TWR Supercat – An Analogue Car for a Digital World

Time heals all wounds, as they say, but we might just need a little bit longer to fully get over that Jaguar rebrand. So as the last few lines of Macbeth’s ‘Tomorrow’ speech echo in our minds, and as a bit of an antidote, we thought we’d ignore all the bright colours and fancy visuals of an ad campaign that’s full of sound and fury, signifying nothing, and turn our (and your) attention to the new 660bhp TWR Supercat. A spoonful of V12 sugar will surely help the medicine go down…

Before we get in amongst it with this absolute beast though, let’s talk a little bit about TWR for a second. Tom Walkinshaw Racing began life as a British race team and engineering company, founded, unsurprisingly, by a bloke called Tom Walkinshaw. A successful racing driver, Scottish born Walkinshaw drove for numerous teams and in various different classes beginning in the late sixties before founding TWR in 1976. He would subsequently compete for his own team over the next few years but it wasn’t until 1984 that his relationship with Jaguar began when he won the European Touring Car Championship in a 5.3-litre V12 Jaguar XJS.

Among the man’s claims to fame, Walkinshaw was responsible for numerous high profile motorsport victories, including wins at Le Mans with TWR, with Benetton in Formula One, and in both the World Sportscar Championship and the British Saloon Car Championship. Not only that but he was integral to the rise and success of such prominent figures as Michael Schumacher and Ross Brawn. Blimey!

Tom Walkinshaw with Flavio Briatore at the British Grand Prix in ’93

But it wasn’t just at the track where Walkinshaw excelled. TWR would develop and build road cars for manufacturers all over the world and would have a hand in the Jaguar XJ220, Renault Clio V6 and Aston Martin DB7, to name just three.

Unfortunately TWR went into liquidation in 2002 after the Arrows team which the company had purchased back in the ’90s ran out of money and sadly Tom passed away in 2010. All was not lost, however, as his son Fergus picked up the torch (one that remained incredibly hot and rather bright we hasten to add) last year and is currently doing his best Usain Bolt impression, beginning with the TWR Supercat.

TWR’s mission is to build drivers’ cars with the same passion and visceral performance that established TWR in the past, with Fergus explaining: “To move something with a legacy like TWR forward you need to look at what came before and honour it properly”. Hmmm, if only Jaguar felt the same way about its history and legacy. Oh well.

With respect to the past glories of the company, the TWR team working out of Newbury are very much doing things their own way in order to create the best possible cars, and looking at the new Supercat, it’s a process that seems to be working. Designed by Khyzyl Saleem, if the Supercat is a little evocative of those mental Group A touring cars from the ’70s and ’80s, you know, like the Mercedes 190E, well, that’s because Saleem took direct inspiration from them, as well as from the original Jaguar XJS design. You see those rear buttresses, right?

The folks at TWR are keen to point out that the Supercat isn’t a restomod though. They say it isn’t a new car either, rather a mix of traditional and modern – the best of both worlds if you will, but you won’t find an EV powertrain underneath that vented front bonnet, as many may have expected. Oh no. What does lurk beneath is a fire breathing, supercharged 5.6-litre V12 producing a rip-roaring 660bhp! And the cherry on top? A six-speed manual and a limited slip diff. Oof!

In a nod to the Le Mans winning TWR Jaguar from 1988 just 88 Supercats will be built. Designed to be capable both on and off track and with a list price of £225,000 (not including taxes) you’ll have to act fast if you want one, so head on over to the official TWR website to get the full low down and stake your claim.

If a quarter of a million is a little too rich for your blood though we currently have well over 2,000 Jaguars available right here on Car & Classic, so there’s plenty to choose from. All is not lost if you do miss out on a Supercat, however, because this looks to be just the tip of the iceberg for the newly reformed TWR, with other ideas already in the pipeline, and we cannot wait to see what else Fergus and the team come up with.

We recently exclaimed that a Jag should be a bit naughty, and this TWR Supercat is definitely misbehaving. If anyone could make a car like this work while simultaneously distracting us all from Jaguar’s bizarre recent behaviour, it’s TWR. Hats off chaps, and bravo.