The Desert Swallows a Jaguar XJ220
You don’t hear much about the supercharged Jaguar XJ220 these days -probably because not many of them exist. One of the most rare Jags to come off the auto maker’s assembly line, one XJ220 was discovered sitting in the desert of Qatari by Crank and Piston blogger Phil McGovern. I guess they’ve never heard of eBay Motors over there.
The XJ220 was based off a Jaguar concept from 1988. It quickly became legend as one of the most expensive and stylish sports cars ever built. At around $580,000 starting price, the multi-billionaire owner could enjoy a V6 that takes you upwards of 200 miles per hour. It barely sold.
You see, XJ220 was the victim of hype and over-ambitious press. Jaguar originally promoted this supercar with an all wheel drive V12, capable of hitting over 220 miles per hour (hence the “220″ in its name). Instead, you ended up with a a car that could just about reach 200, but only contained that 6-cyl and rear wheel drive.
This particular XJ was last seen in Beirut six years after being sold to a customer by the Jaguar Dealer in Dubai. Now it sits wasting away in the dry desert air. A tragic end to the odd story of one of Jaguar’s biggest blunders.
Source: Jalopnik
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