Jaguar XJR Sportscars
The Jaguar XJR prototypes were racing cars for sports car series.
In the 1980s, Jaguar was initially with Bob Tullius in the U.S. and then Tom Walkinshaw and his TWR racing team in Europe very successfully involved in racing in Group C ( sports car prototype ).
Bob Tullius and his Group 44 racing team were successful already with different models of the Leyland Group. In particular, he had won with the Jaguar E-Type V12 1974, the B -Production championship of the SCCA for the northeastern states and the year after that of the entire United States. With the XJ -S 1977, he was master of the Trans-Am category 1 and 1981 runner-up in the silhouette racing formula of the Trans Am. In 1982 he built according to the design Lee Dykstras a sports prototype with the proven Jaguar V12 engine behind the pilot, calling him XJR- fifth This car was second in the 1983 IMSA Championship and became the first Jaguar in twenty years in 1984 at the 24 Hours of Le Mans part. This was followed for the 1986 racing season the XJR -7, who won only the 3- hour race at Daytona in IMSA_Meisterschaft this year. After only two other IMSA victories in 1987 in Riverside and West Palm Beach Jaguar changed now for the U.S. race for the British racing team Tom Walkinshaw Racing ( TWR ). A third 1988 -built Tullius car he defiantly XJR -8 called, even though he had already lost the contract with Jaguar and although the unit designation was 1987 already used by TWR, was one more time at the 24 Hours of Daytona 1988 now the official model designation used Group 44 V12, but fell out while the Jaguar XJR -9 of TWR in this race won the overall victory.
The Briton Tom Walkinshaw had successfully contested as a Jaguar factory team from 1982 to 1984 with a Group A Jaguar XJ- S, the European Touring Car Championship. Walkinshaw therefore took his team to build a racing prototype for the World Sportscar Championship in attack. The XJR -6 -called race car was used for the first time in August 1985 and in May 1986 was his first race for the World Sportscar Championship, winning the 1000 km of Silverstone.
This and its successor, the constructed XJR -8 of 1987 and the XJR -9 from 1988, all of Tony Southgate, were very successful, collected in 1987 and 1988, the World Sportscar Championship and the overall victory at the 24 Hours of Le Mans 1988. the final development stage of this Jaguar sports prototypes with the large volume V12 naturally aspirated engines, the XJR -12, abolished in 1990, in turn, the overall victory at the 24 Hours of Daytona, a particularly respected in America racing event, and also the 1990 overall victory at the 24 hours of Le Mans. 1991 occupied the XJR -12 to the end of his racing career (now the 3.5 liter engine formula was in the World Sportscar Championship in force) in Le Mans places 2, 3 and 4 and 1992 at the 24 Hours of Daytona the second place.
In 1989, Tom Walkinshaw in the U.S. with the XJR -10 ( three liters for the American IMSA championship) and 1990 in Europe with the XJR -11 ( 3.5 liters for the World Sportscar Championship) to V6 engines with turbocharging which came from the MG Metro 6R4. The change was done because Tony Southgate with this compact machine the focus of Jaguar racing prototypes could now lay much lower. It was in 1990 but only one victory at the British round of the World Sports Car Championship at Silverstone can be achieved. In the IMSA Championship while it was running with two victories in 1989 and 1990 slightly better, but the league also could not be won. Therefore, followed in 1991 with the XJR -14, now designed by Ross Brawn and powered by a 3.5-liter naturally aspirated V8 engine by Cosworth in Formula 1, a radical new design that dominated the competition at will and at an early stage the World Sportscar Championship 1991 could decide for themselves. After the departure of Jaguar end of 1991 from this series Mazda ordered some XJR -14 chassis from TWR (Tom Walkinshaw Racing) and stocked it for the racing season in 1992 with a V-10 naturally-aspirated Judd, but this was just too weak to to be able to accomplish anything against the competition. Thus, the career of the XJR -14 was, however, far from over. In the IMSA series 1992, two victories were achieved at Road Atlanta and Mid-Ohio. And finally, could this legendary chassis, now equipped with a Porsche engine, winning the 1995 24 Hours of Daytona in 1996 and 1997 as TWR- Porsche 24 hours of Le Mans.
The Jaguar XJR -15 Jaguar Sport, a consortium of Jaguar and TWR was conceived as a two-seater mid -engine sports car for the road and was based on the XJR- ninth
The Jaguar XJR -16 was built exclusively for use in the IMSA series in 1991 and was equipped with four victories, the most successful car of this year.