‘We look after seven of the pre-production cars,’ says Don,
proudly. ‘The first two were nothing like a 220 and had scissor
doors. The third was the first one to look like a 220.’ And what’s
this? It’s a Ford Transit.
Don explains. ‘We went to TWR to buy the last engine and
some spares. “Is there anything else?” we asked. “Only the
secondhand engine in a van,” they said. I thought they meant an
engine on a pallet that happened to be in the back of a van, but
it’s a complete XJ220 under the Transit shell.
‘It was an XJ220 mule. They were going to scrap it when TWR
was liquidated but I rescued it. It looks just like a twin-wheel
Transit apart from the XJ220 wheels, and it’s road registered.’
The Transit XJ220 once did 179mph around the Millbrook test
track’s bowl, and it made an appearance at last year’s Festival of
Speed in the livery of Goodwood’s usual Transit fleet