TWR Supercat, V12, 660bhp. The 80’s Jaguar XJS gets the restomod treatment & the result is wild

Welcome to a new Harry's Garage video and we are definitely not in the garage. I'm in Newbury and I'm at the headquarters of TWR Supercat and this is this amazing car that is based on an XJS. I'm going to sit inside there in a moment and I've been really keen to see this car because I know how tricky it is to turn a Jaguar V12 into the car you expect it to be and fire breathing and handle etc and I'm absolutely intrigued what they've done inside here and I'm definitely in the right place. There's not a V12 coupe there and it's a manual but in here there's some very special things going on and I'm going to meet John Kane who is co-founder of TWR along with Fergus Walkinshaw as well, son of Tom Walkinshaw, whose project this is. Just wait to see what's hiding in here. John. Hi Harry, how are you? Definitely the right place. Nice to see you. Welcome to TWR, next generation. That I could get sidetracked with for half an hour. Yes and that looks pretty cool. The test mule is something. But look at this. There you go. Welcome to the Supercat. Yeah well I've only seen renderings up to now. Yeah. My goodness me. Yeah that is quite an aggressive thing isn't it? It is, yeah. Not quite what Sir William Lyons might have envisaged that the XJS would turn into but my god that's exciting. Yeah a lot of time we've been doing this now for almost three years the development on this. Yeah. It's been in the process for quite a while. I'm going to go through the sort of nutty oily details with Fergus later. Yeah. But yeah how did you get involved? How's the start? How did this come about? So I'm really an enthusiast. That's how it came about and I met Fergus on a road rally. We struck up a friendship and then started working together on a few different projects. Then the discussion came about doing something together, TWR, when I knew that connection with Fergus and then XJS started to come to mind. Obviously TWR 1988 win at Le Mans and then the next kind of most famous in my mind was the XJS. Oh it was disgusting earlier that video of Tom Wiltshire at Bathurst. Yeah I've watched it a million times right? You're not alone. It's just amazing. Yeah. And it doesn't compute of what you think an XJS should do. Yeah that was the magic of TWR was enhancing something that really shouldn't have been able to do that and that's what we've tried to do with the Supercat as well. We're trying to keep that ethos going. Yeah. Well it was really exciting in period. I mean it was incredibly successful race car really. Very yeah. European touring car winning in 84 and the Bathurst obviously in 85 which was amazing. And Spa 24 hours. Yeah Spa 24 hours. And then the same engine that went into the car won Le Mans. Won Le Mans yeah. But and I you know having with my XJ Coupe and you know like in Jaguar I discovered you owned one as well. Yes I did yeah back in when I was in my early 20s yeah quite a while ago now. And we all think of Steed and then Broadspeed. Yes. And the racing one. It's not the basis, great basis because it's a bit flexible and it's just correct. It has a lot of things. That's where we start obviously. We start from the bare bones, strip it back, make sure it's reinforced, tubular reinforced chassis gets welded to the original chassis. Right. So that's we have to with the dynamicness of this vehicle and the power that had to be the starting point. Well it's just a much better starting point than an XJ Coupe. Yes yeah it was refined a bit from that chassis and then yeah and then obviously what we do to it takes it to that next level of becoming a what you see now. So and not just visually but dynamically. Yes oh well I just want to I haven't actually been around the back of this car yet. I've only seen it from there. It's just as mad back here. It is just as mad back there yeah if you see obviously a very functional diffuser so extensive CFD work happened throughout the whole design process. So it was all coordination through the process with design and CFD and that had to bounce back all the time. So that was a two-year process of creating something that's functional and beautiful I hope at the same time. Well there's a number of players sort of involved with this. I you know there's quite a lot of racing background amongst the team isn't there? Correct yeah definitely we our core team are motorsport background so that's why function was always the you know had to be part of the form but at the same time we got some phenomenal design work as well with the team that we've had with Keisel and Magnus. So it's been a it's been an amazing project that's come together hopefully to create something quite special. This I love here like the buttress yeah there's no air in it this is correct. So it's funny a lot of people actually refer to the original was a flying buttress but of course it wasn't it was a buttress. Yeah that was driven yeah again design team wanted it. We were kind of this is going to be incredibly difficult to do from a production point of view but then when it went back to CFD work they said we need more air we need to feed more air onto this rear ducktail. We didn't want to have to put a spoiler so that's where we so we all kind of came together and say okay we're have