Key considerations
- Available for £500,000
- 3.5-litre V6 petrol turbo, all-wheel drive
- Steering and brakes demand real effort, thrilling turbo boost
- Can get a bit hot inside if you live in a sunny country…
- …but still an underappreciated landmark car
- Values are finally rising, and arguably still low
Ever heard of Keith Helfet? No, thought not. Well, he’s a South African who used to work for Jaguar as a stylist. He designed an F-Type concept and, in 1999, the rather lovely 450hp XK180 to celebrate the XK line’s 50th birthday. Despite the warmth of the 180’s reception, only two examples were built. That seemed like a missed opportunity, but Keith’s real moment in the sun had already come over a decade earlier when his other design – the one we’re looking at here – was first shown in concept form to a goggle-eyed public at the serendipitously located Birmingham NEC British Motor Show of 1988.
Yes, Keith Helfet designed the Jaguar XJ220, and for that we think he deserves more than a footnote in the automotive history books. Like the XK180, the XJ was an homage to Jaguars that had gone before, specifically the ultra-successful Le Mans racers of the '50s and '60s, but it was also intended to be used in anger in Group B racing. At that point there was no plan to productionise it, but in a time of great uncertainty for the firm it was meant to send out a clear signal to the world that Jaguar was still a serious carmaker.
The 220 part of the name wasn’t just a number, it was a target speed: 220mph was 100mph faster than the speed achieved by the XK120 four decades earlier. Big horsepower would be needed to give the XJ220 a chance of getting anywhere near that.
The most obvious source for Jaguar Sport in the mid-'80s was a big V12, but it wouldn’t be pinched from the XJ-S road car. It would be a 48-valve 6.2-litre V12 racing unit developed by Jaguar’s engine designer Walter Hassan and mothballed in the Jaguar factory since the '60s. If you need to get away from the dry turkey sandwiches at some point after Christmas you could take a run out to the British Motor Museum in Gaydon to see a prototype XJ220 fitted with a titanium-rodded Hassan V12 engine.
The original XJ220 concept car – now part of the Jaguar Daimler Heritage Trust collection – was pushed onto the Jaguar stand by an exhausted development team at 3am on the opening day of the 1988 NEC show. It went down a storm, stealing the thunder of Ferrari who had brought their new F40 to Birmingham. Well over a thousand expressions of interest were received. Suitably encouraged, Jaguar took the decision to start building the XJ220 for real at a purpose-built factory in Bloxham, Oxfordshire. They began collecting holding deposits of around £50,000 per car.
Emissions and economic considerations forced a rethink. There was a degree of wailing when it was announced that instead of that great V12, the XJ220 would instead be powered by a heavily modified version of the Austin Rover V64V 3.5-litre 90-degree V6 that had been used in the all-conquering MG Metro 6R4 rally car and the XJR10 and 11 sports racing cars. The twin-Garrett TO3 turbo JRV6 (as it was then called) with its aluminium block and heads looked ridiculously titchy in the giant space behind the driver that had been allocated for the monster twelve. To some, it sounded less like a thoroughbred engine and more like a bag of spanners in a tumble dryer - but in terms of compactness, efficiency and weight it was all good. And it wasn’t down on the V12 in terms of power either, with 550hp at 7,200rpm and 474lb ft of torque at a perfectly useable 4,500rpm.
Just about every handling device that had been a part of the original V12-powered XJ220’s blueprint – adjustable suspension, rear-wheel steer, active aero, all-wheel drive – died on the altars of weight-saving and expediency. The final weight of the production was given as 1,456kg, which was around 150kg less than contemporary rivals like Lamborghini’s Diablo or Ferrari’s 512TR and enough to give the Jaguar the same power-to-weight ratio as a Fiat 500 with a 370hp engine. Its 0-60mph time was 3.6 seconds. At the circular Nardo track in Italy, it hit a top speed of 212mph with Martin Brundle at the wheel. After the removal of the catalytic converters and a lifting of the rev limit the v-max went up to 217mph, which was said to equate to 222mph on a virtual, less frictiony straight.
If you accept this cat and track stuff, you will also accept that the 220mph objective was achieved. There were a few more landmarks. Not only had the XJ220 become the world’s fastest road car – albeit not for long thanks to the McLaren F1 and Bugatti EB110 – it was also the world’s first series production 220mph supercar. Not only was the engine Jaguar’s first V6, it was the most powerful Jaguar engine ever. The 220 wasn’t just fast in a straight line either: Jaguar reported a Nürburgring lap of 7m 46s. Less happily, it was physically the biggest supercar you could buy.
