By 1973 Jaguar’s motorsport glories were long behind it. It had been 16 years since one of its cars had last won the 24 Hours of Le Mans while even its final entry in the race it had once ruled was way back in 1964. And with parent company British Leyland lacking the resources to go racing, there seemed little chance of Jaguar returning to the track. Yet despite all of this, the company still had a presence at the 1973 British Grand Prix, albeit with a dated never-before-seen prototype.
This Jaguar XK120 was raced in the 1952 International Race of Champions at Silverstone by Prince Bira and after a life in the USA the recently restored car has returned to the UK.
There are different ways to keep the memory of a beloved deceased person alive. In this case, it is Nils Höltmann from Castrop-Rauxel's 1998 E36 328i that keeps the memory of his best friend Hikmet, who succumbed to cancer, alive.
There was great excitement in the 1970s and 1980s when Jaguar re-entered international motorsport. It started with support of Bob Tullius’s Group 44 outfit in the States followed by Tom Walkinshaw’s TWR team originally in the European Touring Car Championship with the XJ-S and later Group C endurance racing. But thanks to its five victories in the Fifties, for Jaguar the most important race had always been the 24 Hours of Le Mans. By 1987 and with TWR starting to become genuinely competitive in the World Sports Car Championship we knew there was a real possibility of us winning for the first time since 1957.
With its twin supercharged 5.3-litre V8 resulting in huge performance, yet still having the kind of luxurious interior Aston was now renowned for, the Vantage was the quintessential British supercar of the Nineties. Thirty years after its debut, we explore its history and later development before taking one of these refined brutes for a drive.
Despite coming from two different manufacturers, by sharing much below the surface, the DB7 and Jaguar XJS are closely related. We compare a straight six-engined example of each to discover which of these surprising siblings we prefer.
The first owner of this 2000 Jaguar XKR 4.0 Convertible X100 ordered every optional extra available resulting in a highly specified and quite possibly unique example.
If you were doing well in the early 1970s, a Rover P6 3500 was almost a badge of rank. But if you were doing really well, its British Leyland sister car the Jaguar XJ6 would be within reach. But was the jump from a Rover to a 2.8 XJ6 really worth it, or would you have been better saving for a 4.2?
With its V8 now to six litres and featuring fuel injection plus a modern six-speed gearbox and beefed-up suspension, this 1976 AM V8 Saloon is a modern interpretation of an always popular classic Aston Martin.
To mark the 25th anniversary of a unique concept the eventual Vanquish production model was based on, we’re driving an example of the V12 supercar across one of the UK’s best driving roads.
