Part of the rationalisation was to move away from the heavy, high emission V12 and use something smaller instead. This was to better package the car and TWR thought similar power could be made with a smaller turbocharged engine.

The Metro 6R4 link

In 1987 the Group B rally series was cancelled after a fatal crash the previous year. This made Austin’s entrant, the Metro 6R4, redundant so they decided to sell the engine design rights. TWR felt a smaller turbo charged engine would work better and bought the rights.

While the engine was built for motorsport and included certain architecture from the legendary Cosworth DFV, it was naturally aspirated. TWR wanted a flexible powerful engine for the XJ220 and decided a twin turbo setup would provide the power of the V12 with far less weight. 

Cometh the hour, cometh the Van

Soon after, testing the turbo setup began. While the first tests probably happened on a test rig, the engine would need significant road testing to ensure the smaller unit delivered the power TWR needed in order to justify the change from the old V12. The aesthetics of the XJ220 were changing constantly, so TWR probably thought it easier to get the engine mounted in any road car to begin testing rather than wait for the design to be completed.

Registration number: G134XVX started life in 1989 as a humble Ford Transit. It was acquired by Jaguar and TWR to allow them to mount and test the new twin turbo engine and running gear in secret. The Ford Transit was chosen as a discreet and spacious way to fit and test the engine on public roads.

It’s unlikely that G134XVX ever had the V12 Jaguar initially promised for the XJ220. The V12 was a proven road and race engine and would need far less testing than the V6 TWR had decided to modify.

The V6 ended up producing more than enough power for TWRs requirements and the more compact size permitted the wheelbase of the XJ220 to be shortened.

The XJ220 van is now privately owned by Don Law Racing, a company that specialises in servicing and modifying the Jaguar XJ220. It is road legal and is used to transport various things around for the business – how appropriate!

The XJ220 van has attended the Goodwood Festival of Speed to demonstrate its power and unusual engine and layout. The van even has a ladder, roof rack and newspaper left on the dash as part of the disguise. Unless you noticed the big ZR high speed tyres and Jaguar alloys, there are few clues to the 542bhp engine lurking in the back.

XJ220 Transit van performance

The XJ220 powered Transit is a monstrous hybrid of supercar and builder’s van. Powered by the 542BHP twin turbo V6 engine, this oddball creation will out accelerate sports cars, let alone vans!

One of the downsides to fitting an engine like this to a van is the lack of aerodynamics courtesy of the boxy bodywork. The impact on performance is said to be fairly minimal and the Jag Van will still get to sixty in 5 seconds and to a 100mph in around 10 seconds.

I still find it amazing that a once-significant secret test car has survived. It really shows the ingenuity of Jaguar and TWR in making such a curious test bed to enable the XJ220 project to be finished.

“They’re obviously getting very cocky to carry out a raid right in front of a police station but they know they can get away once back inside the car”

PC David Oliver

In 1993 a few months prior, a car was stolen from a residential drive in Worcester. This turned out to be the getaway car in question, registration “40RA” a Vauxhall Carlton. This was a very special Vauxhall Carlton – A Lotus Carlton in fact, the fastest saloon car of its day. This car would be used to carry out a series of robberies across the West midlands over several months.

“We simply haven’t been able to get near the thing and it looks unlikely that we ever will. Our urban panda cars can only go at 90mph, but we also have a policy of not getting involved in chases. If we did that, the thieves could kill themselves or someone else”

PC David Oliver

The criminals were never caught and the Police openly admitted that the only chance they had was to find where the car was hidden during the day. Even the Police helicopter struggled to keep up with the Lotus on the M6.

General Motors turns to Lotus

The Lotus Carlton came about when General Motors decided it wanted to get involved in the performance Saloon segment. Mercedes had the 500E and BMW the E34 M5 and General Motors wanted its own car in this segment. Without a tuning company like BMW’s M division or Mercedes’ AMG, it turned to another company it owned, Lotus.

General Motors decided that the Vauxhall Carlton 3000 GSI (Opel Omega if you’re reading in Europe) would form the basis of the new car and Lotus set to work. The 3000 GSI already included a 3 litre engine and rear wheel drive so it was deemed a good platform to compete against the Mercedes and BMW.

