Teamspeed First Drive: The Jaguar C-X75
One of the most amazing supercars that’s never to be. Porsche 918, you may have had a lucky escape
Text by: Richard Aucock

What is it?
Production-intent, almost production-ready but not to be produced version of the wonderful 2010 C-X75 concept.

Why should I care?
It is incredible. It redefines boundaries. If it weren’t for the global economy and Jaguar having quite a few other cars to invent and launch, it would in time be chasing down the Bugatti Veyron. Here, then, is what could have been.

How fast and how much?
>850hp, 0-62mph <3 seconds secs, V-Max >220mph mph, MRSP $1,400,000


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).

Back in the pits, I stay strapped in and scribble some notes. Flat cornering, I write. Sharp front end, unexpected agility, very quick through corners. Panoramic view out front helps, feeling of siting so far forward is different. Hints of interior carbon fibre sculpture show what could have been.

As I do this, Newton jumps out and another engineer jumps in. Seconds later, a starter motor whirrs and what sounds a bit like a production-based race car engine fires up. Crumbs; now it’s getting serious. The engineer gives it a few throttle blaps (demonstrating its free-revving nature and impressive lack of flywheel effect) before holding the revs around 3000rpm to get some heat into the oil.

It’s pretty loud, even through the helmet. It’s also rather obviously a four-cylinder. Sounding not unlike the old Rover engine Lotus used in the original Elise. Which, in a world of V8s, is interesting. Advanced it may be but this bit of the powertrain sounds decidedly old school. Then, oil heated through, the engineer give a few full-rev blats before handing back to Newton. Oh, I think. Hello…

So it proves. This engine, at full chat (that’s five-figure revs, remember), sounds amazing. It wails like a full-on racing car, is all super-smooth rotary-like precision, overlays it all with an exhaust note that’s pure single seater too. No, it’s not a rich V8; it’s something altogether different and much more modern than other solutions. With hints of electric motor whine too, Jaguar really has created a 22nd century spaceship of a car here.

Boy, does it go like one, too. This much is apparent even out of the temporary pitlane, where Newton nails it and summons force a whole league apart from that we experienced not 20 minutes before. My stomach is left in the pitlane – that’s how fast it is, that’s how intense the forces are. Backed up by instant electric torque, it is astonishing.

The noise is amazing too. Give that 1.6-litre the beans and it comes alive, wailing like a true racer and leaving its four-cylinder mainstream roots far behind. Corners arrive much more quickly than before, dynamics through them are much more livewire and alert, albeit no less precise.

And then we’re back. Just like that. Not unlike a rollercoaster, it’s over before you know it. Luckily, I was to get another shot – this time from the driver’s seat.

Driving the Jaguar C-X75

They strap me in. They talk me through the various buttons. They gently explain to me this prototype is one of five and worth millions. They don’t need to tell me how fast it is because I already know. Besides, I’d shortly find this out first hand.

First, getting it going. Press ‘D’, pull the right-hand paddle and scoot away. Nothing new or different here, although the combination of amazing visibility and sitting so close to the front is rather unique. Newton tells me where to go, what to do as we leave the pits; more importantly, he tells me when it is safe to boot it.

He calls, I boot, we rush. By the time I compute just how quick the speed gain has been, we are at the first corner. Back off. Yelp round it. Back on. Another corner, just like that. This is amazing – there is no delay, no hesitation, just a live connection between your brain and the next corner up ahead: simply think about it and you’re there.

Luckily, next up is a straight. Up through the gears, hitting 10,000rpm a few times just because I can (it’s amazing) then being told to slow down for the corner up ahead. But why? It’s miles ahe… oh, here it is. Turn hard left, discover steering much lighter, more delicate and more Jaguar-like than you’d expect, then in hard. The nose is man enough to forgive your mistakes and get you tucked in firmly.

A breather over broken track. The ride is surprisingly pliant, I observe. It feels remarkably well sorted for something that’s still a prototype. Seeing a 10,000rpm red line at 12 o’clock is rather special. And then the track improves again, and I explode again. I now quite like 10,000rpm, so seek it out again. Boy, it sounds incredible. Again, I was too eager to experience it so am hard on the brakes for the next sequence, which the Jaguar takes with magnetic precision and wonderfully well sorted confidence. One more 10,000rpm chase and we’re back at base, burbling, car ticking over, Newton seeming relieved I’ve bought it back on one piece.

That was amazing. Truly amazing. I feel two things. One: the passion that means I mutter I have to have one. Two: the sadness that even if I had the cash, I never will. No will all but a lucky half-handful. This is tragic.

I exit, step up, walk away, look back. The C-X75 is as incredible to drive as it looks, and it looks even more incredible than it did when we all billed it the most incredible Jaguar ever.

Incredible, but never to be. The most painful thing is that I now know how amazing it could have been…

 

Awesome awesome car

 

it would have been amazing if they produced this car. Its amazing at how far hybrid technology has gone since it has become mainstream, and its only in its infancy.

 

too bad it could have been the heritage of XJ220
hope jaguar will build another beast soon