The races that built the Jaguar legend

Jaguar is finally returning to motorsport with its Formula E programme, starting with the upcoming 2016-17 season.

The British marque has an enviable competition heritage, chiefly in sportscars and touring cars. Jaguar hasn't scored many single-seater successes. Yet.

So, here are Autosport's picks for the top 10 outstanding moments in Jaguar's racing history.

10. 1991 MONZA FILIPPO CARACCIOLO TROPHY
First win for the XJR-14

Jaguar had been on the receiving end of a Sauber-Mercedes thrashing for two years when it built its first 3.5-litre normally aspirated Group C challenger for 1991. The Ross Brawn-designed XJR-14 qualified 2.5 seconds ahead of the field at the Suzuka opener, but mechanical gremlins handed victory to Peugeot.

At Monza a month later, the Jaguar's pace advantage was even more remarkable. On a damp track, Teo Fabi took pole, 4.4s quicker than the best non-XJR-14.

The sister #3 car required an engine change just before the start and had to set off from the pits, but such was Martin Brundle's pace that he came through in eighth after one lap and was fifth the next time around.

Inevitably, Brundle made it up into second behind Fabi before the end of his stint. Despite an awkward safety car period that lost them the lead, visibility issues, and a stop-go penalty for Derek Warwick in the car started by Brundle, the Jaguars were not to be denied.

The Brundle/Warwick car led home the Fabi/Brundle machine, with Brundle setting a fastest lap that would have put him in the top half of the field at the previous September's Formula 1 Italian Grand Prix.

A lack of funding and development meant the XJR-14 was caught by season's end, but not quickly enough to prevent Jaguar taking the teams' title and Fabi the drivers' crown.

That remains Jaguar's most recent international success, scored with one of the greatest sports-racers of all time.

9. 1952 SILVERSTONE PRODUCTION TOURING CAR RACE
Tin-top domination begins

The Daily Express Silverstone production touring car races are widely regarded as the events that kicked off touring car competition in the UK. And at the very first, in 1952, Jaguar set the tone for the next decade.

Stirling Moss won in a Mk7 and Jaguar would remain the marque to beat until the arrival of V8 monsters from America in 1963.

Ken Wharton's Healey was fastest in practice, but Moss beat him away from the Le Mans-style start, drivers running across the road to their machines before setting off.

Although massive, the Mk7 had the 3.4-litre engine from the XK120 that helped offset its lack of agility. Moss was able to beat Wharton, eventually coming home 13.5s clear.

"Despite enormous body roll, they really did hold the road extremely well, and you could push them a long way before they would finally let go," said Moss in My Cars, My Careers, written with Doug Nye.

Mk1s and Mk2s continued the Mk7's success, with 3.8-litre Mk2s winning every British Touring Car Championship (then known as the British Saloon Car Championship) race in 1961 and '62.

8. 1985 BATHURST 1000
Last hurrah for the XJS

Arch rivals Ford and Holden have tended to dominate Australia's greatest race, the Bathurst 1000, but Tom Walkinshaw Racing managed to break that duopoly shortly before the Jaguar XJS was retired for good in favour of a world sportscar assault.

Three XJSs, dusted off from the previous year's European Touring Car campaign, made the trip to Australia. Team boss Walkinshaw, who had suffered clutch failure at the start of the 1984 event, duly led a Jaguar lockout of the front row, but it would be the team's slowest qualifier - the Armin Hahne/John Goss car in sixth - that scored the desired result.

Jaguar's race did not begin well. The Jeff Allam/Ron Dickson car retired after just three laps, the air intake having eaten some debris and damaged the valve gear. Walkinshaw nevertheless led, and the circumspect Goss soon had his XJS into second.

TWR had brake and tyre concerns, and reckoned on having to make an extra stop, but a variety of maladies and incidents for the opposition helped the Jaguars swiftly climb back up the order.

Then Hahne's seat broke, necessitating temporary repairs, and the lead car developed an oil leak, possibly due to a stone puncturing the oil cooler. The 10 minutes lost to change the cooler prompted a charging recovery drive from Walkinshaw, but his chances of victory had gone.

Despite discomfort from the seat, Hahne/Goss stayed out of reach of the Johnny Cecotto/Roberto Ravaglia BMW to win, while a late failure for Peter Brock's Holden handed Walkinshaw and Win Percy the final spot on the podium.

7. 1990 DAYTONA 24 HOURS
Putting turbos in the shade

As became the norm during the TWR Jaguar era, the new XJR-12s did not attempt to challenge the turbocars in qualifying for the 1990 Daytona 24 Hours. After his defeat in '89 by a privateer Porsche, Walkinshaw was content to let his two cars qualify ninth and 10th, and focus on the race.