That wasn’t the whole XJ220 story. Six powered-up S models were homologated by TWR in 1993. These bigger-turboed cars made 700hp at 7,900rpm and 526lb ft of torque at 5,000rpm, still running through the standard XJ’s manual 5-speed gearbox and AP Racing twin-plate clutch. Besides the mech tuning there was carbon fibre for every body panel bar the doors, competition brakes, split-rim BBS wheels, a straight-through exhaust, and plenty of aero mods including a big rear wing. The standard car’s stereo and air-con were removed and lighter seats were put in.
The claimed weight of the S was down to 1,050kg, an almost incredible 400kg less than the standard car. Jaguar’s own performance figures for it were 3.3 seconds for the 0-60, 0-150mph in 15secs and a top speed of 229mph, startling numbers even by 2024 standards. Imagine the impact they would have had over 30 years ago. The racing version did all right too. More on that later.
Unfortunately, the combined effects of the engine and spec changes, an economic recession that was killing off classic car values and a price hoist from £348,000 (£290,000 + VAT) in 1990 to £420,000 in 1992 when the first XJ220s finally started being delivered caused a bad case of cold feet among the option holders who numbered between 1,000 and 1,500, with deposits that were said to be in the region of £50,000. Whatever the actual numbers were, quite a few of them demanded their money back. Whether that was because they couldn’t run to the new price or if they felt they might not be making quite the killing they were hoping for, who knows. A bit of both probably. The change from V12 to V6 shouldn’t have been relevant as they had all allegedly signed a form telling them about that.
Expensive legal cases ensued. Eventually, with varying degrees of reluctance, between 270 and 282 cars were built, 69 of them in right-hand drive format. 18 of those RHD cars were bought by the royal family in Brunei.
The first production XJ220 was unveiled by Princess Diana at Bloxham. It was illegal in the US until it was 25 years old, but 32 cars found their way there before that under the ‘show or display’ exemption. One of them was imported into the States from Japan where the owner had kept it on the 37th floor of his Tokyo office building. Eventually, Jaguar and TWR passed the whole XJ220 project onto Don Law Racing in Staffordshire. When the ten-year spares supply requirement had run out, Jaguar sold all its stock to DLR.
The recession hit XJ220 values hard and kept prices low for a long time. In 2003 a 111-miler sold for just £105,000 at auction, a big loss for the buyer who had kept it in a Cardiff lockup for ten years. One PHer insists he saw a 220 languishing for ages in a Kent dealership in the mid-'00s with a £79,995 ticket on it. In early 2012 an XJ220 S went for $230,000, the equivalent of around £150,000. In 2014, a non-S car was up for £160,000. In 2017, by which time the going rate for a normal 220 had risen to £300,000, a Don Law-tuned XJ220 S was advertised at £420,000. By the end of 2023, a straight 220 with 2,100 miles on the clock and a fat sheaf of high-number refurbishment invoices on the seat was on PH Classifieds for £525,000.
In late 2024 we found five XJ220s for sale in Europe. Three of them were ‘POA’, but the two that weren’t – both left-hand drive 1993 cars in the Netherlands – were priced at 698,000 euros and 615,000 euros, which at today’s exchange rates equate to £580,000 and £511,000. The more expensive of the two had done just over 2,000km; the other one had 6,500km under its belt.
We found no S cars for sale, but if you scale things up from 2017 and chuck in a bit more on top for the rarity value it’s not hard to imagine an S going for £700,000-£800,000. Or more of course, if you really want one and don’t care about the money.
SPECIFICATION | JAGUAR XJ220 (1992-94)
Engine: 3,498cc V6 twin-turbo
Transmission: 5-speed manual, rear-wheel drive
Power (hp): 550@7,200rpm
Torque (lb ft): 474@4,500rpm
0-62mph (secs): 3.6
Top speed (mph): 220 or thereabouts
Weight (kg): 1,456
MPG: up to 32 (Jaguar claim)
CO2 (g/km): N/A
Wheels (in): 9 x 17 (f), 14 x 18 (r)
Tyres: 255/45 (f), 345/35 (r)
On sale: 1992 - 1994
Price new: £348,000 (incl VAT)
Price now: from £500,000
Note for reference: car weight and power data are hard to pin down with absolute certainty. For consistency, we use the same source for all our guides. We hope the data we use is right more often than it’s wrong. Our advice is to treat it as relative rather than definitive.
ENGINE & GEARBOX
As mentioned earlier, the four-cam, twin-turbocharged, dry sump 3.5-litre V6 engine was derived from the units that powered the XJR10 and 11 sports racing cars. Some thought it was based on the old Rover V8 but in fact it was designed from scratch by ex-Cosworth engineer David Wood. It had Zytek electronic engine management, two air-to-air intercoolers, multi-point fuel injection and two cats. In XJ220 road trim its output was measured at 550hp on a very hot (40 deg C) day. At a more temperate 18 degrees Jaguar Sport’s engineers estimated its figure to be nearer to 580hp.
