Yahoo Autos Bridgestone Is Developing a Brand New Tire for the Jaguar XJ220
Jaguar is about to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the XJ220, a car that was briefly the fastest in the world with a top speed of 217.1 mph. While the original concept was for an all-wheel drive car with a naturally-aspirated V12, Jaguar looked at the Porsche 959 and Ferrari F40 and decided to take pages from both of those company's playbooks. It went into production as a rear-wheel drive car with a twin-turbo V6, a kind of middle ground between the cars from Stuttgart and Maranello.
While Jaguar had intended to build 350 of the XJ220, just 275 were built, likely because of the poor economy of the early 1990s. Those 275 cars have now become exceedingly valuable, and most of the owners know that if they want to keep them on the road, they have to turn to Don Law Racing in the UK. Don Law, for those that don't know, is an expert Jaguar shop and basically the world headquarters for any and all XJ220 replacement parts (yes, you read that right.). If you need XJ220 bits and pieces, you call Don Law.
Now, to honor the 25th anniversary of Jag's last supercar,Don Law is partnering with Bridgestone to develop new tires for the XJ220. While it seems like a small market (it is), it's also an important tire to develop. Tires that would work on the XJ220 went out of production years ago, so it's hard for owners to get the correct size for their cars if they want to keep driving them. Bridgestone is working with the original engineers, original test driver, and pre-production chassis 004 to develop the new 255/45 ZR17 fronts and 345/35 ZR 18 rear tires.
If you have an XJ220 and tell people you haven't been driving it because you need new tires, your excuse is about to become really lame.
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