It started out in life as a stunt car in the James Bond movie Spectre almost a decade ago. It has never set wheels on public roads except for scenes filmed with traffic completely closed, until now. The Jaguar C-X75, re-engineered by Ian Callum himself, has finally become road-legal.
This was the car that starred in the Spectre blockbuster almost a decade ago. Trailered to the set and pushed to the limit in front of the cameras, it is the vehicle that made us all hyperventilate in the movie theater, through a whole six-minute night chase scene, along the streets of Rome, with traffic completely closed, after James Bond, played by Daniel Craig, fled the Spectre meeting.
In the chase scene, Bond drives the then-new Aston Martin DB10, while the C-X75 is in the hands of new Spectre agent Hinx. The sports cars rattle down two flights of stairs of the Scalo de Pinedo and down to the riverside. In the movie, the Jaguar ends up in flames after Bond engages the flamethrowers that his car is equipped with. The DB10 plunges in the Tiber River after Agent 007 ejects himself from the car.
And yes, that car survived, being one of only four stunt cars in the blockbuster that lived to tell the tale. It actually did better than just survive. It ended up in the hands of genius engineer Ian Callum and his team. It was he who had worked on the car in 2010 in the first place, setting it up for the 2015 movie with the help of Williams Advanced Engineering.
The stunt cars were built, as stunt cars usually are, to withstand brutal treatment on the set. They were constructed around a tubular space frame chassis and featured rally-derived suspension. They were powered by Jaguar's 5.0-liter supercharged V8 engine. This surviving stunt car was commissioned by one of Callum Design's private customers, who fell in love with the Jaguar.
In order to get the Individual Vehicle Approval (IVA), which is the certification that cars in the United Kingdom need to become road-legal, the car needed to undergo serious modifications. The Callum Design engineers reworked the switchgear and recalibrated the engine. They also made the exhaust quieter because the one used in the movie did not comply with the legal regulations.
They also created new wing mirrors in order to replace the foam units that the stunt car featured and extended the carbon fiber surfaces while panel gaps were reduced and properly aligned. Ian Callum's team made efforts to retain the driving dynamics of the model by carrying out minor adjustments to the dampers.
Back in 2021, this exact same car was listed for sale with Simon Drabble Cars for 720,000 pounds plus VAT, which would translate into over $908,000.
The surviving and now road-legal Jaguar C-X75 will make its public debut on April 21, 2024, at Bicester Heritage's upcoming Scramble in Oxfordshire. The event was sold out in less than three weeks.
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