to make this work and we did so yeah. Which bits is a glass original? Yes yeah so you've got a few bits that are original not many door handles you may recognize the front and rear scuttle. Everything else is carbon fiber on the car so nothing nothing else bodywork wise is original and then there's a couple other small bits that you may notice but lots of inspirations from other cars in the TWR range this is XJ220 fuel filler for instance if you recognize that. Right I didn't yeah yeah I expect it from a race manufacturer to have that sort of thing. Yes. So how do you envisage this car is because it looks very track like but you're telling me it has number plates no problem at all. No no correct it's so the intention was right from the start was to be a super GT so capable of taking you long distances in comfort and you'll see the interior as well we haven't really looked at yet but yeah it's designed to be beautiful and comfortable so you want to be able to drive through your as you're very familiar with you do many road trips but exactly what you would hope for but to be able to go on track and be very fast on track at the same time. Right so dual personality. Very dual personality and the real trick to it is the luggage space and you'll see that as well. Just the mechanicals of it let's explain those so V12 you've done I'll go say furthest the actual details but supercharged. Yep 5.6 litre super charged V12. I'm sort of surprised you didn't up the cc but there must be a reason. Yeah we wanted to uh keep the wanted to keep the stroke relatively low because we wanted a high revving engine so we're at 7750 uh yeah red line so it screams yeah it's an amazing thing. Supercharged and and 660 horse rated isn't it? Correct yeah. And manual gearbox I see. Six speed manual yeah. Was there any choice any discussion on that? Absolutely there was discussion um what what we actually said was well we'll we'll end up having it driven by the customers yeah we've had a huge response from customers all around the world being fantastic um but nobody has really asked for anything other than a manual so I think the driven force is that we've done the right thing and we've gone with a manual so. Just as Gordon Murray founder of his T50. Yes exactly yeah I've heard that story as well yeah spend a bunch of money on developing something and nobody wants it. What should I do that for? Yes yeah and the duality just seems really low if I look at that front splitter when I take it to Italy it might not survive. Yeah so so it's a relatively low ride height right now we do have a 60 mil nose lift so that allows you to get over any speed bump even at the low settings now the great thing about our system is that everything's adaptable and adjustable to the customer so if you want this car to sit in a higher ride height from standard and still have the nose lift no problem we can do that so it's if you're a guy who's never going to go on track we can do that that's not a problem if you're a guy who wants to go on track all the time we can do that so yeah. What would you say this starts at the moment are we in track or road? This is right in between so it's almost track right yeah if you could go a little lower obviously there's uh there's still room to go lower however this yeah this is kind of on the low side. Wow yeah and so everything stays the same so the bonnet opens as it always did I'm guessing? Yeah it does. How much wider it is? This is all carbon fiber isn't it? It is the whole thing is carbon fiber yeah every panel like we said it's all carbon. 18 inch wheels? 18 19. 18 and 19. Brakes are steel as standard but this one has the carbon ceramic option on it AP racing calipers. Is this a working car? Yes it is a working car yes yeah so this car is actually going off to to America and uh will be driven by clients and yeah absolutely right yeah oh this isn't a sort of mock-up this is no no this is uh this is not just a a stationary prototype yeah it is a uh working car. We ought to have a look inside can we absolutely yeah go ahead excellent I shall open it for you there you go right I can't believe it's the same handle the door handle is as is the interior door handle however you can see the design language that we've kept is uh so we've kept the door handle but created a nice line that runs all the way through the car actually so wow yeah wow you can smell the leather certainly can yeah goodness oh the pedal box look at that for a work of art that is pure race yeah certain elements are obviously more track focused and road focused it's definitely a blend of everything so seat wise we work with Sebel uh Italian manufacturer but they they allowed us to do a custom design effectively for our for our car which we replicated the XJS actually so this piping and stitching replicated very nicely done and what's we done on the dash then we haven't it's all it's digital dash so if you do this oh we can actually light it all up you will see oh there we go but it's and the fuel lights come on so it was definitely a real yes because that's all I saw in my yeah we've only got a few gallons in it right now unfortunately and you have put a central screen in it yeah so it's an alpine uh car play screen yeah basic stuff that people need and want so we've made it easy accessible and what do we got