Thursday 7th March 1996
At the 1996 Geneva Motor Show the Lamborghini Diablo SV (Sport Veloce) was presented, a simplified and more sporty version of the Diablo, inspired by the legendary Miura SV. With an engine power of 525 bhp, reduced weight and a shorter final drive ratio the car reaches 100 km/h in less than 4 seconds. VW presented the new Beetle, Citroen launched the Saxo with all seven Saxo models, – VTS, SX, VSX, VTL and VTR on show and the Car of the Show accolade went to Jaguar Cars fastest production car ever – the ultra high performance, supercharged version of the XK8 – the first generation of a new XK series. The XK8 was available in coupé or convertible body styles and with the new 4.0-litre Jaguar AJ-V8 engine. In 1998 the XKR was introduced with a supercharged version of the engine. In 2003 the engines were replaced by the 4.2-litre AJ34 engines in both the normally aspirated and supercharged versions. The first-generation XK series shares its Jaguar XJS-derived platform with the Aston Martin DB7, both cars tracing their history back to an abandoned Jaguar development study in the mid-1980s known as XJ41/XJ42, which had been mooted to be known as the F-Type.