Sleeper status - The Jaguar X300 Chasseur Stealth Tornado

So everyone has heard of tuning company’s, but maybe not one called paramount performance who made this monster along side the company chasseur, there goal was to take a completely normal jaguar X300 and basically turn it into a supercar destroyer but without modifying the shape or making it to obvious that this was one very angry cat underneath. But they soon realised that Jaguar X300 wasn’t a particularly catchy supercar name so they came up with this, Jaguar X300 Chasseur Stealth Tornado.

The changes

This is a bespoke special based on a 1994 Jaguar X300 1994: with modified bumpers front and back to help with cooling ans aerodynamics, suspension, brakes, steering, transmission, traction control power unit and wheels.

The engine is upgraded from 4.0 to a 4.2 litre twin turbo specification, with blueprinted build specification, hybrid turbos, twin intercoolers and twin air filtration system. The engine is rated at 450 to 500 bhp and 600 ft/lbs of torque. To the best of my knowledge only 2 of these were actually built. in this specification and both came with a 5 speed manual gearbox which was not even a standard option in the car before hand.

The owner of this one i found on the internet purchased a new X300 4.0S in 1996 at a cost of £42,000 on the road including options, it was then, within six months, dispatched to Paramount Performance for conversion to full Chasseur 450 Tornado specification, at a further cost exceeding £35,500. This work involved a total rebuild of the engine by Turbo Technics from the crank up, now displacing 4.2-litres with strengthened con-rods, forged pistons and a gas-flowed cylinder head fed by twin turbochargers, each with their own intercooler and air filter. Uprated fuelling and management systems were fitted along with a full stainless steel high performance exhaust system. The ZF 4-speed gearbox is taken out and a 5 speed box replaced it the brakes, suspension, wheels and tyres were all uprated from standard as well. PowerTrac traction control is employed, along with push-button ‘Switchshift’ gear control and switchable power steering. An enhanced body kit is also fitted, finished to match the original Aquamarine livery to go with the sleeper look.

The performance

Tested for BBC’s Top Gear in November 1996, a similar car was described as having ‘The menacing glower of a nightclub bouncer when you’ve turned up wearing jeans!’. Somehow we think this conveyed Jeremy Clarkson’s pleasure at the car he was lent for the feature. Obviously a discerning and demanding individual, in addition to servicing by Jaguar agents the owner also returned the car to Paramount Performance for improvements, including the further upgrading of the brakes carried out by AP racing. As the designation suggests, the car is rated at 450bhp and an indication of the performance potential of this particular car is given by timing tickets from Santa Pod Raceway in October 1999, showing the car capable of a standing quarter-mile in under 13 seconds with a terminal speed of 114mph, impressive for any road going saloon and definitely for that time back in 1996. it could hit 60 in around 6 seconds and it will go onto a top speed of 175 mph

so the stealth tornado then, every once in a while a tuning company will go mad and given the rights to o anything they want an we all love when that happens but this car was different, this car was a mental car underneath but a luxury saloon in top, best of both worlds if you ask me and if you ever get the chance to even see one, count yourself lucky because there is only one left in the uk running and its not even on the road. I also believe that this was the first true sleeper sure there have been many more before that but none have quite looked so stock that if you glanced at it for a second you wouldn’t think anything of it

thank you for reading, sorry this id a kind of short post but there was literally no info on the internet about this rare jag, but anyway i hope you enjoyed it and let be know what you think down in the comments, thanks guys.