hiding up the top those controls so that's just air conditioning that's just climate control and then down here you've got lift engine start uh abs so you've got 12 modes of abs so it can be dialed up and down uh then you've got suspension setup everything from comfort to sport and track uh then you've got driving modes which adjust things like throttle pedal power steering you can set power steering to be off if you really want to but that's kind of all being dialed in traction control on the end there again everything from off to all the nannies so we we've made it so that you can control how you want this car anything from gt to track that's that's been the key twr steering wheel as you recognize I do recognize it very well we really wanted to keep that force yeah that was the wheel yeah the moment it was a momo wheel was it still a momo wheel oh yeah it was developed by momo originally I believe yeah do that carbon back carbon back seat my goodness oh that goes straight into the right through oh right so I can seal it off or I can flip yes you can flip that up yeah and then there's a storage bin but so that so that's what I was saying when the true gt yeah a lot of cars even modern day cars which is what I was looking for yeah do other parts of what we've got here but don't do all of it no and one of the things that they never do is space for your luggage it's why I didn't buy that chiron it's just disaster or the sf90 even worse yeah yeah but this you know you've got well from here to the back seats so yeah well that's excellent John I I could talk all day about this look too I ought to get Fergus down definitely yes he is the technical man I am not that side of it let's go and have a look at the engine of Fergus brilliant John thank you absolutely love to meet you never met your dad Tom Walkinshaw but heard a lot of stories I'm sure you know quite a few more stories yes there's a few I think there were but yeah what a hero and especially around the XJS and just his racing anyway we'd go on but your role in this car then is what it's on the mechanical side is it yeah so I've been the lead engineer on the project um leading up the there's an engineering team yeah for the development of the suspension the chassis and getting the panels through composites and onto the car oh really so quite a lot of major work the real nitty-gritty to make this thing operate then is yes and before this came along you were doing race car preparation running yeah so a Ramon business that was primarily a race team and then we moved into to the more special projects for road cars and one-to-one project with customers we took on the kind of the weird and wonderful stuff that most places wouldn't touch so yeah if someone would come to us with a with a car and a concept of we'd like to I'd like to do this with it but no one makes these parts and that's what we take on go okay we can design it we can engineer it we can make it and right so right well perfect for something like this if you want to do a crazy xgs I am told the engine is really special I can't wait to have a look at it because I've been through the pain barrier trying to get a Jaguar v12 operating this modern world can we have a look yeah of course yeah pop the bonnet on it that's that's quite a show my goodness me right yes which is the first time I've seen it there's not a lot of standard componentry under there is there no a lot of development on the engine over the last couple of years when we tear the cars down from the base car yeah pull the engine onto its bare block rods pistons everything I think it's thoroughly cleaned and the block and cylinder heads get remachined right and we bore the engine out from a 5.3 to a 5.6 yes two mil isn't it on there's only two mil on the bore we didn't want to change the stroke because with a relatively short stroke compared to the bore we can keep the revs yeah it's a free freely revving and and get up to the higher higher rev range we then have our own design of pistons and rods that go into it uh lighten the crank it's a new crank though was it is it standard at 5.3 crank it's an original original crank but modified and they were forged standard on the on the earlier cars and that's how you got the revs on it because what I can never get now I've tuned my engine it's a really racy engine because it was a short stroke engine Jaguar didn't do short straight engines they did these long strokes you know mid-range torque this just wants to produce horsepower doesn't it basically it's just designed yeah so it's it's it makes makes your power it's um 660 horsepower um but we've we've done a lot of work to make sure that it's got the drivability it's not all all the all the power's not up right at the top and you've got nothing low down it's a pig in traffic it's got a big broad torque range so it's just as happy bumbling along at sort of 1100 rpm on on the motorway as it is screaming it up to up the red line and the supercharging I can't quite see how's the supercharger this is the supercharger here isn't it yes we've got driven uh the central mounted centrifugal supercharger uh that fits feeds down to the charge cooler at the front these charge coolers here water to air heat feeds into the twin plenums oh dear big tubular manifold coming off it what else have we got down