Will Jaguar produce anything so closely related to a racing car as the XJR-15 again?
Jaguar Racing’s recent victories of the Rome ePrix double-header feel like a return to form for this traditionally motorsport-led company, its domination of both the Italian races harking back to its on-track glory days of the Fifties and Eighties.
Competition has always been central to Jaguar’s DNA, its successes on track eventually filtering down to its road cars. Take the E-type, for example, which was a clear development of the all-conquering D-type or the successful R-brand that was introduced as a result of Jaguar’s achievements in Group C sports car racing. These, though, pale into insignificance compared to the model featured, the XJR-15.
Directly derived from the XJR-9 that won the 1988 LeMans 24 Hours race, not since the XKSS from 1957 had a Jaguar been so closely related to a racing car.
Despite this being Jaguar’s sixth season in Formula E, other than improvements to the I-PACE’s battery, we’ve yet to see Jaguar’s current motorsport campaign have a direct impact on its road cars. An I-PACE using technology adapted from the company’s I-TYPE Formula E racing car could be as exciting as the XJR-15 and the potential to be just as fast. Jaguar’s reasons to be in Formula E remain the same as when it conceived its first racer, the C-type, 71 years ago which is to push the development of its road cars and, even more importantly, sell more of them. So, while it’s doubtful we’ll see anything as closely related to a racing car as the XJR- 15, with Jaguar back to winning again surely it wants to celebrate its latest victories with a suitably exciting road car?
The article on Tony Vandervell’s Bentley (Last Lap of Luxury) had particular interest because I have previously owned and currently own a Bentley with a Tony Vandervell connection. My third of six S-Type Continentals owned over nearly 40 years of driving these cars was an S2, two-door coupé previously owned by him. He may well have kept the Park Ward car featured until he passed away but he supplemented it with the two-door V8 version, covering 95,000 miles in less than three years early in its life. My current restoration project is a MkVI two-door coupé, B 381BG, by Freestone and Webb built for Vandervell Products and delivered in 1948, so presumably the second of the two MkVIs mentioned in the article. I found the car in Melbourne in a near-derelict state while on a BDC tour to Tasmania three years ago. I’ve owned three S1 Continental fastbacks by HJM. The first, a scruffy auto, acquired when our second child came along in 1983 because I couldn’t fit a child seat together with a carry cot in the back of a 911. Subsequent to both the S2, two-door cars above and an R-type Continental I acquired a manual S1 Continental by HJM, but the ’box didn’t suit it and even a clutch change failed to cure the clutch judder when setting off.
Porsche sports cars set new records at Amelia Island Auction
Last month, we brought you news of the superrare Porsches set to go under the hammer at the Gooding & Company Amelia Island Auction. A 1959 718 RSK set pulses racing in advance of the sale, as did a fine selection of other special sports cars from Zuffenhausen, including a 2005 Carrera GT and a 1993 964 Carrera RS 3.8 Clubsport, the latter built at the request of Tobias Hagenmeyer, CEO of transmission giant, Getrag. Presented in black with yellow accents, the air-cooled rarity features seven wholly unique characteristics not found on any other RS 3.8. A 1998 RUF Turbo R Limited also generated interest in the lead-up to the sale, scheduled a day ahead of the weekend’s Amelia Island Concours d’Elegance. Then, just as we went to print, Gooding & Company announced a late entry to proceedings: 904/6 chassis 906-011, a historically significant Porsche race car which made its debut at the Le Mans test weekend in April 1965 and, later that year, was entered in the Mont Ventoux Hillclimb and the Grand Prix of Solitude. After this season, the car was retired from Porsche’s racing department.
All Porsches offered at the Amelia Island auction were sold, the leading example being the 718 RSK, which achieved $2,975,000 after an engaging bidding war. 904/6 chassis 906- 011, meanwhile, achieved a remarkable figure of $2,205,000. The aforementioned Carrera GT shattered the recently set world record at auction for the model by selling for $2,012,500 (eclipsing the $2,000,000 million achieved earlier this year), while the Hagenmeyer 964 Carrera RS 3.8 Clubsport also set a new model world record, yielding a final sale price of $1,875,000.
Within the same realm, the gorgeous 993- based Riviera Blue RUF Turbo R Limited stunned auction attendees by becoming the most valuable RUF ever purchased at public sale, generating an unanticipated winning bid of $2,040,000. Modern 911s also commanded strong sale prices at the auction, where Porsche was the most represented marque. A 2001 996 GT2, for example, sold for $240,800, while a 2018 991 Gen II GT3 Touring brought in $302,000 after a considerable bidding battle. The event’s most successful lot? A 1937 Talbot-Lago T150-C-SS Teardrop Coupe, which fetched $13,425,000.
Of the nineteen auction lots generating more than $1m, eight were Porsches. Late entries included a pair of 1979 935 race cars (sold for a respectable $1,765,000 and $1,462,500) and a 1974 Carrera 3.0 RSR IROC, one of only fifteen 911s specially built for Roger Penske’s legendary race series. RSR chassis 911 460 0085 is one of the few 911s which competed in all four IROC races in 1973/1974. In the first race, Indycar hero, Gordon Johncock piloted the car to a tenth-place finish. For the second event, McLaren F1 driver, Peter Revson, finished fourth. Johncock found himself back in the red RSR for race three, finishing eleventh after throttle linkage issues.
For the season finale in early 1974, the top six performers went head-to-head at Daytona Speedway. AJ Foyt took the controls of this iconic RSR, but finished in sixth place after engine failure early on. Even so, the car’s special history was enough to attract $1,627,500 at Amelia Island.
Will Jaguar produce anything so closely related to a racing car as the XJR-15 again?
