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Behind me is the car you could call the most sophisticated Jaguar supercar the company
will never make. It is the C-X75, and its story is already the stuff of legend. It was
an adored concept car to mark the company's 75th anniversary that became one of the most
ambitious supercar concepts the industry has ever known. Six months ago, that project was
put on ice and we thought that was where the story would end, until a few days ago when
we got invited to come here, to Gaydon, and to drive it.
From a technological standpoint, the C-X75 is more than just a supercar. It's a plug-in
hybrid with 390 horsepower of electric drive, 40 miles of electric range, and EU Standard
emissions to match a Toyota Prius, believe it or not. It's also got an incredible 500-horsepower
twin-charged 4-cylinder engine enabling it, in hybrid mode, to hit 60mph in less than
3 seconds, 100mph in less than 6 seconds, and to go on to a top speed of 220.
Its construction is almost all carbonfibre to offset some of the added weight of that
power train. It's styling is intended to reference what design director Ian Callum describes
as Malcolm Sayer's most beautiful ever, the stillborn 1965 XJ13.
Jaguar gave us a passenger ride in the car in electric mode on the inner handling circuit
of its Gaydon proving ground, and then a short drive in hybrid mode on the outer high-speed
circuit. In electric mode, performance feels massively torque-y and responsive and about
equal to a full house hot hatchback in outright terms.
Through the corners and over the bumps of the handling circuit, the C-X75 seemed grippy,
but also supremely balanced and forgiving, albeit only from the passenger seat. There's
compliance in its ride and balance control ability at the limit that you just wouldn't
expect of an 850 horsepower supercar, but that a Jaguar wouldn't be a Jaguar without.
From the driver's seat, you discover that the steering is quite light and manageable,
the accelerator pedal's progressive, and that visibility is also good. For all its usability
and sophistication, there's old-fashioned supercar theatricality about the C-X75, too.
That 4-cylinder engine howls like a mutant superbike as the revs pass 7000 RPM. From
there on out, it feels very fast indeed; possibly not quite as fast a Bugatti Veyron, but close
up to a point.
I've just got out of the driver seat of the C-X75. It is fantastic, obviously. It's fast.
How fast? It's a wet, dreary day at Gaydon today. We've just been out on the runway.
It's done 170mph without even trying. To think that it would go on, I should think, easily
to 200 before it really starts to slow down. The remarkable thing about the performance
is the way it accelerates from 7000 RPM. When you think that's coming from a 4-cylinder
engine, it really is mind-blowing.
The real hallmark of it as a Jaguar is how easy it is to drive. There's so much technology
on board, there was the potential for this car to be really overwhelming. In fact, you
just get in, squeeze the throttle, turn the wheel, away you go. Fabulous. Such a shame
that nobody will ever really get the chance to own one because it could have been one
of the best British supercars that will ever be made.