Monday 20th March 2017

Jaguar F-Type GT4 coming?

Autosport is suggesting a special SVO commission could be going racing...

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That Jaguar's factory return to motorsport has been in Formula E remains deeply disappointing at PH. For anyone at Goodwood over the weekend too, watching E-Types slide around the Motor Circuit will have forced the point home even harder. If only there was a six-cylinder sports car Jaguar could base a new GT racer on...

Hang the Range Rovers; this would be special!

Now there is a rumour that Jaguar's Special Vehicle Operations team is creating an F-Type GT4 for a private individual. Not perhaps the flame-spitting GT3 we're all after, but a racing car is still a racing car. The news is being reported by Autosport, and it's extremely speculative at the moment, though you will hopefully excuse a little pre-emptive excitement.

There is no official comment from Jaguar as yet, with all bespoke projects said to remain entirely confidential. Apparently the car has been commissioned by James Holder, one of the Superdry founders, with three cars being built at Browns Lane. It has also been suggested that Graham Humphrys, designer of the BMW V12 LMR and involved with the Bentley GT3 campaign, has been brought in to work on the F-Type GT4.

Whether the car will use the V6 or V8 engine remains unknown - this is what we meant about speculative! - with a debut lined up for the latter rounds of this year's GT4 European Series. The Northern European Cup is at the Nurburgring in September...

Suppose this makes more sense with the I-Pace...

The final rumour around this very exciting project is the involvement of the Invictus Games Foundation for injured members of the armed forces, which JLR is a sponsor of. A motorsport element would make those games more interesting!

There of course remains a great deal to be confirmed about this potential F-Type GT4, though it's one we'll be following very closely - watch this space!

[Sources: Autosport, James Gibson]

 

[DPSFleet]

They should offer this colour option, enhances the look of the car. Love the F types, greatest noise per pound except for the Abarth 595 competizone!

[bobski1]

Have seen some of the SVO guys messing around with a GT3RS a little while ago

[knighty]

GT4......WTF.....Jaguar, please for god sake, just put an IMSA DPi effort together and start racing in the US, then it looks like the ACO will let you race at LeMans in the P1 class, as they are short on manufacturers......just adapt an existing LMP2 chassis and chuck in a 600bhp V6 turbo from your road car......splash it with Castrol livery and the fans will go mental......please please make it happen.......

[ZX10R NIN]

I think it'll be a given for JLR because it's good business look how many GT3/4 cars Aston/Porsche/Audi/Bentley sell to customers.

[knighty]

In the automotove business, the real money is in selling road cars in high volume, selling handfulls of race cars feels nice, but its pocket-money compared to road-car sales in high volume across the globe.....GT4 is nowhere near high profile enough to get a global reach that a DPi or LMP1 effort could give.......JLR should just approach an F1 team with a consultancy arm, Williams would be ideal, give them a truck load of cash and tell them to go and win in the IMSA series.......they could go up against Cadillac, Nissan, and next year Honda-Penske also.......Jaguar had a great past in the IMSA series in the 80's and it helped their US sales and image a great deal.

Failing that Jaguar could join Peugeots band-wagon and get the ACO to reduce the cost of the WEC LMP1 before they enter.

Seeing Jaguar in Formula-E just makes my toenails curl......its the biggest mickey-mouse race series ever, full of has-been drivers, dull and with no noise.