That approach paid dividends as the Jaguars swiftly moved through the field. Helped by the quickest Porsches suffering incidents, the XJR-12s hit the front during the second hour and were never headed.

"The race was essentially over by the middle of the night, with the Jaguars well clear of the remaining Porsche privateers," said Autosport's report.

"There is not the slightest doubt that TWR's American operation is in a class beyond anyone else in IMSA."

As well as running quickly and reliably, the Jaguars also benefited from faster pitstops than their rivals and the lead kept growing.

"There were no pitlane speed limits and we were doing 200mph before the pit entry," recalls Andy Wallace, who shared the lead car with Davy Jones and Jan Lammers.

"We practised peeling off the banking without lifting. Trying to judge where to brake was incredible!"

There were some overheating dramas in the closing stages, due to debris in the radiators - and the second car needing its cooling system flushing - but still the Jaguars finished one-two, with the third-placed Porsche six laps behind the winning car of Jones/Lammers/Wallace.

"The water temperature was high and we even tried running with the engine cover off," adds Wallace. "Fortunately we had a large oil tank and I think the quantity of oil kept the core temperature away from danger point.

"The V12 was a really strong engine. As long as you didn't over-rev it on the downchange it would go on and on forever.

"It also had massive torque so you could get great acceleration out of the tight infield corners at Daytona. The Jaguar was a perfect car for that race."

6. 1952 REIMS GRAND PRIX
C-type makes disc-brake breakthrough

Shortly after Jaguar's disastrous 1952 Le Mans, a C-type driven by Moss and owned by Tommy Wisdom - XKC005, pictured above competing at Boreham that year - recorded one of the firm's most significant results.

The 1952 Reims Grand Prix for sportscars was not an epic contest, nor the most important race on the calendar, but it was the scene of the first success for disc brakes, a technology pioneered by Jaguar that soon became ubiquitous.

Based on an old Lanchester patent, disc brakes had come into their own on Second World War aircraft. Jaguar, Dunlop, Girling and Mintex started testing an early system on an XK120 for car application, but it was not an easy project.

"We would run them at one circuit, like Reims, where there were long straights along which the brakes could cool quite comfortably," said Moss in My Cars, My Careers.

"But if we ran them on a tighter circuit with less space between the corners, enormous heat would build up and vaporise the fluid as soon as we began braking hard. Next time you braked, the pedal would hit the floor."

The long straights of Reims didn't test the embryonic system too much and so Wisdom's car had its drums replaced by disc brakes for the 50-lapper in France.

Moss led initially, but the C-type was outpaced by the remarkable 2.3-litre Gordini of Robert Manzon, who soon went by and pulled away.

Then, just before one-third distance, the Gordini suffered a stub-axle failure and crashed, leaving Moss with a huge lead. Helped by the streamlined body and 3.4-litre XK engine, he eventually won by two laps, though the sweltering heat meant he had to be helped from the car.

Not only had the win gone some way to banishing the demons of Le Mans (where all three of Jaguar's hastily modified C-types retired), it was an important milestone in one of the most significant automobile developments of all time.

5. 1984 SPA 24 HOURS
TWR proves its enduring worth

Tom Walkinshaw Racing's XJS project in the European Touring Car Championship brought Jaguar back onto the world motorsport stage. Race victories came as early as 1982, but TWR's best season against the might of tin-top giant BMW came in '84.

The XJS won seven of the 12 rounds, with team boss Walkinshaw taking the drivers' crown. And the final victory was the best, as Jaguar won its first major 24-hour contest since 1957.

TWR continued its pacesetting speed in Spa practice, the 5.3-litre V12 XJSs qualifying first and second against a horde of BMW 635CSis.

Though rainmaster Hans-Joachim Stuck grabbed the lead for BMW and the Jaguars fell back in tricky conditions early on, Walkinshaw was not worried. "We agreed to let the BMWs have their own show in those early laps," he said. "We just weren't going to get involved."

The Rover Vitesses also proved rapid, but they were not reliable. And as the track dried, the Jaguars started moving forward again.

Then Enzo Calderari crashed the second XJS as the rain returned and the Walkinshaw/Hans Heyer/Win Percy car also lost ground during a safety car period, but remained in contention. The Big Cat was the fastest car and TWR's job was made easier when the two leading BMWs ran off the road.

The consistent lead trio had three laps in hand with a quarter of the race to go and maintained that gap to the flag, despite a late puncture.

"The car had run faultlessly throughout the entire event," said Autosport's report.

Not only did the Spa win help Walkinshaw to the ETCC crown, it underlined TWR Jaguar's credentials when it came to endurance events. The combination would be a major force at Le Mans within two years.

4. 1986 SILVERSTONE 1000KM
Home victory is the first of many

'A legend reborn' was the headline for Autosport's 1986 Silverstone 1000Km report as Jaguar scored its first major sportscar success in Europe since the 1957 Le Mans 24 Hours.

