning and the ability of the C-X75 to go 37 miles on battery power alone is why the firm says it could have been the greenest supercar of all.

With almost 400hp from the two motors combined, you’re not short of shove, either. With its instant response and immediate torque, even an EV C-X75 would have been quite something. Scrabbling round the track in four-wheel drive security would have convinced anyone as to the potency of this car (although the Tron-style EV noise synthesizer would perhaps have taken some getting used to).