Development and construction of the XJ220 was contracted with Tom Walkinshaw Racing (TWR), Jaguar’s partner in building and campaigning the racing prototypes that had won at Le Mans in 1988 and again in 1990. In short order, it had taken 1500 deposits. The show was held in October, only four months after Jaguar had claimed victory at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, and reception for the all-wheel-drive mid-engined concept car was so strong that, by December, the company had decided to put it into production. The F40 and Porsche’s contemporary 959 both claimed top speeds of 197 mph, so Jaguar’s intention to raise the bar and re-establish itself on equal footing with the Italian and German sports-car marques was clear. The 40-year interval between these Jaguars was, not at all coincidentally, the same figure that gave the 1987 Ferrari F40 its own name. When Jaguar rolled out its XJ220 concept car at the 1988 British International Motor Show in Birmingham, England, its name echoed that of the landmark Jaguar XK120 of 1948, and the numerals were supposed to be of similar significance, representing the top speed in miles per hour. Its name declared both its heritage and its ambitions.
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