Legendary designer Ian Callum and his company have shared the first shots of a Jaguar supercar that the carmaker never approved into production. Dubbed the C-X75, it was a one-off movie car created for the James Bond movie “Spectre” (see video) and stored in a private collection until its owner decided to make it drivable on common roads.
Jaguar never planned to approve the C-X75 for mass production. The company only made two such concept vehicles for the movie, where they were featured in close-up shots and static scenes. Neither of the two had a road-legal powertrain. For the action scenes, Williams supplied the filming crew with several crude replicas of the C-X75 equipped with traditional engines.
After the filming was over, one of these concepts landed in a private collection. To make it street-legal, the owner contacted Ian Callum, who was Jaguar Design Director at the time the company worked on the C-X75. Callum had to design and implement dozens upon dozens of modifications until the car could be legally admitted to the road. These included proper rearview mirrors, new windows all around, redesigned body panels and a street-legal engine with a compliant exhaust system. The shock absorbers also received some tweaks.
The original Jaguar C-X75 movie car utilized an overly complex hybrid drivetrain that combined electric motors with gas turbine engines. Callum had it replaced with a normal V8 borrowed from a Range Rover Sport, seemingly the one rated at 550 PS (542 hp / 404 kW).
It is unknown how much the conversion cost the client who ordered it. It is also unclear whether Callum can do the same with the remaining C-X75 examples (some rumors claim there are four in total).
The car will make a live appearance at a thematic festival in the UK on April 21, 2024.