Jaguar C-X75 to be built

Jaguar has announced it will build its Paris show-stealing C-X75 concept hybrid supercar with help from the Williams Formula One team.

Seen at the time as a pure styling exercise to let loose the creativity of Ian Callum’s sketchers, Jaguar confirmed it will build 250 of the revolutionary C-X75s in 2013. Not only that, but the slinky supercar will combine a 1.6-litre, turbocharged petrol engine with two electric motors to launch to 100km/h in just 3.0 seconds – or just 0.1 seconds slower than Lamborghini’s new Aventador V12.

The company claims the C-X75 will reach 160mph (260km/h approx) in six seconds on its way to a 320km/h top speed thanks to its performance-bred, all-wheel drive system and its light, stiff carbon-fibre chassis.

Jaguar will start the C-X75 at US$1.1 million – a huge leap from the rest of its range.

The C-X75 will emit less than 100g/km of CO2 making it both the fastest and the most economical Jaguar (a lot of) money can buy.

“People expect Jaguar to be innovators – that is when Jaguar is at its best,” Jaguar brand director, Adrian Hallmark, said of the C-X75.

The most advanced Jaguar ever built, the C-X75 will remain true to the 2010 Paris concept star’s design even though it needs to be re-engineered to comply with road rules around the world. Jaguar and Williams will add more than 100 engineers and carbon specialists to help develop the new supercar.

“We were always determined that the C-X75 would be as striking on the road as it was in concept form,” director of design, Ian Callum, insisted.

“This will be the finest-looking and most-innovative Jaguar ever produced. Even in the world of supercars, we can still produce the most beautiful,” he claimed, modestly.

The Indian-owned, British-based company will use Williams F1 engineering’s expertise in everything from carbon composites to aerodynamics and hybrid technologies. Williams provides the flywheel  KERS system used in Porsche’s 911 GT3 Hybrid racing car.

“A supercar like the C-X75 is the logical choice to showcase cutting-edge design, intelligent use of new environmental technologies and motorsport-inspired performance,” Jaguar Land Rover CEO, Dr Ralph Speth, insisted.

“A direct technology transfer between elite motorsport and road-going production cars is the key to the C-X75’s success,” he said.

Essentially, Jaguar is lending Williams the responsibility of designing and building the lightweight, ultra-stiff carbon-fibre chassis and its active aerodynamics.

While Tata, Jaguar’s parent company, has bought into Bladon Jets, the company that designed and built its micro-turbine engine for the Paris concept car, Speth is not confident the technology would be ready for the C-X75’s transition to production.

Instead, it will use a modern, four-cylinder, 1.6-litre turbocharged engine sitting behind the driver. One powerful electric motor will drive each axle.

“The engine’s compact size allows it to be mounted low in the car for [optimum] weight distribution and to retain the concept’s silhouette,” Jaguar Land Rover Group Engineering Director, Bob Joyce, said.

“This will make it a bona fide hybrid supercar capable of silent electric runnign with an extensive EV range in excess of 50km,” he said.

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