XJR-15 thread.

[F1GTRUeno]

To save turning the Mulberry meet thread into an XJR fest, I've decided to make a new thread.

Obviously with one of our own PH'ers owning and driving one of them, we've got some first hand experience of what they're like and I personally think thats a fantastic thing.

I've gotten so interested in them since I read about said PHer restoring and driving the car that I've been doing some digging (only a little) to see what happened to the cars.

So far I've come up with this (I realise this could come across as a bit sad, but I've got literally naff all to do at the minute...) :

001 - Racing Version - Race Number #1 - Matt Aitken's car from the race series - Still wears that livery, and was for sale in Las Vegas in 2008 http://www.carpictures.com/Jaguar/-XJR-15-First-of...
003 - Racing Version - #3 - Andy Evans - Still wears that livery, owned by Vijay Mallya, at his collection near San Francisco
004 - Racing Version
010 - Road Version - In the US
011 - Racing Version - #4 - Bob Wollek - Still wears that livery, for sale in 2008 - http://www.carpictures.com/Jaguar/XJR-15-1990-08BO...
016 - Road Version - In the Uk
020 - Racing Version - #11 - Derek Warwick - Still wears that livery
022 - Racing Version - #16 - Ian Flux - Originally went to Japan, sold by Bonhams but can't remember when.
027 - Racing Version
029 - Is in the UK, can't remember if it's road or race.
037 - Racing Version
047 - Racing Version - #5 - Tiff Needell - Currently just the same blue as the road car, for sale on virtually every exotic car sales site by seemingly different people.
049 - Road Version - Blue - Sold by RM in Monaco this year, was owned by Lindsay Fox and stored in his collection in Australia.
050 - Road Version - Blue - Owned by Boxer. Originally German.

There are problems with tracking cars.

This is one of the Japanese cars, potentially a racing version but you never know.


Looks like it's been cannibalised by the university of Tokai to make an LMP car, they used the XJR-15 to test the engine they made, but I've no idea what's happened to it now.

Here's another Japanese car, and it's been repainted green. For sale last year with this company, no idea about it now.
http://www.ag-motoyama.com/others/xjr15_080501_3/

Then the ZAZ Museum (famous for having all four McF1 variations including PH'er andy74b's LARK GTR) has a blue one
http://motorsports.zent.co.jp/machine011.html

The famous orange version is often referred to as 001 but I don't think it actually is, also referred to as Tom Walkinshaw's personal car so perhaps it's the original R9-R prototype?
It's supposedly for sale here, but the lack of information and generally untrustworthy look of the site would suggest otherwise.
http://www.racedandrallied.com/race-cars-for-sale/...


Anyway, feel free to contribute with anything at all about the XJR-15, seems like it's a vastly underrated and very much forgotten about car, so any information we gain on them is a massive bonus.

[autofocus]

Hi there,

Great thread, will be interesting to see exactly what we can find out about the XJR-15's. I waited years to see one and finally got to have a good look at one last year at Silverstone.

Heres the pics: -







Any idea which chassis number this is as I am sure it is not the same car as the one that appeared at the Mulberry meet although the number plate is strangely similar !!

Also any idea which chassis number this one is: -

http://www.xero-competition.com/jml/index.php?opti...

Regards

Tim

[F1GTRUeno]

I've got H109 HTA down as chassis #031, was originally a Japanese car but as you can see in your photos is in the UK. Those are taken from the Jaguar Classic event as Silverstone last year I think.

The Xero Competition restored car is chassis #047, the ex-Tiff Needell race car that's for sale in the classifieds on here amongst other sites.

I've made a similar thread on another forum with the hope that others will contribute and so far I've managed to get pictures of #021 and #044. I don't know the rules on here for linking to other forums, so I won't post the link or pictures just yet.

As far as I know #044 has links to Switzerland, but I'm not sure yet whether it was originally there, or whether it's there now. Certainly the location in some of the photos I've seen suggest they were taken somewhere nice like the Swiss countryside.

[PAUL. S]

Loved these ever since Autosport ran the centre spread poster of them all lined up side by side on the Silverstone straight.

Apparently a pig to drive on the road, but what a fantastic spartan, carbon fest the cabins are.

There was a brand new unregistered one on yahoo japans auction site recently

http://translate.google.co.uk/translate?hl=en&...

from what I remember Matt Aitkin swapped a race jag Tom Walkinshaw wanted for one.

[marcosgt]

These were great cars - What the XJ220 should've been.

I'm sure with some development they could've be tamed for production (the handling's supposed to be a bit of a challenge for those of us not gifted with GP driver skills - Obviously most on PH would have no problems!)

I've seen a couple at race meetings and car shows, but obviously they're very rare.

M

[F1GTRUeno]

PAUL. S said:

Loved these ever since Autosport ran the centre spread poster of them all lined up side by side on the Silverstone straight.

Apparently a pig to drive on the road, but what a fantastic spartan, carbon fest the cabins are.

There was a brand new unregistered one on yahoo japans auction site recently

http://translate.google.co.uk/translate?hl=en&...

from what I remember Matt Aitkin swapped a race jag Tom Walkinshaw wanted for one.

That's a fantastic find cheers. Looks like it's a racing version due to the tow hook in the grill at the front, but I haven't been able to determine if that's an actual factor for road/race variations yet. So many of them ended up in Japan, including a yellow one that was for sale with Art Sports years ago.

Found out that 009 and 046 are both in Brunei with the Sultan.

Also found out that they made a few LM versions with extra bodywork additions and potentially 7.4 litre engines. They all seem to have ended up in Japan and I've seen pictures of blue, green and white cars.

