One of Britain’s Greatest Sports Cars Ever Just Got an Overhaul That We Didn’t Know It Needed

Some cars in the world are simply so legendary and so grand that they absolutely do not deserve to be altered in any way. The Jaguar XJ220 is one.

But one famous individual thought otherwise and decided to do the unthinkable. That happens to be Mr. Ian Callum, the famed auto designer who was a major force behind some of Jaguar’s most recent and lavish-looking automobiles.

And he just gave his modern rehash of this ’90s legend.

Reimagining the British icon

Callum Designs

After Callum left his nearly two-decade-long career at JLR in 2019 (giving us the likes of the second-generation XK coupe and convertible, the last XJ sedan, the F-Type, F-Pace, and I-Pace), he went out on his own to establish Callum Designs.

This new GT1 is the latest result. Born out of an effort to pay tribute to the iconic supercar, Callum reworked the XJ220’s sheet metal to reimagine what it would look like today.

2026 Callum Designs GT1

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Callum then complemented the model with new monoblock-style wheels inspired by the original XJ220’s dish-like alloys. Both the front and rear fascias gain more distinctive and sleeker treatments, shaped with aerodynamics in mind.

“Finished in vivid yellow, the GT1 celebrates the spirit of the great GT cars of the past while exploring what that idea could become today,” Callum said in a statement.

It all looks very modern and well-balanced, leveraging both the XJ220’s original and signature silhouette. It also incorporates some hat-tips to nostalgic ’90s design features, such as the multi-element wide-span taillights.

If you were hoping for a production model, you might be out of luck. Callum did say that it was more of a design study. But he also hinted that if someone were to donate their personal XJ220 to make a GT1, he would most certainly get to work.

Jaguar’s last-ever production supercar

Jaguar

Heralded as one of the automotive GOATs of the ’90s, the XJ220 was an era-defining supercar. The XJ220 came to life out of Jaguar’s then-thriving motorsports efforts in partnership with TVR. And it was all to remind the world of the Coventry-based automaker’s rich and storied racing and motorsports heritage.

It was especially important to Jaguar at the time, as the brand had suffered major casualties from its decades-long mismanagement by the late British Leyland. To show that it still knew how to make fast, breathtaking cars, Jaguar came up with the XJ220. It included ambitions to compete in the world-renowned 24 Hours of Le Mans.

Jaguar

After an overwhelmingly positive response at its conceptual debut during the 1988 British International Motor Show, Jaguar put the XJ220 into production. At that point, the company received close to 300 deposits, each amounting to roughly £50,000. In 1988 money, might I add.

With just 282 units produced between 1992 and 1994, the XJ220 went down as one of the greatest cars ever made by Jaguar.

Callum Designs

Since then, Jaguar has yet to follow up with a successor. The brand tried to with the C-X75 Concept from 2010, which coincidentally, Callum also designed himself.

But due to the Great Recession incurred by the 2008 Global Financial Crisis, Jaguar cancelled the production version. Thus, the XJ220 and its legacy were left to rest in the pages of history.

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