A British design and engineering company has modified a British car to allow it to be driven legally on British roads. And non-British roads. Not exactly Earth-shattering news, except said British car is a glorious V8-engined concept that starred in a James Bond film.
So welcome back, Jaguar C-X75 and thine supercharged 5.0-liter V8, now available for real-life road use. Callum – founded by former Jaguar designer Ian Callum – has modified one of the five stunt cars used in Spectre for a private customer to Individual Vehicle Approval (IVA) standards. So yes, this concept car is now road legal.
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If anyone’s going to modify it, might as well be Callum – he was in charge of Jaguar’s design department when the 2010 concept was unveiled, hence why it looks pretty spectacular. ‘Extensive’ work was undertaken by his new engineering team to make the C-X75 driveable by mere mortals and not just hotshoes sliding around Rome.
So, ‘hundreds’ of changes were made to the bones of the C-X75 stunt car, including new E-marked glass, new switchgear, a quieter exhaust and the addition of catalytic converters, along with a new calibration for the 5.0-liter supercharged V8 on board. Oh, it gets proper wing mirrors too, designed from scratch, replacing the foam ones used on the stunt car.
Callum’s people binned the quick-release latches, reduced and realigned all the car’s panel gaps, enhanced the carbon fiber finish and gave it a repaint. The dampers and ride height were also subject to minor tweaks to ensure “the fluid and engaging driving dynamics were retained”. So yes, it’ll still probably be able to slide around like it did in Rome.
Callum of course has form in revisiting his old work (witness his new take on the original V12 Vanquish), and carefully modifying classic stuff to IVA standards (the Aston DB4 continuation). Pretty handy at making entirely new stuff too (the Skye off-roader).
“Stunt cars are arguably the true stars, bringing to life the legendary scenes that stay with us as car enthusiasts,” said Adam Donfrancesco, Callum’s engineering director.
“So few actually survive the rigours of filming, preservation was key whilst meeting the legislation and it’s great we can reveal it to the enthusiastic Scramblers.” Scramblers, you ask? The road-legal, one-off Jaguar C-X75 will make its public debut at next month’s Bicester Scramble which is, in Earth-shattering news, in Bicester.
Note: This story first appeared on TopGear.com. Minor edits have been made.
