2013 Jaguar C-X75 Veyron

2013 Jaguar C-X75 Veyron

Jaguar has decided to turn its hugely impressive jet-powered Jaguar C-X75 hybrid concept into a £700,000, Bugatti Veyron-beating flagship for production in 2013 – and is enlisting the aid of the Williams F1 team to do it. The deal, a momentous decision that will affect everything Jaguar does for decades to come, was announced in London this morning by Tata chief Carl-Peter Forster, with Sir Frank Williams in attendance. It will involve a direct technology transfer between the partners, especially over lightweight structures, and brings Tata ever closer to the F1 connection that has often been rumored.

2013 Jaguar C-X75 Veyron

Jaguar is planning 250 cars, and continues to work on the jet-powered concept for C-X75. It will eventually sell a limited number of them, but the there are strong indications that the majority of cars will use a 'highly boosted' 1.6-litre engine related to the four-cylinder engine Williams and other F1 teams will adopt from 2013. Williams currently uses a Cosworth engine, made in Northampton shire.

2013 Jaguar C-X75 Veyron

The production Jaguar C-X75 (the concept name is being kept "for the time being", but won't necessarily make production) will have plug-in electric drive motors on the front and rear axles and thus have four-wheel-drive. No detail of the power train is available, but it seems probable that the four-cylinder engine, which could easily produce 500bhp-plus, will power the wheels in parallel with the electric motors.