Jaguar Racing’s recent victories of the Rome ePrix double-header feel like a return to form for this traditionally motorsport-led company, its domination of both the Italian races harking back to its on-track glory days of the Fifties and Eighties.
Competition has always been central to Jaguar’s DNA, its successes on track eventually filtering down to its road cars. Take the E-type, for example, which was a clear development of the all-conquering D-type or the successful R-brand that was introduced as a result of Jaguar’s achievements in Group C sports car racing. These, though, pale into insignificance compared to the model featured, the XJR-15.
Directly derived from the XJR-9 that won the 1988 LeMans 24 Hours race, not since the XKSS from 1957 had a Jaguar been so closely related to a racing car.
Despite this being Jaguar’s sixth season in Formula E, other than improvements to the I-PACE’s battery, we’ve yet to see Jaguar’s current motorsport campaign have a direct impact on its road cars. An I-PACE using technology adapted from the company’s I-TYPE Formula E racing car could be as exciting as the XJR-15 and the potential to be just as fast. Jaguar’s reasons to be in Formula E remain the same as when it conceived its first racer, the C-type, 71 years ago which is to push the development of its road cars and, even more importantly, sell more of them. So, while it’s doubtful we’ll see anything as closely related to a racing car as the XJR- 15, with Jaguar back to winning again surely it wants to celebrate its latest victories with a suitably exciting road car?
Vandervell’s Bentleys
The article on Tony Vandervell’s Bentley (Last Lap of Luxury) had particular interest because I have previously owned and currently own a Bentley with a Tony Vandervell connection. My third of six S-Type Continentals owned over nearly 40 years of driving these cars was an S2, two-door coupé previously owned by him. He may well have kept the Park Ward car featured until he passed away but he supplemented it with the two-door V8 version, covering 95,000 miles in less than three years early in its life. My current restoration project is a MkVI two-door coupé, B 381BG, by Freestone and Webb built for Vandervell Products and delivered in 1948, so presumably the second of the two MkVIs mentioned in the article. I found the car in Melbourne in a near-derelict state while on a BDC tour to Tasmania three years ago. I’ve owned three S1 Continental fastbacks by HJM. The first, a scruffy auto, acquired when our second child came along in 1983 because I couldn’t fit a child seat together with a carry cot in the back of a 911. Subsequent to both the S2, two-door cars above and an R-type Continental I acquired a manual S1 Continental by HJM, but the ’box didn’t suit it and even a clutch change failed to cure the clutch judder when setting off.
Porsche sports cars set new records at Amelia Island Auction
Last month, we brought you news of the superrare Porsches set to go under the hammer at the Gooding & Company Amelia Island Auction. A 1959 718 RSK set pulses racing in advance of the sale, as did a fine selection of other special sports cars from Zuffenhausen, including a 2005 Carrera GT and a 1993 964 Carrera RS 3.8 Clubsport, the latter built at the request of Tobias Hagenmeyer, CEO of transmission giant, Getrag. Presented in black with yellow accents, the air-cooled rarity features seven wholly unique characteristics not found on any other RS 3.8. A 1998 RUF Turbo R Limited also generated interest in the lead-up to the sale, scheduled a day ahead of the weekend’s Amelia Island Concours d’Elegance. Then, just as we went to print, Gooding & Company announced a late entry to proceedings: 904/6 chassis 906-011, a historically significant Porsche race car which made its debut at the Le Mans test weekend in April 1965 and, later that year, was entered in the Mont Ventoux Hillclimb and the Grand Prix of Solitude. After this season, the car was retired from Porsche’s racing department.
All Porsches offered at the Amelia Island auction were sold, the leading example being the 718 RSK, which achieved $2,975,000 after an engaging bidding war. 904/6 chassis 906- 011, meanwhile, achieved a remarkable figure of $2,205,000. The aforementioned Carrera GT shattered the recently set world record at auction for the model by selling for $2,012,500 (eclipsing the $2,000,000 million achieved earlier this year), while the Hagenmeyer 964 Carrera RS 3.8 Clubsport also set a new model world record, yielding a final sale price of $1,875,000.
Within the same realm, the gorgeous 993- based Riviera Blue RUF Turbo R Limited stunned auction attendees by becoming the most valuable RUF ever purchased at public sale, generating an unanticipated winning bid of $2,040,000. Modern 911s also commanded strong sale prices at the auction, where Porsche was the most represented marque. A 2001 996 GT2, for example, sold for $240,800, while a 2018 991 Gen II GT3 Touring brought in $302,000 after a considerable bidding battle. The event’s most successful lot? A 1937 Talbot-Lago T150-C-SS Teardrop Coupe, which fetched $13,425,000.
Of the nineteen auction lots generating more than $1m, eight were Porsches. Late entries included a pair of 1979 935 race cars (sold for a respectable $1,765,000 and $1,462,500) and a 1974 Carrera 3.0 RSR IROC, one of only fifteen 911s specially built for Roger Penske’s legendary race series. RSR chassis 911 460 0085 is one of the few 911s which competed in all four IROC races in 1973/1974. In the first race, Indycar hero, Gordon Johncock piloted the car to a tenth-place finish. For the second event, McLaren F1 driver, Peter Revson, finished fourth. Johncock found himself back in the red RSR for race three, finishing eleventh after throttle linkage issues.
For the season finale in early 1974, the top six performers went head-to-head at Daytona Speedway. AJ Foyt took the controls of this iconic RSR, but finished in sixth place after engine failure early on. Even so, the car’s special history was enough to attract $1,627,500 at Amelia Island.
The next gen model was GAZ 24 Volga — the same peace of shit
Very strange radiator position