AUTOS: Jaguar’s Unique Supercar Concept

Inside Jay Leno’s expansive warehouse of vintage automobiles sat a vision of the future, Jaguar style. The low, lusciously sculpted form of the silver C-X75 supercar concept was enough to thrill the most jaded of auto journalists gathered in Leno’s collector-car assemblage near Burbank, where Jaguar presented the car before its U.S. debut at the Los Angeles Auto Show.

The beauty of C-X75 is so much more than skin deep, though, with power provided by a most exotic array of sustainable performance components that can propel the gleaming missile to 62 miles per hour in just 3.4 seconds and on to a top speed of 205 mph. C-X75 is technically an extended-range plug-in hybrid car, but how it performs its task is far ahead of the plug-ins being readied today for consumers. The drive system is comprised of four electric motors, one for each wheel, while two tiny gas-turbine engines provide recharging for the lithium-ion batteries.

“This entire car is an elegant solution, not just its physical beauty but its mechanical beauty,” said Jaguar design director Ian Callum as he introduced the car. “This is as close to a pure art form as a car can get.”

The micro gas turbines, which sit under the rear glass behind the driver and passenger, are key to the design. Replacing any sort of bulky piston engine, each turbine is small enough and light enough to hold in your hands, yet it produces 94 horsepower at a constant 80,000 rpm.

Designed by Jaguar in partnership with Bladon Jets, the groundbreaking micro gas turbines are similar to the giant jet engines on the passenger jets that brought the auto writers to Los Angeles. But instead of providing thrust, they provide the power to spin the generating system for the battery pack. Jaguar says the C-X75 can run for 68 miles on electric power alone from a six-hour plug-in charge of household current. The gas turbines cut in when needed to supply electrical power to run the four traction motors and recharge the batteries. On a full tank of kerosene or similar fuel, the car has an estimated range of 560 miles before refueling.

“You can happily cruise this car all day at 100 mph,” said Nigel Taylor, project manager for C-X75. At that speed, he explained, one of the turbines is busy feeding electricity to the motors while the other is recharging the batteries. Both turbines are at work at top speeds feeding the motors, and work together at lower speeds for recharging.

The turbine engines are still in prototype form, said Phillip Lelliott, director of Bladon Jets, but they could be mass produced at a reasonable cost. A working example of the turbine was mounted on a small stand, and Lelliot easily lifted it to show the journalists. The four electric motors provide startling power: a combined 780 horsepower and whopping 1,180 pound-feet of torque.