I highly doubt I'll ever be able to fully determine each car but I've certainly made a start and as long as people are interested in the cars then more information will certainly come to light.

[williamp]

Lovely looking, but I dont see the appeal as a road car:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rBn0P0tcW5U&fea...

[davepoth]

F1GTRUeno said:

PAUL. S said:

Loved these ever since Autosport ran the centre spread poster of them all lined up side by side on the Silverstone straight.

Apparently a pig to drive on the road, but what a fantastic spartan, carbon fest the cabins are.

There was a brand new unregistered one on yahoo japans auction site recently

http://translate.google.co.uk/translate?hl=en&...

from what I remember Matt Aitkin swapped a race jag Tom Walkinshaw wanted for one.

That's a fantastic find cheers. Looks like it's a racing version due to the tow hook in the grill at the front, but I haven't been able to determine if that's an actual factor for road/race variations yet. So many of them ended up in Japan, including a yellow one that was for sale with Art Sports years ago.

Found out that 009 and 046 are both in Brunei with the Sultan.

Also found out that they made a few LM versions with extra bodywork additions and potentially 7.4 litre engines. They all seem to have ended up in Japan and I've seen pictures of blue, green and white cars.

I highly doubt I'll ever be able to fully determine each car but I've certainly made a start and as long as people are interested in the cars then more information will certainly come to light.

I notice on that page that payment can be made by "Yahoo Phlegm Settlement". How I love translations from Japanese.

[jb9193]

davepoth said:

F1GTRUeno said:

PAUL. S said:

Loved these ever since Autosport ran the centre spread poster of them all lined up side by side on the Silverstone straight.

Apparently a pig to drive on the road, but what a fantastic spartan, carbon fest the cabins are.

There was a brand new unregistered one on yahoo japans auction site recently

http://translate.google.co.uk/translate?hl=en&...

from what I remember Matt Aitkin swapped a race jag Tom Walkinshaw wanted for one.

That's a fantastic find cheers. Looks like it's a racing version due to the tow hook in the grill at the front, but I haven't been able to determine if that's an actual factor for road/race variations yet. So many of them ended up in Japan, including a yellow one that was for sale with Art Sports years ago.

Found out that 009 and 046 are both in Brunei with the Sultan.

Also found out that they made a few LM versions with extra bodywork additions and potentially 7.4 litre engines. They all seem to have ended up in Japan and I've seen pictures of blue, green and white cars.

I highly doubt I'll ever be able to fully determine each car but I've certainly made a start and as long as people are interested in the cars then more information will certainly come to light.

I notice on that page that payment can be made by "Yahoo Phlegm Settlement". How I love translations from Japanese.

Great car; only knew of this a couple of days ago!
So Chassis 035 is on that site for sale.
Also I like that the Make is "Jagger" Haha.

[AMD87]

any ideas on this one? seen it at knockhill over 5 years ago



Usually ask a few people at race meets if they knew who owned it and noone seemed to know anything about it.

[heebeegeetee]

I remember them in a support race for the Brit GP at Silverstone one year, when they all seemed to hit each other going in to Stowe and Ian Flux went on to win the race.

[F1GTRUeno]

AMD87 said:

any ideas on this one? seen it at knockhill over 5 years ago



Usually ask a few people at race meets if they knew who owned it and noone seemed to know anything about it.

I've sent an email to one of the people that used to run it. It ran the Silverstone Classic early in the decade as an invitational car in the Group C races, seems it also ran at Snetterton and a few other tracks.

I managed to find race results but can't find anything else about the car unfortunately.

If I'm correct, then it normally wore #7 and was Cor Euser's car in the series. It's been everywhere including spending time in the US early in it's life.

Hopefully I hear something back.

Edited by F1GTRUeno on Thursday 30th September 23:42

[BoxerF50]

AMD87 said:

any ideas on this one? seen it at knockhill over 5 years ago



Usually ask a few people at race meets if they knew who owned it and noone seemed to know anything about it.

I believe it was run by JD Classics.

[Ferg]

heebeegeetee said:

I remember them in a support race for the Brit GP at Silverstone one year, when they all seemed to hit each other going in to Stowe and Ian Flux went on to win the race.

I took a load of photos of these at Friday practice at Silverstone.

[dave1409]

Yes, I remember seeing them at Silverstone and probably have a photo or two of them somewhere.

[Jonboy_t]

I will be ridiculed and probably stoned for this, but I've never heard of these. They are truly stunning looking cars though!!

Will be keeping a keen eye on this thread methinks!

[Spiritual_Beggar]

Wow.

What a STUNNING looking car! I feel ashamed to call myself a PHer since I did not even know this car existed!


ETA: Curious;

Reading the wiki article (i know), it says a couple were sold in the US back in 2001 for arround $120k.

But, apparently all 50 were sold for around $900k back in '92.


So how come these cars have 'depreciated' rather than 'appreciated'?

Reading a brief history, it seems these cars were WELL ahead of their time! And helped to pioneer the use of Carbon Fibre in motorsport, and car use in general.


Am I missing something? :S

Edited by Spiritual_Beggar on Friday 1st October 19:51

[james_tigerwoods]

I do love the XJR-15 - So much nicer than the XJ220... Apart from the (from what I read anyway) drivability...

What this thread needs is lots more photos

[Spiritual_Beggar]

james_tigerwoods said:

I do love the XJR-15 - So much nicer than the XJ220... Apart from the (from what I read anyway) drivability...

What this thread needs is lots more photos

Was it a bit of a pig to drive then?

On paper....it looks perfect.

[BoxerF50]

Spiritual_Beggar said:

Was it a bit of a pig to drive then?

On paper....it looks perfect.

It is much more race than road car. Takes a bit of getting used to but not undriveable at all.