The first of a successful line of TWR Group C Jaguars appeared in the second half of 1985. The XJR-6 proved rapid, but heading to Silverstone in May of the following season the V12-engined machine had yet to win in the World Sportscar Championship.

Warwick was knocked off the front row by the rapid Lancia of Andrea de Cesaris and an inspired Stuck in his works Porsche, but the Jaguar XJR-6s had strong race pace.

Alessandro Nannini pulled away early on in the Lancia, with Warwick and Jean-Louis Schlesser soon running two-three for Jaguar. The hitherto dominant Porsches were unable to match them.

The twin-turbocharged Lancia hit fuel concerns, allowing Warwick to close in his naturally aspirated V12. He didn't pass the Lancia, but Eddie Cheever did after the first stops, Warwick's co-driver finding a way by de Cesaris before drawing clear.

Lancia jumped Jaguar at the second stops, with Warwick and Nannini swapping places until the Jaguar pitted with a suspected puncture. In fact, a wheel spat had come loose and was fouling the tyre, so Warwick/Cheever resumed quickly and were still in the hunt.

The second Jaguar had by this time dropped out of contention with a gear linkage problem, but it was falling fuel pressure in the Lancia that decided the race.

Cheever and Warwick swept through to take the first of 19 Jaguar victories in world championship Group C competition.

"To come to Silverstone representing Jaguar was special and there were lots of people there from Jaguar and TWR," remembers Warwick.

"We were new and there was tough opposition, but the car was competitive right from the word go. It was great racing."

The second-placed works Porsche was two laps behind, not that Warwick was convinced Walkinshaw wanted such domination.

"Tom didn't want that big a gap to the Porsches because it was too soon in the programme," reckons Warwick, who was pipped to the drivers' crown by Porsche's Derek Bell in a dramatic season finale at Fuji.

Jaguar would have to wait one more year for the title.

3. 1957 LE MANS 24 HOURS
Domination without the factory

Nothing quite proves the quality of your product like privateers using it to thrash the opposition. And the performance of Jaguar's D-type at Le Mans in 1957 was one of the most impressive displays ever seen at the Circuit de la Sarthe.

Jaguar had withdrawn its works team at the end of 1956, leaving the likes of Ecurie Ecosse - which had won Le Mans that year after the factory failed - to fly the D-type flag.

The Scottish team had both 3.8- and 3.4-litre versions on tap for Le Mans. There was also a 3.8 for Duncan Hamilton, sharing with Masten Gregory, plus French (Equipe Los Amigos) and Belgian (Equipe Nationale Belge) 3.4 entries.

The D-type had won the two previous Le Mans, but the design was three years old and was outgunned by its 1957 rivals. Maserati and Ferrari, in particular, took advantage of the new unlimited capacity regulations, with 4.5-litre and four-litre monsters respectively among their multi-car works entries as they battled for the world sportscar championship.

Sure enough, the Italian cars set the pace early on, smashing the lap record from the off, but they soon hit mechanical trouble, engine failures accounting for the fastest Ferraris.

By half distance, Jaguars were first, second, third and fourth. They simply outlasted the quickest cars and outran the survivors.

The winning 3.8 Ecosse car of Ron Flockhart/Ivor Bueb, which ran fifth in the early going, set a new distance record and took the flag eight laps clear of the field. It also led an Ecosse one-two, with the French and Belgian D-types next, and the delayed Hamilton entry completing a Jaguar 1-2-3-4-6 (with a Ferrari interloper in fifth).

The 1957 Le Mans marked the end of an era. The D-type's reign was halted by the arrival of a three-litre limit the following year. Although a smaller version of the XK engine was developed, it struggled for reliability and Jaguar soon faded away from the forefront of Le Mans for more than two decades.

2. 1988 LE MANS 24 HOURS
The peak of the TWR era

TWR and Jaguar had finally ended Porsche's domination of sportscar racing in 1987. The Tony Southgate-designed XJR-8 won eight of the 10 world championship rounds, Jaguar won the teams' title and Raul Boesel was drivers' champion.

But the Le Mans 24 Hours - the event that helped establish Jaguar as a major force in the '50s - had proved elusive. The sole remaining works Porsche 962 won as the Big Cats hit trouble, fifth place the best TWR could manage.

Jaguar's XJR-9 was engaged in a battle with Sauber-Mercedes in the championship in 1988 after Porsche withdrew to focus on Le Mans. A three-way 24-hour contest was therefore in prospect before tyre failure forced Sauber to withdraw. But the race still became a classic.

Jaguar had five cars - TWR combining its European and US arms - but Porsche still qualified 1-2-3 compared to its rival's 4-6-10-12-13. It didn't take long, however, for Jan Lammers take the fight to the turbocars in the #2 XJR-9LM, which proved to be the fastest and most reliable of the Big Cats.

