Description
Author: Michael Cotton, H6113, ISBN: 9781785211133, Hardback, 164 pages, Published in June 2017
An insight into the design, engineering and operation of Jaguar's World Championship, IMSA and Le Mans winning cars.
Includes all Jaguar XJR Group C and IMSA sports racing cars, 1985 to 1993 (XJR-5 to XJR-16)
The Jaguar XJR-9LM is renowned as the 1988 Le Mans winner. It was the first Jaguar to win the world's most prestigious endurance race since 1957, and an estimated 50,000 British spectators were there to cheer the Tom Walkinshaw Racing Jaguar team in its hour of glory.
The XJR-9 was midway through a series of V12 Jaguars, starting with the XJR-6 in 1985, and finishing with the XJR-12 from 1990-93. All were powered by Jaguar's production-based V12 engine.
The XJR-9 also won the 1988 Daytona 24 Hours, and its successor, the XJR-12, again won at both Le Mans and Daytona in 1990.
The 12-cylinder XJR series of Group C and IMSA cars broke new ground in being built around immensely strong carbon-fibre monocoques designed by Tony Southgate, and the engines were race-tuned by TWR's Allan Scott.
This manual covers the entire nine-year history of the XJR Jaguars, both in the World Championship and IMSA racing, and includes brief details of the V6 turbo and 3.5-litre V8 cars. The engaging text includes interviews with drivers Derek Warwick, Martin Brundle, Andy Wallace, Jan Lammers and Win Percy, plus engineers Tony Southgate, Allan Scott and Alastair Macqueen, while former Jaguar Cars boss, Sir John Egan, provides a foreword.
- The XJR-9 story The stories of Jaguar racing and TWR, and how their partnership led to the highly successful XJR series of sports-racing cars
- Design and development of the XJR series The engineering evolution of the XJR series of cars, from the 1985 XJR-6 to the 1991 XJR-14 and IMSA XJR-16
- XJR series in action Details of all the races in which Jaguar XJRs competed from 1985 to 1993
- Anatomy of the XJR-9 A fascinating look under the skin of the XJR-9, including details of the chassis, aerodynamics, engine, transmission, suspension, brakes and cockpit
- The drivers Interviews and biographies for all the Jaguar XJR V12 race winners
- Appendices Including XJR type numbers, outline histories of all 15 V12 chassis built by TWR, XJR series comparative data and full race results for V12 cars
About the Author:
Michael Cotton was Editor of Motoring News from 1968-76, covering the major World Championship and IMSA sportscar events. He was then appointed press and PR manager at Porsche Cars Great Britain for a period of seven years, and returned as a freelance writer reporting the major sports car races. He was there at the start of the journey embarked on by Jaguar Cars and Tom Walkinshaw, and had full access and insight to the team's successes. He has written a number of books including Blue and Orange, the history of Gulf Oil's participation in motor racing, and 24:16, the biography of leg Norbert Singer, designer of Porsche's 956 and 962 Le Mans winners.
