It seems like only yesterday we were talking about Cosworth's reinvention of its abandoned four-cylinder F1 engine programme for use in road cars. Oh, that's
because itwas
313hp per litre from Cosworth 1.6-litre F1 motor
Anyway, off the back of that and a slightly odd PR initiative that has seen Jaguar boasting about how clever the
now abandoned C-X75
a cool little video
explaining a bit more about how that 500-odd horsepower turbo AND supercharged 1.6 replaced the original turbine-based drivetrain. And showing it being put through its paces.
It's all a bit Jim Bowen 'look at what you could have won' and all the more frustrating for it, because the C-X75 looks like a hell of a piece of kit and more than a match for the McLaren P1, LaFerrari and Porsche 918 Spyder it might otherwise have competed with.
"Our challenge was monumental," says Rob Atkin, C-X75 Vehicle and Programme Manager. "We needed to achieve the performance of a Veyron, the range of a Volt and the CO2 of a Prius and package it all inside the beautiful C-X75." By all accounts they did it too.
Jaguar is trying to soften the blow of canning the C-X75's by saying the technology - including possibly that amazing little engine - will make it into future JLR products. But really we wanted it in this one. Because it looks like they hit those goals and created one hell of a vehicle. Perhaps a cooler one for the fact that they're not going to sell it. But that comes as small comfort when you imagine that four-way hypercar grouptest with the C-X75 and its 10,000rpm Cosworth engine at the core.
What might have been, eh?