here we've got the air conditioning oil yeah you've got the oil system down there for the for this dry sumped oh it is dry sumped yes a big problem we did a lot of research into complications they had with the group a cars the biggest one was oil control just because of the sheer length of the engine right every time you hit the brakes all the oil sloshes forwards right it starves the pickup now in the 80s the group a cars they were constrained to regulations they couldn't dry sump it yeah because they weren't allowed but as we're building a road car that doesn't have to comply with that that was one of the first things we did we knew it had to be dry sumped to gain the oil control we needed wow wow that's a big change then so where's the oil tank then so the oil tank is actually hidden behind uh behind the wheel in the inner arch oh right so how do I fill it up and things sorry i'm talking like an owner the fill is through there and you can fill and I can't imagine the induction bark you're getting from that at full revs yeah it does it when you when you get it up in the rev range it absolutely howls for you that is amazing that is that is stunning it looks like it's just pure show but that is it isn't it that is with yeah the wooden jectors are all there that is a working i'm amazed that's wonderful utterly wonderful see that off that too with a manifold then and then we've got side exit exhaust yes the manifolds feed into one pipe per side and run down to our side exit exhaust we've got stainless steel exhaust to standard with the titanium option and for having side exhaust that's why the diffuser then is so aggressive yeah I think the side exit exhaust allowed us to sort of expand on the diffuser and make it as big as possible it also meant we didn't have to deal with packaging constraints of fitting the exhaust down through when we redesigned the rear suspension right and you started out at a weight of around 1800 kilos for an xgs we've got a standard car over there haven't we yeah yes what what do you think this is on the scales uh the final weight at the moment but it's approximately 300 kilos lighter than the the base car that is a lot something I should have asked you this is he is it is that what you're using as a base car because aren't the cylinder heads not quite right for tuning do you have to put different heads on so a lot of people who are doing it to their own car they just take the he heads off and go to the earlier flat heads they are a better design as a basis because we're doing a run of 88 cars and the flat heads are becoming quite rare now yes we need to ensure we had the part supply available to to be able to do our production run yeah so what we did with the the he head is we've fully analysed it and remachined the combustion chamber to our own design right to improve the flow and improve the burn fantastic right so you've made that work i'm intrigued what's happening over here because you have the mule car that i'm desperate to have a look at as well so you've done some miles in this a lot of miles i'm guessing yeah we're putting as many miles as we can on this um it's been our test mule for the last nine months nine months it's had a combination of of runway testing for high speeds track testing and a lot of road miles to make sure we got the the practicality in it as well can we just lift the bonnet and just see a proper working mule of a car i just love it it's sort of black but not there's no need to disguise it because it's a car that everybody knows isn't it yeah it gets some looks when it's out on the road i bet it does it's tremendous up it goes wow so yeah mechanically the underpinnings of it are the same as what's found in that the show car over there yeah the only difference is it's not as as beautiful looking it's it's functional it's a proper working thing look these are all the heat sensors aren't they so you've got a readout if you what temperature you get to isn't it yeah temp tags everywhere yeah um we're monitoring all the engine bay temps because one of the biggest issues with these these engines is keeping them cool yes yeah which that is a very thick radiator it's a multi-core rad by the way yes we've got got the central radiator there there's also another radiator on each side as well uh in the bumper oh is there so how many cooling radiators uh so there's there's six radiators and one heat exchanger wow oh of course for the intercoolers yeah yeah so we've got uh the three water radiators one supercharger oil cooler yeah uh aircon obviously um charge cooler pre-rad and then a water to oil heat exchanger are you actually building the engines then here yeah so the entire engine build and development's done in-house our engine rooms just over there fully climate controlled to maintain accuracy of measurements and then once built they're all tested and running in-house on our own dyno and it really does 660 horsepower then yeah 60 and 730 newton meters of torque from the interest we've had on these cars that's the audience is global so we need to make sure that everything will work whether it goes to texas or dubai as well as you know a rainy uk winter so this one yeah the six seat manual proper buckets i would yeah i'd love to see that in motion but uh there we are and then this just shows this strengthening