Jaguar XJ220 leads the pack at Historics

| 19 Feb 2013

A Jaguar XJ220 – still one of the world’s fastest cars – is estimated to make £115-130,000 when it crosses the block during the Historics at Brooklands sale on 8 March.

Powered by a development of the twin-turbo V6 that was fitted to the Metro 6R4 rally car, 281 of the supercars were hand-assembled at Bloxham in Oxfordshire and sold for £470,000.

In 1992, with Martin Brundle behind the wheel, a de-catted and de-restricted XJ220 hit 217.1 mph at the banked Nardò Ring in Italy, a figure that would have equated to 220mph on a flat road.

It wasn’t all good news, though. Launched during a global recession, sales of the XJ220 were slow and not helped by Jaguar deciding against the V12 four-wheel drive conceived in the original design.

Feelings were so strong, some customers tried (and failed) to get their deposits back via the courts.

The left-hand-drive example on offer has covered fewer than 10,000 miles and has recently had £25,000 lavished on it at specialist Don Law Racing, in Staffordshire.

Coming complete with a full history file, the only obvious downside of the car is the looming 20% VAT bill that the new owner will be faced with should they import it permanently to the UK.