Video: what's the 650bhp V12 TWR Supercat like to drive?

What you’re looking at is the first finished TWR Supercat prototype, and we’ve just driven it in California, USA.

As a reminder, 88 of these beasts are being built (a reference to the TWR Jaguar Le Mans win in 1988) and with the first batch coming in 2025, TWR will actually build more cars next year than Jaguar itself.

The starting point for a Supercat is an old Jaguar XJS, to which TWR applies a hearty restomod treatment. There are chassis and brake upgrades, of course, and a new interior with mod cons. But the most noteworthy amends are the widened and bewinged all-carbon body.

And the engine, which starts as an original 5.3-litre V12, bored out to 5.6-litres, dry sumped, equipped with a new cylinder head, new valve train, billet cams, and a supercharger and charge cooling system. TWR reckons on north of 650bhp and 516lb ft.

How then, does this prototype TWR Supercat drive? Over to Top Gear’s Jethro Bovingdon…