you've had to do isn't it yeah so this this is one of the uh the shells that's been through through the dipping process uh and is partially through the our fab stage part of the work we do yeah yeah once the once cars dipped we have to do any rush repairs that are required and then we add a full strengthening structure into the body shell which helps stiffen everything up the ethos behind that is you could have the best suspension in the but yeah if the middle's flexing yeah it doesn't make a difference so you have to make sure it's all you know working together right so that's the how you've strengthened that and then there's a difference on the subframe because there was a jaguar subframe that doesn't look anything like this yeah so the subframe's both front and rear complete new design designed in-house manufactured in-house as well all the steel work's done here then we've got tubular arms and billet uprights yeah and same with the diff the same drive shaft or is that all no that's start again um because you've got that they've got that weird suspension design with the drive shaft is a stressed member yeah um because the power we're putting through it that was never going to take take that so i've gone to a conventional plated lsd right and then a multi-link rear suspension setup again designed and manufactured in-house wow ah there's a lot of work in these projects isn't it you start this thing and then you go much deeper than you ever expect yeah it kind of it snowballs a little bit you go okay we're going to do this but if you do this we don't need to do that and you you end up with well that it's pretty special yeah that's great Fergus thank you for that was great to go around the inner details of this car thank you now caries all you have done all sorts of designs in the past yeah you're on instagram charlie was showing me it's a million followers isn't it it's quite a big thing for you it is yeah it was something never expected either honestly i just started creating cars i enjoyed making and creating and things that you know inspired me and somehow created a following around that yeah when i look at the wrenches when i see your instagram account i think they're real i just can't get over it thank you it's part of the enjoyment for me on is creating something that doesn't quite exist yeah but making it look like it does or should and did you think oh not an xjs jaguar xjs initially honestly i'd been waiting to do something special with an xjs i genuinely i've done e-types before and all right slightly may have you know offended a few in the process of doing that uh but i've been waiting for the right moment to work on an xjs to give it what i felt it deserved right you know like malcolm say his original design is beautiful in its own right it has a very iconic silhouette yeah and to kind of build off that and do something and create something that has its own identity was quite a task but one i i you know i genuinely look forward to yeah and to kind of have the history and the heritage of twr as a brand name oh it's fantastic you know kind of the motorsport heritage inside of things it was even right on my street yeah and given you know 70s and 80s design and you have your imza transam you have your listers your konigs kind of design language yeah i thrive on that i love it i love it was a wild time well i own a kuntash and you it's just extraordinary design i love the fact you drive it as well this is what it's there for after all it's designed to do but this the great thing about an xs there's no mistake in it is though there's no it is its own look for me in particular given stuff i've done in the past i don't usually get the opportunity to work with a team that is so familiar on the engineering side of things and so capable especially in terms of the performance side of things so getting to work with twr on creating this and making this real alongside working with aerodynamicists from f1 to kind of make sure the design is equally as functional yeah to match its visible look yeah um there's always i i love it because i learned so much along the process yeah it's kind of making sure you know the split like originally i had the front splitter of the car ended where you see the carbon begin and that sounds like okay that's quite nice you know yeah it suits the car well and aerodynamicist was like you need to make that longer to make air actually flow you know right force the car down swoop air across the car it's it's it's small things small details like that which i was like you want it to go longer okay you know work back and forth i don't yeah aero is a weird art isn't it just air does things you don't expect what were the bits you were going to do come up mate the first things you went up first thing was figuring out how to do the wide body on the car how to make the car wider how to have it again how to give it its own identity but still stay true in essence to what the xjs originally was if you look at the side profile of the car the door line is exactly in the same place as the original yes yeah but then we've enhanced it so that it flows throughout the entire car and it's slightly updated slightly modernized i i knew that i kind of wanted to incorporate an hourglass type right figure on the car it's just a also a homage to the Lister's