Here’s a fun one. This is the 1989 Jaguar XJ220 MIRA Crash Test LM Conversion. This specific XJ220 was the MIRA (formerly the Motor Industry Research Association) crash test JaguarSport development car. That’s right, this beautiful ‘Audi Sprint Blue’ XJ220 was once crashed directly into a wall at 30mph. So what do you do when you completely destroy an XJ220? Well, if you’re @donlawracing, you convert it into a road-going ‘LM’. After taking a look at the chassis & realizing there was life left, from there @donlawracing went on to build a true bespoke road-going XJ220 LM. This MIRA crashed XJ220 was specifically ‘Shell B’ of the development cars, and nicknamed “Carrol” by the factory. One of their goals with rebuilding an XJ220 was also to push the limits in terms of power, because, why not. This specific car pumps out 800hp on high-octane fuel, which is 258hp more than the standard XJ220. Ultimately, after acquiring ‘Shell B’, Justin Law, son of Don Law from @donlawracing, built a fully bespoke XJ220 LM by compiling parts various XJ220 parts together. Some of these parts were the same speedline wheels used on the 1993 LM-spec cars, fixed headlamps, original 1993 LM-spec carbon fiber doors, and of course many custom parts, and whatever was salvaged from the MIRA crash. Overall ‘Shell B’ could be one of the most interesting Jaguar road cars, ever.
How many made? Justin Law from @donlawracing said in 2017, “This is currently the only roadgoing XJ220 LM and if I’m honest it’s a bit much for the road. But we already have an order to build another.” To my knowledge this is a 1 of 1 build.
Engine: Since the car needed a full rebuild mechanically and spare parts were scarce, using Garret M27 turbochargers @donlawracing machined together a modified version of the XJ220 V6, capable of 800hp on high-octane fuel.
Debut: This wasn’t a car offered by @jaguar, this was a custom built project, so it never really had a proper ‘debut’.
Top speed: Likely to be north of the standard XJ220’s top speed of about 217mph.
0-60mph: Likely to be quicker than the time of the standard XJ220 of around 4.8 seconds.
Photo credit- @donlawracing - @supercardriver
Research: @rarecarsonly