Jaguar XJR-17
The Jaguar XJR-17 was an IMSA-GTP sports car built in 1991 and never driven in an international sports car race.
Development history
With the XJR-17 you can't really talk about a development history, because the car simply had none. The whole project originally went back to the US racing driver Andy Evans , who was looking for a usable racing vehicle for the IMSA series in 1991 and asked Tom Walkinshaw for one. Walkinshaw could not offer a suitable car and Evans had to cancel for the time being. It was finally agreed to build a racing car that would later become known as the Jaguar XJR-17. The car was a remarkable mix of different XJR models. A Jaguar XJR-16 was dismantled down to the chassis and the cockpit. Then the car was rebuilt with new parts. The front section including the adjustable front wings came from an XJR-14 , the rear wing was removed and installed on an XJR-12 . The 5-speed transmission was a mixture of parts from an XJR-11 and the existing XJR-16. Both turbochargers were removed from the XJR-16's 3.5-liter V6 engine, but the engine still developed 465 hp.
Racing history
Win Percy did the first test drives in Snetterton , but Evans resigned from Projekt while testing and the car was parked in Walkinshaw's garage in the spring of 1992 without a plan. The British racing team owner Hugh Chamberlain rented the car and wanted to use it in the 1992 World Sports Car Championship, adapted to the technical Group C2 regulations . Chamberlain was unable to finance the operations. Although he reported the car to a few world championship races, he did not take part anywhere. Chamberlain also wanted to compete in the 24 Hours of Le Mans ; Boxes and necessary fuel were reserved but could not be bought. Another XJR-17 was registered in Le Mans in 1992. Ultimately, it was one and the same chassis: this registered team did not show up for training and the race either.
In 1993 Brian Chatfield bought the car and competed in a few minor races at Castle Combe .
literature
- Thomas Nehlert, Group C: The sports car races 1982-1992 , Verlag Petrolpics, Bonn 2011, ISBN 3-940306-14-2 .