Crucially, Klaus Ludwig ran out of fuel at the end of his first stint thanks to a blocked filter, delaying the #17 Porsche that was Jaguar's main rival. Even so, the lead swapped numerous times - including at up to 240mph on the pre-chicane Mulsanne Straight - between the three works Porsches and the Jaguar driven by Lammers, Le Mans debutant Wallace and Johnny Dumfries.

The Brundle/John Nielsen XJR-9LM remained in contention too until succumbing to head gasket failure early on Sunday morning. Maladies for the other leading runners in a race run at record speed left the #2 Jaguar and #17 Porsche battling for the lead with a quarter of the race still to go.

The Jaguar had lost time with a minor clash and a windscreen change, while the Porsche had required a new water pipe, adding to its earlier delay. A rain shower, while Stuck was in the 962, then helped close the gap and heighten the tension.

A fuel pick-up problem thwarted a charge for the Ludwig/Stuck/Bell Porsche with an hour to go, but by then star driver Lammers was nursing a gearbox issue that had already put out one of the sister machines.

Happily for the thousands of enthusiastic and vocal British fans, the car held together and Lammers/Wallace/Dumfries ended Jaguar's long Le Mans wait. They had been in the top two almost throughout and led for much of the race, yet won by less than a lap.

TWR Jaguar went on to win more titles and Le Mans again in 1990, but it is the '88 success that is most fondly remembered. Not only did it return Jaguar to the top step of the 24 Hours podium, it did so by ending Porsche's domination of the event in one of the greatest of all Le Mans contests.

1. 1953 LE MANS 24 HOURS
The making of a reputation

Although Jaguar's Le Mans breakthrough came in 1951, its second success two years later was even more significant.

Against better opposition, the improved C-types finished 1-2-4 and broke the distance record. More importantly, Jaguar also scored the first Le Mans victory for a disc-braked car.

Jaguar had learned its lesson from the 1952 debacle, in which all its streamlined C-types retired early, and the cars were well prepared. As well as the Girling-Dunlop disc brakes, the '53 cars had lighter panels, rubber fuel tanks and produced 220bhp, up from 205bhp.

Moss led the Jaguar charge and headed the field early on in the 3.4-litre C-type he shared with Peter Walker, with the 4.5-litre Ferrari of Alberto Ascari/Luigi Villoresi providing the sternest challenge.

Moss suffered a misfire in the second hour, but Tony Rolt quickly moved his C-type past the big Ferrari coupe to put Jaguar back to the front. Several of the other quick Italian cars had already hit trouble.

After four hours Rolt led the Ferrari by just over a second, but the C-type started to edge away thereafter. It was two laps ahead when the Ferrari's clutch failed late on Sunday morning, leaving Rolt and Duncan Hamilton to cruise to victory unopposed.

"The car never missed a beat," said Hamilton years later. "It did everything right."

The Ferrari's retirement also elevated the recovering Moss/Walker into second, four laps behind the winners, with only the 5.5-litre Cunningham of Phil Walters and John Fitch preventing a Jaguar 1-2-3.

"One of the greatest motor races ever seen," reckoned Autosport, which celebrated with a green cover.

"After their setback last year, Jaguars made one of the most sensational comebacks ever to happen in motor racing."

Arguably more than any other single success, the 1953 Le Mans established Jaguar's reputation.

THREE THAT GOT AWAY

1952 Le Mans - Never make late changes
Jaguar broke one of the major rules of 24-hour race preparation by making late changes it didn't have time to test properly. Encouraged by an overestimation of the pace of the new Mercedes, Jaguar hurriedly fitted new streamlined bodywork for the 1952 Le Mans. The result was chronic overheating and all three C-types going out inside three hours.

1986 Jerez Supersprint - The biggest own goal
In the absence of the works Lancia and Porsche teams, Jaguar should have been able to make up ground in the 1986 title chase at Jerez. The three XJR-6s duly approached the first corner 1-2-3, but contrived to hit each other, sending all three off. Warwick/Lammers recovered to third, but Jaguar suffered an embarrassing defeat at the hands of two Brun Porsches.

1993 Le Mans - GT success denied
The TWR Jaguar XJ220C of David Coulthard, David Brabham and John Nielsen appeared to take a fine GT class victory in the 1993 24 Hours, with 15th overall. But the XJ220Cs had raced under appeal, courtesy of not running catalytic converters like the road cars. A month later the win was taken away, on the bizarre basis that TWR's appeal had gone to Le Mans organiser ACO and not the Federation Francais du Sport Automobile in time.

This week's Autosport magazine delves further into Jaguar's rich racing history, and looks at its upcoming return in Formula E.

 

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