Ultimate Jaguar road car?

09 February 2004: Jaguar has revealed the most powerful road-going Jaguar convertible ever – the 550 horsepower XK-RS concept - at the 2004 Chicago Auto Show.

Developed by Michigan-based Rocketsports Racing in cooperation with Jaguar North America, the XK-RS concept demonstrates how Jaguar’s luxury GT road car can be transformed into a thundering 200-mph supercar.

Rocketsports took the 650bhp Jaguar AJ-V8 Trans-Am race engine and increased its displacement by stroking it out from 4.5 litres to 5.0 litres.

The road car, which has an Eaton supercharger installed, has 100bhp less power than the race engine produces, and is more driveable.

The car can do 0-60mph in under four seconds.

Special underbody air tunnels running the length of the car were created, along with deeper front and rear spoilers, wider wheel arches and aero-style sill sections similar to those featured on the specially-developed XKR that starred in last year’s James Bond adventure, ‘Die Another Day’.

The XK-RS is Rocketsports' second Jaguar project car. In 2002, Rocketsports created the purposeful ‘Racing Concept’ version of Jaguar’s all-wheel drive X-TYPE. The dramatic-looking concept race car was developed to test the potential of Jaguar’s X-TYPE as a project car for the enthusiast market.

©2004 irishcar.com