the Koenig's the Trans Am's you know well Lister never got to that stage they didn't start on the door they didn't they didn't exactly and kind of just making it a part of the whole car instead of just a section of the car it's something i knew i really wanted to do but making the flying buttress a functional part of the car i know was quite difficult for the team but it was something alongside the channeled roof line which travels throughout the whole car from the right the hood this line down to the roof spoiler and down to the back yeah something we really kind of pushed to make happen it has got muscle my goodness it's wider at the rear yeah and then of course the rear diffuser which is inspired by the XJ220 in its own right again adding another level of functionality to the entire design and also one of my favorite angles of the car well it's interesting this because you you could have filled it in couldn't you here or done something like that yeah we could i quite like uh i like the idea and i like the option of encasing and housing rears of cars within the design so they have a i'm not a casing on the outside but yeah for the design it's it's more aggressive when you look from the side angle because you have the swooping tail the swooping spoiler at the back with the body kits i've seen in the past that try and fill it in just looks clumsy to me it looks heavy and wrong so i actually really quite like that this is XJS underneath hiding underneath it looks it looks it looks really good and it's all carbon fiber as well so this is on a one piece um one kind of solid block which that's quite a big piece isn't it another little bit of aero here very subtle yeah so this helps the car again channeling air down the roof air will come under the spoiler and down channel across out over these lines here as well so it's it's all again designed with purpose and intent there's a lot of elements i'm surprised you've done this but you haven't made it body colored you've definitely made that as a stamp the the gills are a separate bit this is the beauty of the car is you can personalize it how you wish to so a customer might want this all body color oh okay so that is an option right i think for the sake of this vehicle it's just a show that you can have this as a carbon option if you wish to um but the bonnet and its lines especially are still in keeping with the original lines of the XJS just enhanced a bit more character but also it has to be functional in the sense of you're also allowing enough air to escape um so it's trying to do that in a as i mentioned earlier a elegant way yeah but also it's still quite aggressive well i'm just looking that that was nothing like is pronounced here isn't it so this has really come up yeah on standard and then that i'm guessing is why this will bark because you'll hear induction bark i'm sure in this car yeah have you been in it yet i have yeah uh and i guess that's another point about this is i had to fit in it right with the original XJS i kind of struggle yes but with this i can i can fit in it comfortably which is a benefit for taller folk i think they've managed to make the seat go further back they have they redesigned they have the rear seats kind of final model as well the steering wheel will be smaller you can push the pedals back as well so it's kind of fully customizable and adjustable in that sense so it means you know yeah we're gonna drive it we're running out of excuses not to buy one exactly yeah yeah precisely lovely to talk around it it is pretty special i can't wait to see the reaction and i just can't wait to hear it and see it move and stuff like that that was brilliant thank you no my pleasure well that's great meeting all the team behind this car and the rebirth of TWR and seeing the super cat finally in the metal rather than just renderings i this is a very interesting project i think the restomod world is a developing one and it's going to gain momentum what gets me about this one is 88 units declared right at the beginning is not very many i also like that it's v12 manual and it's a proper usable car they have really thought about this luggage space etc but i think the really interesting bit is the price and i i haven't mentioned price up to now because it's lower than you might expect now everything is expensive these days as we know but if you look at the restomod market the lot of them are well north of half a million and some are north of a million this car including taxes in the uk 270 000 pounds 270 000 pounds as against shall we say the aston martin vanquish we've just been launched 700 and some horsepower production car you know there's going to be special editions you won't get much change out of 400 000 for the new aston if you were to try and buy the new singer the turbo million so 660 horsepower the history of twr behind it v12 six speed manual i would suggest top speed 200 mile an hour car but highly usable on track on road all that adjustment available to the driver on track control ride height abs etc fascinating car i can't wait to drive it i hope you've enjoyed this deep dive and seen this car for the first time we'll be seeing more of it on the channel and if you have enjoyed this video well keep watching keep subscribing because there'll be more videos coming along very soon