The nuances of turbocharging were yet to be nailed down at the time of the XJ220 so it would be fair to say that the XJ220 was a touch laggy/boosty. It was nothing, nothing, something, EVERYTHING, but that sudden lunge plus the twitter of the wastegate and the rawness of the engine note just added to the mad fun of it. Complaints about its uncultured sound usually came from those who had only heard it idling or pottering about. Anyone who had been passed by an XJ220 described it as an unforgettable experience.
TWR put one of these XJ engines into an otherwise innocent-looking (apart from its XJ220 wheels) G-reg white Transit van in order to test the drivetrain. According to the internet this Trannie was off the road for five years from 2019. We think it might have belonged to Don Law at one point, and maybe still does. The most recent pics we’ve seen of it (from 2020) show Justin Law hammering it up the hill at Goodwood. Joyously it was given a fresh MOT in July ’24. The only advisories in that test, predictably, were for two worn rear tyres.
The five-speed rear-drive transaxle featuring a viscous-coupling limited-slip differential was created by FF Developments, who had done the AWD systems for Group B rally cars like the Peugeot 205 T16, Lancia Delta S4, Ford RS200 and the Metro 6R4. The AP clutches weren’t 100 per cent reliable and cost a fortune to replace. Folklore suggests that the clutch slave cylinder came from a Marina van and that if you left the car outside for a week in British weather the rod would corrode sufficiently to tear the seals. Jaguar reckoned you could get up to 32mpg in an XJ220. The 90-litre PVC fuel cells, as used on cars like the Ferrari F40, didn’t last forever. For the Jag they were on a six-year replacement schedule and are reputedly now priced at £30k.
CHASSIS
Autocar magazine was the only media outlet entrusted with the job of officially testing the XJ220. The car they used was 001, Tom Walkinshaw’s personal XJ. Under the skin especially it had moved a long way away from the first concept but it still had the Alcan lightweight bonded aluminium chassis, unequal length wishbones, coil springs, Bilstein gas dampers and anti-roll bars at both ends.
There had been some mutterings about the XJ220 being lairy, its deceptively comfy ride supposedly betrayed at higher speeds by understeer that suddenly gave way to snap oversteer. Autocar however found it to be an astonishingly accomplished and entirely friendly masterpiece that rewrote every rule in the supercar book. Previously tested supercars that they had thought offered superlative control over difficult roads seemed flawed and spongy after the Jaguar. They described it as the finest-handling supercar they had ever driven, the most accomplished road supercar ever made, and a new standard by which all other fast cars had to be compared.
It was strong stuff but it was also vindicated by what happened in the 1993 Le Mans 24 Hours race which took place between the day of Autocar’s road test and the date of its publication, when John Nielsen, David Brabham and David Coulthard brought an XJ220 home first in its class. Even with ten inches chopped off it for final production, the XJ220 ended up being comfortably over 16 feet long and 7.5 feet wide, points worth considering when motoring along British B roads or parking up at Tescos. By common consent, the intimidation factor shrank as the speed mounted but you did need to be ready to feed more effort into the unassisted steering which had an unsettling tendency to weight up in the middle of corners.
The XJ’s wonderfully understated centrelock staggered wheels (17-inch front, 18 rear) were designed and supplied by rally specialists Speedline Corse, with Bridgestone supplying a batch of specially-created Expedia asymmetric tyres (255/15 front, 345/35 rear) to go on them. Once they were used up replacement tyres couldn’t be found for quite a while until Bridgestone decided (in partnership with Don Law) to create successor tyres which came on stream in mid-2017.
Anti-lock braking was seen as a driving impurity back then so, following comments from owners and testers, it was cut from the spec. However, a plan to do away with servo assistance for similar ‘feel’ reasons was abandoned, also following comments from owners and testers who were struggling to muster up the necessary pedal pressures. Expert drivers generally rated the car very highly with the exception of the brakes which were seen as the weak link. Modern updates will sort you out on that now.
BODYWORK
It’s fair to say that the overall styling was a bit Marmite. Some absolutely loved it, others hated what they saw as excessive overhangs. Some loved the front, others loved the back. Whatever the views, they’re generally strongly held.
The scissor doors of the concept didn’t make it to the production car. The conventional doors that replaced them were almost as deep from outside to in as they were long, and the openings were very tight. Oddly, the outside mirror was on the wing on the driver’s side but on the passenger side it was mounted on the door so that the driver could see it through the quarter-panel glass.
