The troubled history of Jaguar's supercars

THE car-loving chaps at Jaguar, if history's anything to go by, are about to get themselves into a world of trouble.

You'll probably already know I'm a big fan of the Big Cat - and judging by the accolades the XF, XK and XK keep attracting, so are lots of you - but what you might not be aware of is that it's just announced it's going to go to the trouble of making another supercar. That's trouble as in lots of it, because Jaguar seem to be the unluckiest supercar creators in history.

It all started so well when they fitted a windscreen, some doors and an extra-seat to the iconic D-Type which had done sterling work for them at Le Mans in the Fifties. The raw, race-bred XKSS was the GT3 RS of its day, thanks largely to its streamlined shape and a meatier version of the company's XK straighr six which mustered no less than a mighty 250bhp. Or rather it would have been had the factory not caught fire in 1957. They made 16.

Its Sixties successor, the mid-engined XK13, would have been a better-looking GT40 baiter had it ever made the step from racing prototype to actual road-racer, but sadly that never happened because the rules for GT racing changed, making it obsolete before it could tear a track up in anger. They made just the one of those, and that ended up shedding a wheel at 140mph a couple of years later on the banking at the MIRA test track. Rumours that the number 13 is somehow unlucky remain unfounded.

In fact, the only Jaguar supercar you're likely to recall is the XJ220, which was, the company proudly proclaimed at the height of the late Eighties supercar boom when they showed off the concept version would have a V12 and four-wheel-drive. The production version had two-wheel-drive and a V6 - even if it was a rally-bred one with 542bhp - so people tried to pull out of their investments, which got so bad Jaguar ended up taking some of them to court. Still, it was the world's fastest production road car... until Mclaren unveiled the F1. It was beautiful and brutally fast, but it was a CD Walkman in an iPod world.

A couple of years later, even as the last of the XJ220s lingered unloved in the showrooms, they had another bash with the XK180 concept car - a car so beautiful I still have the scale model on my mantlepiece - but Ford, who owned Jaguar by that point, told us motoring enthusiasts that it was a birthday present to celebrate Jaguar's sports car heritage and wasn't for sale. Ever.

That's how the company had left things supercar-wise until this week when it confirmed the C-X75, which wowed crowds at the world's motorshows last year, will go into production (minus the fantastic gas turbine engine technology, it's already admitted). It's eco-friendly, it'll get to sixty in less than three seconds, it'll do upwards of 200mph but more importantly just look at it.

So it's a stunning supercar with green credentials and a Jaguar badge, and absolutely everyone will want one. What could possibly go wrong?