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1989 BMW M3 Evo 2 E30 road car vs. M3 Evo 2 racer E30

The BMW M3 grew from a sublime saloon to dominate Touring Car racing for five years. John Barker compares the road and track versions.

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Niki Lauda tests the Jaguar R2, Valencia, January 2002

With no world championships or even victories to its name, Jaguar Racing’s four years in Formula 1 were a big disappointment. But it did, albeit briefly, have a three-time champion drive one of its cars

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Graham Hill wins Silverstone in the lightweight Jaguar E-Type Prototype, May 1963

Jaguar might have pulled out of international motorsport in the mid ’50s, but with privateer teams competing with the E-Type soon after its debut in early 1961

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The only 1983 Porsche 928 S to compete at Le Mans

Raymond Boutinaud recently restored the one and only 928 to contest the 24 Hours of Le Mans. We take a trip to his workshop and check out this legendary ‘land shark’ for ourselves

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Jaguar XJ-S’ first race, Mosport Park, August 1976

As our feature on shows, the XJ-S could be turned into more of a sports car, although it wasn’t a natural racing car due to its size and weight. That didn’t stop Bob Tullius and his Group 44 team from campaigning the car in the late Seventies, with considerable success.

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Stirling Moss wins Silverstone with Lister-Jaguar, July 1958

Due to its aerodynamic magnesium body, lightweight tubular chassis and Jaguar’s powerful 3.4-litre XK engine, ever since its introduction in 1957, the Lister ‘Knobbly’ (so called due to the tall front wheelarches flanking its low nose) had quickly become the car to beat in international sports car racing. One of the other main reasons for the car’s success was Lister’s works driver, the Scot Archie Scott Brown. Despite having a badly deformed hand and severe mobility problems with his legs, he was still an immensely talented and courageous driver.

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Jaguar XJR-5 finishes third on its debut, Road America, August 1982

Only a handful of endurance racing cars are strong enough to finish their debut race and fewer still finish on the podium.

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Porsche’s 1956 550A Le Mans Coupes

Porsche’s first space framed Spyder, the 550A, competed at Le Mans in coupe form to win its class, marking the only time the model raced as a hard-top. One such car has survived an interim American body to be reborn through a sparkling restoration…

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Porsche Moment ADAC 1000 Kilometer Race on 29 May, 1977

DrivesToday recounts the story behind a famous picture from Porsche’s past…

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Porsche 911 S 127 corners of the 1966 Freiburg to Schauinsland hill climb

A 911, clearly being driven with commitment, tackles one of the 127 corners of the Freiburg to Schauinsland hill climb. But this isn’t just any one of the many 911s that contested the Schauinsland climb until competitive events stopped after 1972. The driver is the Swabian, Eberhard Mahle, and in this 1966 photograph he’s well on the way to winning the European GT Hill Climb Championship and also the 911’s first international triumph. The irony is that if Huschke von Hanstein had prevailed, Eberhard wouldn’t have had a 911 to compete in.

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Stirling Moss wins 1952 Race of Champions, Silverstone

The Jaguar C-Type’s arrival in 1951 might have quickly made the XK 120 obsolete as a racing car but the British Racing Drivers’ Club still chose the now four-year-old model when it was organising a Race of Champions event at the 1952 Daily Express meeting on 10 May.

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Jaguar XJ-S takes its first ETCC podium, Vallelunga, April 1982

There was more than a little criticism from the press when in early 1982 Tom Walkinshaw Racing (TWR) announced it was to enter the European Touring Car Championship (ETCC) with a Jaguar XJ-S. Big, heavy and very thirsty, it was – on paper at least – an unsuitable choice for this highly competitive series, just as the XJ12 Coupe had been five years earlier. Worse still, TWR’s effort had limited backing from the factory, only getting paid when the cars finished on the podium. With BMW dominating the series, doing so would be a tall order.

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1996 Ferrari F310

Since Enzo’s passing, in 1988, the prancing horse had struggled to get out of the gate. Despite top-tier Drivers — including Mansell and Prost — Maranello was a different shade of red. Having not won a driver’s title since 1979, the Ferrari 642 went embarrassingly winless in 1991 — with Prost acrimoniously sacked. Then, both Mansell and Prost would claim the 1992 and 1993 drivers titles, respectively — for rival, Williams.

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Jaguar XJR-5 wins first race, Road Atlanta, April 10 1983

Road Atlanta might be thousands of miles away on the other side of the Atlantic, but what happened at the American circuit four decades ago would have a direct impact on Jaguar’s future success at Le Mans. Ever since Bob Tullius’ Group 44 team had announced its IMSA GTP programme with the V12-engined XJR-5 in the early Eighties, there had been speculation that it would be a spring board for the British company to head back to the famed 24-hour race. Jaguar, though, initially played down its chances.

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Jaguar F-Type GT4 X152 launch, January 2018

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.

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