Although Jaguar had come close to building a competition version of the F-Type not long after its 2012 debut, apparently working with the Williams F1 team to develop such a model, it never came to fruition. In early 2018 a genuine racer based on the car finally broke cover. But although it was built by Jaguar’s Special Vehicle Operations (SVO) based in Ryton, having been developed for an independent team, Invictus Games Racing, it wasn’t the works effort many had been hoping for.
Although the changes between the F-Type 400 Sport and the standard V6 S were subtle, they were enough to make this limited-edition model look and feel significantly different. We’ve tracked down a rare example.
Hoping to persuade police forces across the UK that the XJ-S could be a high-speed response vehicle, a single demonstrator was developed. It’s fresh out of restoration and we’ve driven it.
Due to the global economic downturn of the early Nineties, Jaguar and its racing partner, TWR, had already pulled out of the World Sportscar Championship at the end of the 1991 season and then the American IMSA series the following year. But with the team contemplating a return to the Le Mans 24 Hours in 1993, three V12-powered XJR 12Ds were entered into the Daytona 24 Hours in late January as a way of gathering race experience with the cars.
Not only was this 1961 E-Type the first open-two-seater to feature factory seat belt mountings but it was later transformed into an evocation of the rare Lightweight model.
Dealer limited editions aren’t normally the type of car to draw collectors’ attention, but the Jaguar XFR Le Mans Edition X250 is a lot more special than most.
How many of us ever have the opportunity to drive an 87-year-old car, and not just around the block? Peter Simpson takes the Jaguar Daimler Heritage Trust’s 1935 SS1 Airline Saloon on a tour of the English Cotswolds…
Despite Ian Appleyard dominating the Alpine Rally throughout the early Fifties with his cream XK120, registration NUB120, since the Monte Carlo Rally’s rules at the time demanded cars over 1ó litres had to be four-seaters, it meant he had to ditch the sports car in favour of a MkVII instead. For his first Monte in 1952, Appleyard ordered a brand new example, registered PWN 7, but due to poor weather he, together with his co-driver wife, Pat (who was also the daughter of chairman of Sir William Lyons) finished a lowly 53rd. He would use the car again for that year’s Tulip Rally in April when he came home a strong second.
