THE first model to come from British sports car specialists TWR this century has been revealed with the unveiling of the V12 powered Supercat with more than 600bhp on tap.

With prices starting from £225,000 it is based on a Jaguar XJS platform, rekindling the link between TWR and Jaguar which saw motorsport success around the globe including outright victory at Le Mans in 1988 with the TWR Jaguar XJR-9.

The new car is the first offering from the modern TWR, founded by Fergus Walkinshaw and business partner John Kane to build upon the legacy left by Fergus's father, constructor and racer Tom Walkinshaw who died in 2010 and who built the original TWR into a global motorsport and performance engineering powerhouse during the 1980-90s.

For the Supercat, TWR has drawn inspiration from previous creations across the history of the great name, stemming from Tom Walkinshaw's work with touring cars, Le Mans monsters like the XJR-9, XJR-15 and the Jaguar XJ220 supercar.

The Supercat will be strictly limited to 88 individual builds - a number chosen to celebrate the year of the Le Mans win - each with a six-speed manual transmission.

Order books have officially opened and build slots can be reserved with a £10,000 refundable deposit. First deliveries are due to take place in the fourth quarter of 2024.

"After more than two years of extensive design, engineering and development work, we are proud to unveil the design of TWR's debut product," said Fergus Walkinshaw, who is the founder and director of TWR which will build the Supercar at its workshops in Newbury, Berks.

"The outcome is a true drivers' Super-GT built from the foundations of the iconic Jaguar XJS and appropriately named the Supercat. This bold expression of the breed fulfils our mission to build cars worthy of TWR's winning legacy, starting with this remarkable car as it enters its 50thyear.

"As order books open, we cannot wait for clients to experience the most powerful, dynamic and visceral evocation of a British icon that has been revolutionised from the ground-up to be ready for those that demand to be connected to the cars they drive, whether on the track or the road. This is the TWR way and will define this and every future project we undertake."

The TWR Supercat has been engineered by a team led by Fergus Walkinshaw, and a group of technical and operational talent from the most celebrated names in motorsport and performance car development. This includes:McLaren, Ferrari, Porsche, Williams, Mercedes F1andRenault F1.

The car keeps the Jaguar XJS' iconic profile, silhouette, flying buttresses and front graphic but with a more muscular styling.

TWR says the result speaks of its vision to deliver a dynamic super-GT that is at home on the track as on the road.

A fundamentally re-imagined interior will be unveiled when the car makes its dynamic debut in the summer of 2024.

While the Supercat retains the stance and silhouette of the Jaguar XJS, every exterior panel has been re-sculpted in carbon fibre.

The company says the development of the body took tens of thousands of hours and has delivered a significant weight saving, drag improvements and significant rigidity benefits over traditional panel materials.

The Supercat is the first TWR product for the 21st century, and as such is a rolling showcase for what the company can do. Work on the project began almost three years ago at TWR's Newbury base which will serve as the production home for this and future TWR projects.

The Supercat is due to make its first public appearances this summer, with a programme of appearances at high-profile events to be announced shortly.