In May 2012 Jaguar announced that it would be offering passenger rides around the Nürburgring circuit in Germany, in an XJ Supersport, taking on the notorious BMW M5 ‘Ring Taxi’.

Jaguar chose to use a specially modified XJ Supersport for the hot-laps basing it at the Jaguar engineering test centre which is located near the Nürburgring .

It might not seem like the obvious choice of car, but the XJ is often the one car in the Jaguar range that surprises people the most with its dynamic ability. The XJ’s aluminium structure means that the XJ is incredibly strong and light, but more importantly fast, meaning it can lap the Nürburgring in only 8 minutes and 30 seconds.

To put this in context. In 1964 when Peter Lumsden and Peter Sargent were racing their ‘low-drag’ Lightweight E-type 49 FXN in the Nürburgring 1,000 kms race, their best lap time was 10 minutes and 13.5 seconds. They were hampered by having lowered the car since their 1963 outing and it bottomed out on some of the crests and dips. The fastest car that day at the ‘Ring was the Ferrari  250 GTO with a time of 9 minutes 32.5s seconds.

The XJ Nürburgring taxi is based on a long wheelbase XJ Supersport with Sport Pack option, meaning that the 5.0-litre supercharged V8 pushes out 503 bhp, and the optional Speed Pack allows a top speed of 174 mph.

Inside, the usual leather seats have gone, replaced by four fully-harnessed race seats, with a bespoke roll cage. Other than these changes (and the matt grey paint and XJR decals) the XJ is identical to a standard road car.

This ‘Ring Taxi’ was retired in 2018 when Jaguar replaced it with an XJR575 and a 575 hp Jaguar F-Type SVR.