Early Production Run Jaguar XJ220 Goes for (Relative) Peanuts
While the Jaguar XJ220 boasts gorgeous lines and a record-breaking pedigree, values just haven’t climbed.
The Jaguar XJ220 has always had certain mystique for me, even more than all the other exotics I lusted after in my youth. So I tend to keep an eye on what they fetch at auction. Obviously, the the big cats are still still a wee bit out of my price range, but over the years I’ve been consistently surprised at just how affordable — on like, a 90s supercar scale — these babies are.
As I’ve written before, they’re undervalued. For proof, we don’t need to look any further than this recent auction from Historics Auctioneers over in the UK.
From my perspective, this is a stunning example of the breed. First, it’s Silverstone Green Metallic with gray interior, which looks the business. Second, it’s car number 97 of the 281-unit production run. Plus, it came with a well-documented service history, along with receipts for a recent overhaul by legendary XJ220 wizard Don Law. That cost the previous owner a whopping $87,000 — so it’s safe to saw it needs nothing. But even with all that going for it, the stunning machine sold for far under the initial auction estimates.
When the gavel dropped, the final bid came in at around $426,000, which is about $25,000 than the house was expecting it to go for. Given the small number of XJ220s in existence, and the fact that it was the fastest car in the world at one point, it seems to defy logic that you can pick one up for the price of a new, well-optioned Ferrari 488 GTB.
These Jaguars are time capsules of a tremendously special era of motoring history, when supercar boasted staggering performance, but still had manual gearboxes — and basically zero driver aids. So yeah, this pretty kitty has claws.
Now, the conventional wisdom about why these cars have never appreciated in value says it’s because of the engine. And for the record? I agree. While the twin-turbo V6 was capable of pushing the XJ220 to a still astonishing 217 mph, the fact that promised tech like all-wheel drive, and more importantly, a fire breathing V12 never made it off the drawing board have definitely impacted desirability among collectors.
At the end of the day, as cool as this car is, Coventry over promised and under delivered. And fair or not, a V6 is just never going to have the romance of a high-strung V12.
That said, I still love this car, and because I’m not exactly a purist, I’d love to see a restomod which delivers on the promise then Jaguar engineering boss Professor Jim Randall initially sketched on a napkin. After all, it’s not exactly hard to find a Jaguar V12, and since the engine bay was designed to accommodate it, there’s plenty of room for a 12-pot under the bonnet. The all-wheel drive system might be trickier, but I’d guess the architecture of the chassis is still set up for it, and a fat checkbook can go a long way. So what do you think? Would an XJ220 restomod be cool? Have you ever heard about a project like this being attempted? Hit me up and let me know!
Photos: Historics Auctioneers