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Jaguar Land Rover creates new Special Operations division for halo vehicles, bespoke commissions

Jaguar Land Rover has announced that a new division of the British manufacturer will be dedicated to "bespoke commissions," as well as heritage products and apparel. Oh, and the new Special Operations division will also be behind JLR's halo cars from now on.
It's that last one that is the most tantalizing, as the last real halo product to see production from Jaguar was the XJ220. The Range Rover, meanwhile, has always had its own kind of halo reputation, although the Land Rover brand itself has never really gotten into the game with a dedicated model.
According to JLR, the new halo models will focus on ultra-high performance and luxury with a limited run of vehicles. The bespoke models, meanwhile, will give the wealthiest customers full sway over how vehicles are outfitted, with unique paints, trims and other accessories. The new SpecOps division will be run by John Edwards.

Never-was Jaguar C-X75 hybrid supercar driven by Autocar

There's lucky, and then there's "I got to drive the Jaguar C-X75." The crew from Autocar is among the handful of souls who can honestly make the latter statement. Jaguar invited the publication down for a little time in both the passenger and driver seats around the automaker's proving grounds. While there's no end to the jealousy oozing from our pores, the good news is that there were a few cameras on hand to capture the experience. As you may recollect, the C-X75 Concept was a unique hybrid supercar concept built to duke it out with the likes of the Ferrari LaFerrari, Porsche 918 and the McLaren P1. The British automaker put it on track for production, but unfortunately stopped the project about six months ago.
With a twincharged 1.6-liter four-cylinder engine capable of revving to 10,000 rpm, the C-X75 concept yields 502 horsepower and gets partnered with four electric motors - one at each wheels. A 19kWh lithium-ion battery pack serves up 300kW of power, and combined, the motors and battery are capable of yielding an additional 194 horsepower and 295 pound-feet of torque. Combined, the driveline is good for more than 850 horsepower and 738 pound-feet of torque. Said another way, the C-X75 will do the 0-60 miles per hour dance in under three seconds.
And Autocar got to drive it. You can watch the video for yourself by scrolling below.

Jaguar C-X75 production run canceled

"We feel we could make the car work, but looking at the global austerity measures in place now, it seems the wrong time to launch an 800,000-pound to 1 million-pound supercar."
Those words are from Jaguar Global Brand Director Adrian Hallmark, and as true as they may be, it still stings a little bit. After all, we've been looking forward to the Jaguar C-X75 ever since word came from Jolly Olde that it was green-lit for a short production run.
Some of the cool bits and pieces the world will now be without: a powerful but relatively miserly 1.6-liter turbocharged and supercharged four-cylinder engine, two electric motors driving all four wheels and a carbon fiber chassis developed by Williams F1. Sigh.