The early 1990s weren’t good for supercars. The lucky ones, some might say, folded before stepping off the drawing boards, but those with serious backing came to subdued fanfare or few buyers or had to live to see their aspirations taken a few notches down.
The Jaguar XJ220 was one of the latter, debuting in 1992 after several years in development. Jaguar itself had suffered damage in the process and was careful to navigate in the early 1990s, but never lost sight of the goal of building its own supercar.
In about a week or so, an XJ220 is up for auction – the number 97 car from the original production run shows just over 14,000 miles on the odometer – an example that was recently put back into service at great expense on the road. Historics Auctioneers will be offering the 1992 supercar at its auction at Ascot Racecourse in the UK on April 17th.
The XJ220’s backstory is rarely mentioned these days, but it’s worth mentioning for its ambition. The XJ220 was designed by Professor Jim Randall who headed Jaguar’s engineering department in the 1980s. It was introduced as a slippery V12 beast with a rear engine, ground effects and all-wheel drive. The sketches went from an off-hours pet project to something more formal in a short amount of time, which the company liked the idea. The sketches turned into a concept car, shown at the Birmingham Motor Show in 1988, with a V12 and 530 horsepower on tap. In Britain at least, the economy was still strong enough at the time to bring in deposits of £ 50,000.
This Jaguar was recently put back into service in the UK by XJ220 specialist Don Law
Historics Auctioneers
In the next four years, a lot has changed between the concept and the production car. The V12 became the twin-turbo V6, and its all-wheel drive was downgraded to rear-wheel drive. What didn’t change much was the car’s dramatic lines, as well as the mid-engine layout. By the time the XJ220 debuted, a lot had changed in the economic landscape and many orders were canceled, but it still came at a time when many of its rivals, including Aston Martin, were barely on the water.
The example that Historics Auctioneers will offer later this month was originally ordered by Mr Jean Blaton of Belgium, who arrived on December 12, 1992. The car only covered 22,691 kilometers in his possession and was serviced by a number of specialists during that time, including Jaguar’s Browns Lane plant, JaguarSport Ltd. in Banbury and the British Auto Center in Antwerp, Belgium, although they haven’t traveled too many miles.
The auction house indicates some periods of inactivity, but does not specifically mention whether there have been any long-term storage periods. Despite the modest mileage, there appears to be some serious recommissioning work that resulted in a staggering calculation: Jaguar specialist Don Law, known for XJ220 work, put this XJ220 back into service in October 2020 for £ 61,760.03 even more sobering $ 84,840. The work included the replacement of all seals on the engine, an overhaul of the brake system, new timing belts, six years of maintenance and “other additional work”.
It may be possible to deduce exactly when these 14,100 miles were added to the car. The good news, of course, is that it was Don Law’s workshop that did the job and has a lot of experience with Jaguar’s rarest machines. So if it was necessary to get this XJ220 back on the road, then that was what it took.
There’s really no such thing as a high-mileage XJ220, so the distance traveled in this example is average for the model.
Historics Auctioneers
Historics Auctioneers estimates this XJ220 will fetch between £ 325,000 and £ 375,000 on auction day, which is a range of between $ 446,000 and $ 515,000.
The XJ220 is now almost a 30 year old car. The XJ220 scores have improved significantly over the past five years, but they haven’t increased as much as Testarossas’. The lowest estimate here would have been considered a bit ambitious about 10 years ago, but $ 400,000 is now the price to enter this club. Lots of collectors are looking to buy some 90s supercars (that aren’t the now unaffordable McLaren F1) in.
The number of characters from the 1990s likely to see an upgrade over the next decade isn’t very high, and the XJ220 is one of those who could see some gains in the next few years when collectors hunt for underrated blue-chip vehicles search.
Jaguar XJ220: underestimated or overvalued at a low estimate of $ 400,000? And what other supercars from the ’90s that you anticipate will take off? Let us know in the comments below.
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