RE: CALLUM converts Jaguar C-X75 to road spec

RE: CALLUM converts Jaguar C-X75 to road spec

Thursday 29th February 2024

CALLUM converts Jaguar C-X75 to road spec

Just four C-X75s survived life on a Bond set; now this one is ready for the public highway


The story of the Jaguar C-X75 has always been an intriguing one - what was going to be an amazing hybrid hypercar got a second life with a rip-roaring V8 as the wheels for a Bond villain. And that’s not even scratching the surface. Now there’s another chapter to the tale, as one of those 5.0-litre stunt cars from Spectre has been made road-legal. 

It’s the work of CALLUM - and who better to lead the roadgoing project than the original designer? Having also worked on making cars like the Aston DB4 GT Continuation suitable for road use, it was decided to up the ante next time around. This ‘75 is chassis number seven, and retains a lot of the parts from its time as a movie star: the tubular spaceframe chassis is intact, as is the ‘rally-derived’ suspension and supercharged V8. Where the job of the CALLUM engineers started was in making the whole thing fit to pass an IVA - and rather more liveable. 

The easy stuff (you’d imagine) was details like catalytic converters, a quieter exhaust, mirrors, indicators and some additional switchgear. Apparently, the dampers and ride height were only adjusted a tad. New glass was probably more of a headache. Where they really will have earned their keep, however, was in finding ‘solutions to improve the quality of the bodywork and fittings’. So every bit of carbon fibre was redone, wonky panel gaps addressed and quick-release latches replaced. You’re still not going to mistake it for a fresh-from-factory hypercar - the interior is still complete with a kill switch - but it’s undoubtedly the best-presented C-X75 yet seen. And, one way or another, they’ve all looked pretty fantastic.

The road-legal Jaguar C-X75 will be on display at the Bicester Scramble on April 21st. It will be located at The Armoury, which will likely be found by identifying the biggest crowd. Even after all this time, there’s not much to grab the attention like a C-X75. Especially if it drives through the gates along with everybody else…


Author
Discussion

Augustus Windsock

Original Poster:

3,608 posts

169 months

Thursday 29th February 2024
quotequote all
JLR missed the opportunity to produce the best looking Jaguar in a generation, and sell it by the bucket load.
I’m not suggesting that they could have built it as the film cars were built, but surely would have been able to evolve and adapt some of its current hardware to bring this to fruition.
Better looking than the E-type?
I’ll let other opine on that but for what it’s worth, my opinion is it’s a yes..

Dr Interceptor

8,146 posts

210 months

Thursday 29th February 2024
quotequote all
It was one of the occasions where the bad guys car was better than Bonds. I'd take this over the DB10 any day.

Antj

1,091 posts

214 months

Thursday 29th February 2024
quotequote all
Imagine sitting at the board meeting at jaguar being asked ................... why did we not build this?

GeniusOfLove

3,539 posts

26 months

Thursday 29th February 2024
quotequote all
Antj said:
Imagine sitting at the board meeting at jaguar being asked ................... why did we not build this?
Yeah but we got the XE instead, surely that's... oh. Yeah frown

In reality Jaguar don't have anything like the brand strength to sell supercars, remember how well the XJ220 went. If they had stuck with the late PAG era plan to make actual high end / luxury cars rather than pivoting to attempting to compete with mass market dross then it could have functioned as a flagship/halo car and justified the inevitable losses as a brand building exercise maybe.

C5_Steve

5,786 posts

117 months

Thursday 29th February 2024
quotequote all
Augustus Windsock said:
JLR missed the opportunity to produce the best looking Jaguar in a generation, and sell it by the bucket load.
I’m not suggesting that they could have built it as the film cars were built, but surely would have been able to evolve and adapt some of its current hardware to bring this to fruition.
Better looking than the E-type?
I’ll let other opine on that but for what it’s worth, my opinion is it’s a yes..
Have to agree with this, it seemed like such a missed opportunity at the time. I'm pleased there remains sufficient interest in them to have produced this project even after all this time.

BFleming

3,849 posts

157 months

Thursday 29th February 2024
quotequote all
C5_Steve said:
Have to agree with this, it seemed like such a missed opportunity at the time. I'm pleased there remains sufficient interest in them to have produced this project even after all this time.
I'm pleased they're even still trading as a brand (correct at time of writing).

Gecko1978

11,338 posts

171 months

Thursday 29th February 2024
quotequote all
While Land-rover do appear very up market with Range Rover being what £150k new or more and then having sub models like Mercedes do S class down.

Jaguar doesn't have:

XJ / XJR
F Type

and it'd SUV are more Mid range in appeal.

Such a shame

ChrisCh86

1,036 posts

58 months

Thursday 29th February 2024
quotequote all
This is so cool. Glad Callum stepped up to get at least one of these on the road.

It's probably a touch disappointing to drive (given that it was never properly finished), but it'd be worth it just for the posing rights and the sound of that V8.

pbe624

196 posts

149 months

Thursday 29th February 2024
quotequote all
I remember seeing the burned version the Bond expo last year...