The unassuming Vauxhall Carlton was transformed, with a bigger, twin turbo version of the Vauxhall GSI engine, bonnet intakes, front and rear spoilers, AP vented brakes, limited slip differential, re calibrated suspension and wider arches. The car was capable of 177mph and 0-60 in 4.9 seconds and 0-100 in 11.5 seconds. The 3.6L straight six 24-valve 382bhp engine was paired to a Corvette ZR-1 6 speed gearbox to handle the 419lb ft of torque.

All the cars were finished in Imperial Green with Lotus badging all round. The Lotus Carlton was an official Lotus product with “Type 104” designation. When production had finished, 950 cars had been built, just shy of the 1000 unit target.

Lotus Carlton – Modern classic

The Lotus Carlton was considerably quicker (outright and in acceleration) than the BMW E34 M5, Mercedes 500E and BMW Alpina B10. BMW and Mercedes limited their most powerful cars to 155mph, but the Vauxhall would easily pull another 20mph over these rivals.

While the Lotus Carlton held the title of fastest standard saloon car in the world for over 10 years it was not all about straight-line performance. Lotus had created an exploitable and capable chassis. A strange quirk was that the fuel level affected the handling because the petrol tank was above the rear axle.

Today the car is a rare modern classic that holds onto its value well – in spite of its criminal connections.

How would Rover’s new car cope in the face of such opposition? To contend with these super coupes, Rover had prepared the most powerful variant of its R8 200 series, the 220 Turbo Coupe or Tomcat for short.

“Nicknamed the Tomcat due to a Rover engineer thinking the side profile resembled an F14 Tomcat fighter jet. It doesn’t sound as cool in a brummy accent”

The Tomcat nickname really did come from the side profile of the 220 looking a bit like the F14 Grumman fighter jet. The project manager Nick Fell decided on the nickname and it stuck.

While the 200 itself was based on the Honda Concerto platform (See the advert below) – the engine was Rover’s own creation; the T16. With around 200bhp it had more than enough power to rival the competition. Rover had priced the car at just £18k too, making the Tomcat a veritable bargain.

The Rover Tomcat was pretty too, with elegant proportions, leather seats and that wooden dashboard trim that resembled a melted Mars bar. The problem was not with the statistics, styling or price, but the way it drove…

Tomcat or dog?

Contemporary testers agreed, while fast in a straight line, the Tomcat needed to be coaxed around corners. The limited slip diff didn’t really do enough to keep the car from smoking its front tyres and understeering towards a hedge.

Talking of smoking tyres, here’s Tiff Needell thrashing the Rover Tomcat around the Nurburgring:

Tiff Needell praised the performance but questioned the lack of traction control, adding that the limited slip diff didn’t do enough to quell the unpredictable handling. Tiff added that for “driver involvement” the Escort Cosworth would beat the Tomcat. In this keen market filled with agile star performers, the Rover struggled to fight back.

“Under its chic, feline skin, this Tomcat’s a dog. A howler… Under power the whole car writhes and squirms as if an exorcist were trying to rid its body of a plague of demons… It doesn’t just finish fourth in this comparison, it finishes rock-bottom last. It’s the company’s calamity coupe”

Car Magazine 1993 Rover Tomcat Group Test

Despite having the power to compete, the Tomcat didn’t handle as well as competitors. This was clearly a strong area for cars like the Escort RS Cosworth, Nissan 200sx and Toyota MR2. The Tomcat received criticism from a range of publications that was all consistent; while it was well priced and fast, the driving experience wasn’t great. Against the talented array of competitors, it was a blunt instrument.

The Rover Tomcat driving experience

While the Rover Tomcat was clearly a ragged driving experience and didn’t sell as well as it could, it’s a car I remember fondly. It looked good and went well, it’s just a shame Rover couldn’t get it to compete with it’s contemporaries at the time. The Tomcat remains a charismatic and striking car, memorable too; potentially for the wrong reasons – it’s the underdog you always wanted to win.

In 2005 Rover shut the factory doors for the last time and the Tomcat would remain the fastest Rover ever made.