The quality of the paintjob in one of five colours – Spa Silver, Le Mans Blue, Silverstone Green, Monza Red and Daytona Black – came in for gushing praise, and there were plenty of hand-built aluminium body panels to admire it on too. Abbey Panels’ bodywork was light but it also had to be immensely strong as the car was capable of developing well over a ton of downforce at high speed. During Brundle’s high-speed Nardo laps the struts and brackets holding the bonnet in place stretched and the bonnet was lifting, creating a hefty gap between it and the wings. Fortunately it remained in place, unlike the windscreen wipers which started to flap about at anything above 120mph. Who knows what happened to the old-school telescopic radio antenna at those speeds.
Not everyone was a fan of the S’s aeroed-up looks but even the regular XJ220 was something of a groundbreaker (probably the wrong word in this context) in its use of underbody airflow and venturi effects to create downforce. The rear spoiler was fixed. Rover 200 fans might notice something familiar about the rear light units but nobody could complain about the operation of the pop-down headlight covers which was nothing short of brilliant. We recommend you find it online.
INTERIOR
When the XJ220 arrived in Jaguar dealerships in 1992 it was rubbing shoulders with very traditional Jags. The XJ40 XJ was still around, as was the XJS. Customers still had that expectation of wood and leather, and plenty of it, so you can understand why Jaguar felt the need to keep that luxurious image going in the XJ220 even though its performance was more gargantuan than golf club. The absence of an airbag on the Nardi steering wheel was nice (there was no dash bag on the passenger side either), but the rest of the cabin was a slightly peculiar mix of overstuffed Connolly leather seats and dashtop and plasticky minor controls from a Ford parts bin.
Assuming you could squeeze your way in through the mean door openings it was then quite a hop to get over the deep sills and (on the driver’s side) the handbrake. You also had to negotiate the plump seat bolsters. Seat adjustment was manual. Once you were in position it was a very comfortable and workable environment. Visibility from inside out was challenging for some manoeuvres, although the cabin was surprisingly airy thanks in part to the fixed and shadeless glass roof. Fine for the UK, not so much for anywhere with more than ten minutes of sun a day.
One of the XJ220’s most unusual cabin styling points was the continuation of the instrumentation into the door. The leather-surrounded binnacle contained four clocks for battery and transmission oil status, turbo boost and an actual clock for the time. Not sure how well instruments and wiring would survive long-term in something that’s being opened and closed all the time, which is presumably why that design hasn’t found wider favour in the mainstream. It looked cool though.
There was some useful storage space behind the seat, which was just as well as there wasn’t much anywhere else in the cabin with no glove box or centre console. There was a divided space immediately behind the engine for the Alpine CD unit and an alarmingly huge Jaguar first aid box presumably reflecting the shortage of airbags. A further very shallow space between that would maybe hold a couple of briefcases and any sandwiches you didn’t want to cook in the first aid box hole. The space under the bonnet contained two big cooling fans and a stern warning not to put any luggage in there at the risk of ‘severe’ engine overheating. The alarm horn was feeble, beeping pathetically if you tried to enter the car when the system was armed.
PH VERDICT
From a commercial point of view, the Jaguar XJ220 came at completely the wrong time. Emissions and economic concerns mandated wholesale changes in its design and global economic concerns gave it a further kicking. Jaguar didn’t reach 300 cars, let alone the 350 that appeared on your allocation confirmation certificate, but we should remember that the legendary McLaren F1 which was launched at the same time (1992) didn’t reach its planned production target either.
Opinions are divided on the 220’s looks, but there is little dispute about how amazing it is to drive. Those who had sneered at it from a distance and then had some time behind the wheel were forced to eat their words. It was a stunning achievement for the time and it still stands up strong and proud in any 2024 supercar comparison. Every Autocar road tester who managed to put in some time behind the XJ220 wheel came out with a revised concept of the outer limits of road car capability, but they were just as impressed by its composure in everyday use, noting that it was ‘surprisingly easy to drive’, a founding principle of Jaguar boss William Lyons. The small V6 might have been a sticking point for buyers 30 years ago but it seems entirely appropriate now. Once you knew about the boost lag, waiting for it to hit was a key part of the car’s excitement.
Moaning about the ins and outs of the 220mph claim would be churlish. It was as close to it as made no difference, and the spec for the S model suggests that one would have hit the target relatively easily. The presence of Don Law Racing in the English Midlands should be a major attraction to UK buyers musing about XJ220 purchase and long-term ownership. If you’re in that category, here’s one of those POA cars we told you about at the beginning. This might be the lowest mileage road-registered XJ220 outside of a museum.
If our story has given you a thirst for more in-depth detail on the ‘Saturday Club’ XJ220 volunteers led by Jaguar engineering director Jim Randle, we can do no better than to refer you to Richard Aucock’s excellent piece here which includes a stack of fascinating quotes from key Jaguar figures including Keith Helfet.
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