Left hand drive so prepared for a sale in US or continental Europe?

Wonder what the price will be and if you can get it registered in the EU as road legal after Brexit...

Pumpsmynads

281 posts

170 months

Thursday 29th February 2024
quotequote all
When u think of the st they did make…

Macboy

778 posts

219 months

Thursday 29th February 2024
quotequote all
Augustus Windsock said:
JLR missed the opportunity to produce the best looking Jaguar in a generation, and sell it by the bucket load.
I’m not suggesting that they could have built it as the film cars were built, but surely would have been able to evolve and adapt some of its current hardware to bring this to fruition.
Better looking than the E-type?
I’ll let other opine on that but for what it’s worth, my opinion is it’s a yes..
If you talk to anyone who worked on the commercial side of this project, they were increasingly concerned about another XJ-220-style fiasco where project costs escalate (and they REALLY did) and intentions to purchase evaporate the closer the cars get to delivery. Were there really enough people who wanted to buy a seven figure Jaguar with experimental hybrid tech regardless of its beauty? I think financial sense very much prevailed.

BigChiefmuffinAgain

1,363 posts

112 months

Thursday 29th February 2024
quotequote all
Macboy said:
Augustus Windsock said:
JLR missed the opportunity to produce the best looking Jaguar in a generation, and sell it by the bucket load.
I’m not suggesting that they could have built it as the film cars were built, but surely would have been able to evolve and adapt some of its current hardware to bring this to fruition.
Better looking than the E-type?
I’ll let other opine on that but for what it’s worth, my opinion is it’s a yes..
If you talk to anyone who worked on the commercial side of this project, they were increasingly concerned about another XJ-220-style fiasco where project costs escalate (and they REALLY did) and intentions to purchase evaporate the closer the cars get to delivery. Were there really enough people who wanted to buy a seven figure Jaguar with experimental hybrid tech regardless of its beauty? I think financial sense very much prevailed.
Without doubt. At best, they hoped to sell 250 at a time when the world was still coming out of the financial crisis. While it is a lovely thing, Jaguar have always struggled to sell anything at a super premium price point - at best it would have made a nice vanity project, but if you ever read up on the nightmares they went thru with the XJ220, you can understand why they back away.

No idea what CALLUM are going to ask for this but assume it will be very big money. Pretty poor lack of effort on the interior on that basis....

Jurdy

277 posts

298 months

Thursday 29th February 2024
quotequote all
Looks similar to the new MC20. JLR could have potentially cleaned up…..

Chris C2

216 posts

63 months

Thursday 29th February 2024
quotequote all
I worked for a supplier on this project. Jaguar engineers were trying to use high volume designs and tooling totally inappropriate/too expensive for a low volume build - they couldn't get their heads round the way that low volume specialist vehicle builders worked.

In extremis it reminded me a bit of the MG SV programme where I was told that some staff were apparently put on it who frankly weren't that good just to give them something to do rather than bite the bullet and make them redundant.

Edited by Chris C2 on Thursday 29th February 16:39

jimmytheone

1,699 posts

232 months

Thursday 29th February 2024
quotequote all
C5_Steve said:
Augustus Windsock said:
JLR missed the opportunity to produce the best looking Jaguar in a generation, and sell it by the bucket load.
I’m not suggesting that they could have built it as the film cars were built, but surely would have been able to evolve and adapt some of its current hardware to bring this to fruition.
Better looking than the E-type?
I’ll let other opine on that but for what it’s worth, my opinion is it’s a yes..
Have to agree with this, it seemed like such a missed opportunity at the time. I'm pleased there remains sufficient interest in them to have produced this project even after all this time.
This still looks brilliant, even a decade later. I hope their future BEVs look as good

Nish Gnackers

1,173 posts

55 months

Thursday 29th February 2024
quotequote all
pbe624 said:
I remember seeing the burned version the Bond expo last year...

Left hand drive so prepared for a sale in US or continental Europe?

Wonder what the price will be and if you can get it registered in the EU as road legal after Brexit...

Arsecati

2,615 posts

131 months

Thursday 29th February 2024
quotequote all
Still baffles me how this didn't make production - one of the most gorgeous cars of the millennium if you ask me.

JoshSm

952 posts

51 months

Thursday 29th February 2024
quotequote all
It's not a Jaguar C-X75 though, it's a film stunt replica of a Jaguar C-X75. Might look similar from a suitable distance but shares nothing beyond the looks.

Everyone seems to have the story wrong because they can't tell there's a difference between an actual thing and a prop that just resembles it.

Come back if someone ever does the same thing with an actual real one.

Robertb

2,713 posts

252 months

Thursday 29th February 2024
quotequote all
Maserati were evidently copying Jaguar’s homework when they did the MC20.

Slippydiff

15,456 posts

237 months

Thursday 29th February 2024
quotequote all
Arsecati said:
Still baffles me how this didn't make production - one of the most gorgeous cars of the millennium if you ask me.
This ^
Absolutely stunning. I mean just look at it FFS :







Talk about a missed opportunity.