[Equinox]

Originally Posted by NSXType-R

He wanted an engine from Honda? Serious? I didn't know that.

Yeah, I'm seriuos

When Gordon Murray first started to develop the McLaren F1, Honda and McLaren were partners in Formula 1 racing. (Honda supplied McLaren with engines for the race car.) So naturally, he went to Honda to supply engines for McLaren's road car. But Honda could not meet Gordon's spec's for the engine. (Honda offered Gordon a V10, but it did not meet the spec's.) So Honda dropped the idea and BMW offered him there engine which was the V12we know today.

LeonOfTheDead, I'll try and find a source for that... It was a while ago now, so I'll have to do some archiving

But I can tell you that a lot of people were dissatisfied with the car (Jaguar XJ220) , which is why it took so long to sell all of the cars. When the car was first developed it was to have a V12, 530-bhp engine and was supposed to be four-wheel drive. But the V12 was dropped for design issues due to the size and it was difficult to for it to pass emissions laws at the time. Then they put a 3.5 L V6 with Garrett T3 turbochargers. It had around 540 something horsepower... 549 bhp if I am correct. Customers complained about the noise from the exhaust and the turbo lag. The all wheel drive was dropped as well for a rear-wheel drive set-up. By the time the car came out in 1992, their was a bad economic downturn. The car couldn't justify its asking price of $625,000 at the time. Not to mention all the changes Jaguar made were after a handful of customers already placed orders, and when Jaguar changed most of the cars design, those customers where not happy and threatened to sue. A lot of them cancelled their orders which is why it took so long to sell all the cars.

I'll still look for a source, but this is what I can tell you right now... Hope it helps some.