Visitors are pictured at the 89th Geneva International Motor Show in Geneva. There wasn’t much room to navigate between the US$2 million electric cars in carbon fibre exoskeletons and US$3 million jet-propelled bugs designed to break 300mph.
The ruby-red Speedback GT sitting at the centre of the display was a dead ringer for a Jaguar Jane Birkin would have driven – at least, from the front. From the back, it looked like a svelte Aston Martin.The cars are built using an original chassis, transmission, and suspension from a Jaguar XKR – that’s the one featured in Die Another Day – with a custom-built aluminium body styled to look like an Aston Martin DB5. That’s the one 007 drove in Goldfinger.
He was forced to abandon the rally after just two days, on account of the car getting stuck in second gear. For context on the work involved, prices on the discontinued XKR hovered in the US$90,000 range new; used ones can be found now for US$27,000 to US$47,500 on Autotrader. Brown representatives say each Speedback build takes about 8,000 hours over nine to 10 months.
That car, which initially debuted at the Goodwood Festival of Speed, comes on the heels of other six-figure Singer models that have become hugely popular with collectors.