To my eye and ear, the Jaguar XJR-5 was the best-looking and sounding IMSA GTP/FIA Group C car of the 1980's. Alas for Jaguar, Porsche's venturi tunnels and wing were a better aero solution, and its turbo 6 was more powerful than Jag's normally aspirated 12. The XJR-5 was slightly bigger and heavier than the Porsche 962.
In 1983, Bob Tullius, a longtime SCCA racer of MGB's, Triumphs, and XK-E's, persuaded Jaguar to supply V-12 engines and some financing for IMSA pro racing in the States. He race-prepped the engines in his own shop. He hired Lee Dykstra to design the XJ-5. Dykstra is still engineering for open-wheel teams today; he got his start as a junior engineer in Ford's GT-40 project. By the mid- 1970's, he was the "D" in Dekon Engineering, which designed and built the Chevy Monza tube-frame IMSA silhouette racer. (The "k" in Dekon was Horst Kwech; Dekon signified Design and Construction.)
The XJ-5 was competitive in IMSA, but the front-rank Porsche 962 teams had to falter for it to win. Tullius took it to LeMans in 1984. But, when Jaguar decided to get serious about Group C racing in Europe in 1985, they hired Tom Walkinshaw Racing to do a series of cars (the XJR-6 through 14), the most successful of which were V-6 turbos. These were the then-famous purple/orange/white "Silk Cut Jags." They were more competitive (and won LeMans), but not as classy-looking as the XJR-5.
Actually Famous: a later series Silk Cut Jag V-6 turbo at LeMans. |
This is the best video with sound I could find of the XJR-5; the low-r.p.m. crackle is fine, but I wish it better-captured the high-rev scream of the V-12:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZwHdWReaq8s
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