We
really shouldn't joke around with bad puns here, because this is properly sad
news. The C-X75 hybrid supercar wowed the crowds of 2010’s Paris Motorshow, and
was set to enter limited production next year at a daunting price of over $1million.
However due to poor economic conditions Jaguar believes that it will not make
“adequate return on investment” and hence has chosen not to put the supercar
into production.
 |
| Jaguar C-X75 side profile. Very pretty isn't it? |
Jaguar
had expected global economic conditions to have improved by the time the car
was ready to be marketed, however this clearly wasn't the case, at this time a
“800,000 to 1m pound supercar just feels wrong” said Jaguar brand director
Adrian Hallmark.
The
C-X75 was set to showcase a technical masterpiece demonstrating the expertise
and know-how of the Jaguar engineers, as well as providing a valuable learning process centered around investigating future powertrain options that could be employed when the petrol motor is forced into extinction.
 |
| A Prius would wee itself if it saw those exhausts. |
The
initial design incorporated jet engines which would generate electricity to
power the electric motors, and apparently they worked perfectly, however their
emissions were far too high. So they were ditched in favor of a twin charged
(turbo and supercharged) 1.6 liter 4 cylinder petrol motor, which developed a
simply amazing 500hp (373kw). That's 500hp from 1.6 whizzing liters in a road
car! The key to this unbelievable power was the engines high rpm performance,
and it has been said that the production ready engine could rev past 10,000rpm.
But
it’s not just the petrol motor that employed clever tech because the electric
motors were also highly developed before the project was canned. The electric
motor designed for the C-X75 weighed just 23kg yet delivered around 400nm of
torque. That’s a serious amount of grunt. And the “revolutionary” liquid and
air cooled battery pack that powered the motor was capable of doing so for
around 60 miles delivering emissions of less than 100g/km, which is less than a
Prius.
In
total the CX-75 produced around 900hp which makes for some pretty drastic
acceleration numbers. Ready? 0-60mph; 2.8 seconds, 0-100mph; 5.5 seconds,
that’s quicker than a ruddy Veyron! To cool this beast of a machine lots of
radiators were needed, 17 of them in fact and 1.5 square meters of air intakes
were needed to suck in air to feed them.
While
it might seem like a massive waste of time and money developing the car to such
a level only to cancel it at the last minute, there’s no doubt Jaguar’s R&D
department will have learnt an enormous amount from this project. And the
technology that’s gone into the C-X75 project will eventually trickle down into
Jaguars more mainstream models. Jaguar has filed 100 patents which have come
from the C-X75, and said that “at least 60 percent of what we actually spent
will be recycled into our road cars”. So we can expect to see hybrid versions
of the XF, XJ, and possibly even the F-Type and XK some time in the not too
distant future.
 |
| Jaguar C-X75 |
The
C-X75 was set to be produced by Jaguar in conjunction with the UK based
Williams F1 Team using their carbon fibre and racing expertise to build one
hell of a car that would've faced off against the Porsche 918 Spyder, Mclaren
P1, and the Ferrari F70. And if we’re talking beauty contests, the C-X75 would've won. But apparently fours a crowd.
Despite
the car not entering production, Jaguar will continue to develop the five C-X75
prototype cars that it built until they achieve all of the goals they set at
the beginning of the project and the cars are at production standard. Three of
the five cars will be kept by Jaguar, the other two will be sold at auction to
two of the 100 people who initially expressed interest in the car. Hope they've got deep pockets...
Follow me on Twitter HERE! to hear about all the latest car news!
No comments:
Post a Comment