The third-time-lucky Big Cat that roared to Le Mans victory
Jaguar's hopes of Le Mans success in 1987 were dashed by reliability woes. Refining its package into the XJR-9, the #2 entry wrestled with a gearbox hellbent on self-destruction to claim endurance racing's crown jewel for the 'Big Cat' in 1988
Competing in - and winning - the Le Mans 24 Hours truly explores the very definition of the word "endurance".
Drivers must endure interrupted, sparse sleep patterns to persist around the La Sarthe circuit with hawk-like focus. Mechanics must endure a diet of coffee and chocolate bars and make any ad-hoc fixes to cars - which, itself, must endure an entire day of uninterrupted running and lashings of punishment from the rotating cast of drivers piloting it.
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Jake studied engineering at university, as his original ambition was to design racing cars. He was bad at that, and thus decided to write about them instead with an equally limited skillset. The above article is a demonstration of that. In his spare time, Jake enjoys people, places, and things.
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