Friday 26th January 2018

Jaguar XJR-15(s): Pic of the Week

One XJR-15 is sensational enough; what must a grid of them been like?

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Unsurprisingly PH's story on the Petrolicious Jaguar XJR-15 video has been received rather well, attracting dozens of comments where many video features often struggle to breach double figures. No surprise really, the combination of gorgeous cinematography, a staggering car and a personable owner drawing PHers in like kids to an ice cream van.

It was nice to focus on Jaguar's forgotten supercar too, the XJR-15 living in the shadow of the already overlooked XJ220. It's hard to picture a race car derived, V12, manual Jaguar track car - the road car modifications made the handling notoriously tricky - falling on tough times today, but the XJR-15 has never been as revered as some of its contemporaries.

It deserves further celebration too because Jaguar raced the XJR-15, a photo from which features as this Friday's Pic of the Week. 'The International Challenge by Jaguar Sport' may sound like something from Gran Turismo, but by pitching 16 identical XJR-15s against each other on three GP tracks - Monaco, Spa and Silverstone - in 1991, it created perhaps the coolest F1 support car series since M1 Procar.

This image comes from the first round at Monaco, 10 (!) XJR-15s in view as Bob Wollek leads into the first corner. So that's nearly 20 per cent of all the XJR-15s ever made, racing at one of the most iconic race tracks in the world. On a desktop wallpaper. Right now. For you. Don't say PH never does anything for its readers...

Resolutions:
16:10
16:9
Quad HD
4K

Image: LAT

[Turbobanana]

Owing to the poorly-researched, sparsely-detailed article, I did some digging.

The Jaguar Sport INTERCONTINENTAL Challenge (NOT International, as the narrative states) supported the 1991 Grands Prix and attracted many wealthy owners, privateers and paid drivers, including F1, Sportscar and Touring Car Drivers of the day.

In view here:

4 - Bob Wollek, finished 6th
13 - John Nielsen, DNF
5 - Tiff Needell, finished 7th

There were 2 further rounds:

Silverstone, which turned into a panel beater's delight (won by Juan Manuel Fangio II, 45 years after his uncle won at Silverstone), and
Spa, run over an undisclosed - at the start - number of laps to avoid race-fixing in light of the $1m prize fund. This was won by Armin Hahne.

TWR later developed the tub section into the Nissan R390 Group C racer which achieved 3rd at Le Mans in 1998.

[R8Steve]

Didn't Clarkson crash one of these? I vaguely remember he did in an old video.

[Dodgey_Rog]

Turbobanana said:

13 - John Nielsen, DNF

He crashed, I remember seeing this all those years ago, because I loved the XJR-15 at the time, I was heartbroken when I found out one had crashed. I must have been about 13 at the time. These were about half a mill back in 91, that was sooooo much money back then.

[Turbobanana]

Dodgey_Rog said:

He crashed, I remember seeing this all those years ago, because I loved the XJR-15 at the time, I was heartbroken when I found out one had crashed. I must have been about 13 at the time. These were about half a mill back in 91, that was sooooo much money back then.

Probably just as well you weren't at Silverstone, by the sound of it

On values, yes, Wikipedia shows their decline (to c£95,000!!) and subsequent rise. Caveat is that some examples didn't sell at the Auctions in which they were entered, and of course exchange rates won't be 100% accurate.

Edited by Turbobanana on Friday 26th January 14:38

[Dodgey_Rog]

Turbobanana said:

Probably just as well you weren't at Silverstone, by the sound of it

On values, yes, Wikipedia shows their decline (to c£95,000!!) and subsequent rise. Caveat is that some exampled didn't sell at the Auctions in which they were entered, and of course exchange rates won't be 100% accurate.

I was at the 1990 Silverstone Grand Prix, the old man used to take us every year as he used to have hospitality, not sure why we didn't go to the 91 GP, I think he took clients instead. Used to love the support races back then, proper balls to the wall stuff.

[nicfaz]

amongst all the XJR-15 love, it's worth remembering that one of the reasons they didn't sell was that the handling was described as "evil", or more memorably "it handled like there was an oil spray set up to randomly squirt the rear tires during cornering". Good noises though.

[Oldwolf]

nicfaz said:

amongst all the XJR-15 love, it's worth remembering that one of the reasons they didn't sell was that the handling was described as "evil", or more memorably "it handled like there was an oil spray set up to randomly squirt the rear tires during cornering". Good noises though.

I think you've hit on a way of making F1 more interesting

[Pericoloso]

One of these turned up to a PHSS at Brands Hatch couple of years ago.

I believe he also owns/owned an XJ220.

I've got pics on the phone.

[Pericoloso]

This one.

[hurstg01]

That Clarkson oaf test drove one and, despite his 'amazing' car handling skills, couldn't control it from slipping away from him through the gears - raw power

I think they're beautiful and would love to experience one to see how it compares to an F1 and F1 GTR I've had the good fortune to passenger in.

The aura around the 3 pre-F1 races in that 1 season, the fact they are so rare and hardly seen until recently, and the fact that apparently 1 guy from Hong Kong, a nightclub owner, bought 10 (!?!!) when they were new all add to my love for the car.

[hurstg01]

Found this link earlier today too that some might find insightful

http://www.racingsportscars.com/championship/Jagua...