The Jaguar XK 180 is a

concept car A concept car (also known as a concept vehicle, show vehicle or prototype) is a car made to showcase new styling and/or new technology. They are often exhibited at motor shows to gauge customer reaction to new and radical designs which may or ...

created by the British car manufacturer

Jaguar Cars Jaguar (, ) is the luxury vehicle brand of Jaguar Land Rover, a British multinational car manufacturer with its headquarters in Whitley, Coventry, England. Jaguar Cars was the company that was responsible for the production of Jaguar cars ...

to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the XK car and to show the world the skills of Jaguar stylists, craftsmen and engineers. It was presented at the

Paris Motor Show The Paris Motor Show (french: Mondial de l'Automobile) is a biennial auto show in Paris. Held during October, it is one of the most important auto shows, often with many new production automobile and concept car debuts. The show presently take ...

in 1998.

Specifications

It had a 4.0 litre supercharged

V8 engine A V8 engine is an eight-cylinder piston engine in which two banks of four cylinders share a common crankshaft and are arranged in a V configuration. The first V8 engine was produced by the French Antoinette company in 1904, developed and us ...

with four valves per cylinder, developing and of torque. Power is sent to the rear wheels through a Mercedes five-speed automatic gearbox which has been modified to be controlled by buttons on the steering wheel. Seating capacity was two. It had a claimed top speed of , although this was never tested, and it could accelerate from 0-100 km/h (62 mph) in 4.5 seconds. It was capable of covering a 1/4 mile (400 m) in 13.5 seconds at . Two XK 180s were built in total, one in RHD and one in LHD. Both were roadsters.

Handling

The handling pack used in this car was Computer Active Technology Suspension (CATS), which was also used on the

Jaguar XKR The Jaguar XK is a two-door 2+2 grand tourer manufactured and marketed by British automobile manufacturer Jaguar Cars from 1996–2014 in hatchback coupé and convertible bodystyles, across two generations. The XK was introduced at the ...

. These enhancements include revised electronic control unit settings and revised damper settings for taut, dynamic handling as well as uprated springs and anti-roll bars for increased roll stiffness. The pack also includes a retuned variable ratio, speed-sensitive steering system. The XK180 suspension is based on that of the XKR, with racing-style aluminium shock absorbers incorporated in the coil spring/damper units. The suspension was developed with assistance from ride and handling experts at Jaguar's Engineering Centre in Whitley.

Brakes

Brakes were

Brembo Brembo S.p.A. is an Italian manufacturer of automotive brake systems, especially for high-performance cars and motorcycles. Its head office is in Curno, Bergamo, Italy. History Brembo was established in Paladina, Italy on January 11, 1961 ...

units, measuring 14.001 in , 355.6 mm in the front and 12.001 in , 304.8 mm in the rear.

Wheels and tyres

The wheels of the car were made by

BBS BBS may refer to: Ammunition * BBs, BB gun metal bullets * BBs, airsoft gun plastic pellets Computing and gaming * Bulletin board system, a computer server users dial into via dial-up or telnet; precursor to the Internet * BIOS Boot Specificat ...

, fitted with

Pirelli Pirelli & C. S.p.A. is a multinational tyre manufacturer based in Milan, Italy. The company, which has been listed on the Milan Stock Exchange since 1922, is the 6th-largest tyre manufacturer and is focused on the consumer production of tyre ...

P Zero tyres (265/35 ZR20 P Zero Direzionale at the front and 285/30 ZR20 P Zero Asimmetrico at the rear). The rims were 9 inches wide x 20 inches in diameter (front) and 10 inches wide x 20 inches in diameter (rear). The first car built in 1998, was fitted with

Paris wheels, while the second (LHD, 1999) car had

Detroit wheels.

Replica

There are some companies that offer to convert regular Jaguar XJS/XK8/XKR cars to replicas of the XK180. Autobedrijf de Koning BV, a Netherlands-based firm, is one of the most well known producers of XK 180 replicas. One of their replicas was offered for sale in 2017 with an asking price of 235,000 euros ($272,000). The replica was built in 2015 on the chassis of a 1985

Jaguar XJ-SC The Jaguar XJ-S (later called XJS) is a luxury grand tourer manufactured and marketed by British car manufacturer Jaguar Cars from 1975 to 1996, in coupé, fixed-profile and full convertible bodystyles. There were three distinct iterations, ...

and produces .

References

External links

XK180 page at the Jaguar Daimler Heritage Trust
{{Jaguar modern timeline XK-180