Civil
At first it feels wide, sluggish and cumbersome. Everything from the steering to the brakes, clutch and gearshift is heavy. The ride is stiff but not the disaster I’d feared and while the engine and massive tyres mean noise levels in the cabin are quite high, this is not an uncivilised car. To this day the odd European eccentric still uses an XJ220 as a high speed, intercontinental daily driver and you can almost see why.
They need a seven grand service every other year, but if you look after them XJ220s are also exceptionally reliable.
On the road
So now it must be driven fast. Pick your moment, select third gear to minimise wheelspin and go. At 2500rpm it’s not interested at all, but by 3000rpm you are absolutely flying. That is all the warning you get. Big turbos and fuel injection with all the sophistication of a pressurised watering can compared to modern systems see to that.
And it goes without ceasing to 7200rpm. Thirty years ago this car hit 60mph in 3.6sec, without four-wheel drive, traction control, launch control, flappy paddles or sticky tyres. So equipped there’s no question it would have ducked under 3sec.
True grip
And suddenly you are in another world. I’ve been doing this job for a while now, but cannot recall another road car whose personality changes more with speed. As loads start to penetrate the suspension, this once truculent and clumsy car comes alive in your hands. The steering is a miracle, the precision with which this vast car can be guided something quite beyond your imaginings.
Grip in fast corners seems beyond anything mere tyres could muster and probably is: XJ220s have proper downforce. Horrible cliché though it is, this car really does shrink around you.
Twitchy
Only once does it bite. Accelerating hard away from a tight corner I change into third and jump back on the gas just a little too eagerly. The turbos spool, ripping the grip of its massive 345-section rear Bridgestones from the soggy tarmac, jinking the car sideways. There’s a moment, little more than enough to raise the eyebrows of one occupant and twist the wrists of the other, before normal service is resumed.
