Magnificent Losers - The Jaguar XJ220 and the Bugatti EB110 - PART 1
Published on February 4, 2025
The Magnificent Losers: The Jaguar XJ220 and Bugatti EB110
Straight from the Petersen Automotive Museum's Vault our Shervin is bringing you a tale of failure and good intentions gone wrong. But whatever happened 32 years ago is vindicated by two of the best legacies in the automotive world.
Today we bring you part 1 of comparison we had fun making between the 1993 Bugatti EB110 and the 1993 Jaguar XJ220.
In 1989, Italian industrialist Romano Artioli acquired the Bugatti name and constructed a facility in Italy to produce a mid-engine supercar that would evoke the mystique of the original. The car debuted in 1991 and was called the EB110 after the founder of the mark, Ettore Bugatti, who would have been 110 years old that year. Unfortunately, production of the EB110 coincided with a dramatic decline in the supercar market during the 1990s, and just 126 were produced. The Bugatti factory was later closed, and the name was sold to Volkswagen.
The XJ220 held so much promise that company executives elected to put it into production. The fastest of any production vehicle produced by Jaguar at the time, the XJ220’s twin-turbocharged V-6 engine produced outstanding performance, despite a large number of potential buyers who cancelled their orders because it was not equipped with a V-12 as originally prototyped. Amid engine disputes, and a declining demand for supercars during the 1990s, Jaguar ended up producing less than the already low 350 originally intended.
TUNE IN NEXT WEEK ON FEBRUARY 11 FOR PART 2!
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