One to Buy: 26km Silverstone Green 1993 Jaguar XJ220
/
Perhaps no other vehicle exemplified the boom-to-bust nature of the late 1980s / early 1990s period than Jaguar’s XJ220.
Unveiled in late 1988 with a projected pre-tax price of £290,000, around 1400 customers put a £50,000 deposit down, each desperately hoping to get their hands on one of the 220 to 350 cars that would be built.
When production finally began in June 1992 (at a brand new purpose-built factory) the price for an XJ220 had risen to an extraordinary £470,000 (at a time when a Ferrari F40 cost £193,000).
Unfortunately, by this time global economic conditions had changed for the worse and most developed economies were in the depths of a pretty severe recession. This left many XJ220 option holders unwilling or unable to compete.
Nevertheless, Jaguar ultimately went on to produce 282 examples of the XJ220 by the time production was discontinued in April 1994.
Despite the car’s high price, personalisation options for the XJ220 were limited to a set of BBS wheels, a choice of five exterior colours and four interior colours. Of these, arguable the most desirable combination was Silverstone Green with Sand upholstery.
One such handsomely configured example is currently on offer at the Canepa showroom in Scotts Valley, California.
Incredibly, the car in question has covered just 26km (16 miles) and is presented in as-new condition.
