Jaguar’s groundbreaking C-X75 tried to cash in on the success of its well-known XJ220 hypercar, which came out more than ten years ago. But the pricey plug-in hybrid was too advanced for its time, and it was thrown away before it could be turned into a movie car. One of those movie cars did, however, turn into the real road car that the C-X75 was meant to be. Ian Callum’s design company made what could be Jaguar’s last hypercar. Callum was the first person to style the car. At first, the C-X75 was supposed to come out in 2011. It would have had a 1.6-liter plug-in hybrid motor with dual charging that could make almost 900 horsepower. But Jaguar gave up on the project because they thought it would be hard to sell million-dollar hybrids during the recent recession, which also made it harder to make the now-famous Lexus LFA. The first time the public saw the C-X75 was during a car chase in the 2015 James Bond movie Spectre. Williams Advanced Engineering’s tube frames in those trick cars held the F-Type’s 5.0-liter supercharged V8 engine instead of the Jaguar’s original parts. Four of the five boys used in the movie made it out alive, and one of them is now a real boy. Someone bought one of the stunt cars and paid Callum Designs to finish the job. For it to be allowed on British roads, Callum’s team added mirrors that worked, a catalytic converter, real safety glass, and a quieter exhaust. It also made the dashboard shine like new, changed the height and damping of the ride, and filled in holes between panels to make it more comfortable to live in. A sold-out car show in Oxfordshire on April 21 will be the only place where the Jaguar C-X75 can be driven on the road. A lot of video footage will be taken of this one-of-a-kind animal. While it’s a shame that it doesn’t use the odd drivetrain that was planned, the fact that it has one of the most famous engines of the 2010s is a nice bonus.
