Pistonheads Jaguar C-X75 Soiree !

As one of the 30 lucky winners , of a competition on Pistonheads, I headed up to the Berkeley Hotel in Knightsbridge to meet Garlick and the PH team for some canapes, champers, oh...and to drool over the new Jag concept........

The Jag design team explain the concept

What becomes evident when you get close to a concept is that it is just that, a concept....a 1:1 scale model. Although this car does drive under it's own powered electric motors all centrally mounted along the centreline of the vehicle for optimum weigh distribution, the two Bladen micro-Turbines (essentially mini Rolls-Royce aero engines, are not connected). 


What they do have is a superb demo of what it sounds like from the drivers seat. The turbines whistle and whine as they spool-up, and settle to idle before winding up to their maximum 88,000rpm for a demo of a full-throttle run, where they are charging the electric motors. (The turbines act as a range-extender - the electric motors on their own take you about 90 miles and with the turbines on that extends to around 400, and the batteries can also be charged seperately in two hours). The demo concludes with the LCD display changing to a vintage D-type analogue look, and blue mood lights to calm you down after your post 200MPH blast !


The designers then talked us through the main concepts on the cat, one of which is ducting the turbine expelled air through an exhaust blown diffuser, and 'wake-filling ' to make the whole aerodynamics off the back of the car smooth and more slippery.  Another interesting fact is that the shape of the car was taken directly from the XJ-13:

They also have what has to be the coolest bumper sticker ever:

and some serious 'one-off' rubber wrapped around wheels designed to evoke 1960's jet aircraft design, which is also carried inside with roof-mounted turbine start button, and ejector-seat style door pulls in the base of the seats.

We then decamped to the Grenadier in Belgravia, a fabulous little pub , that used to be the Duke of Wellingtons' Officers Mess, for some beers (thanks all !)

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