The Extraordinary V12 That Took On BMW's M Cars! Jaguar XJR-S

Hello everyone Welcome to number 27 I'm Jack and this is a Jaguar xjs double. It is the result of a racing partnership between Tom Walkinshaw and Jag. Now, after all, you wouldn't immediately think that the xjs was a good platform for a race car. It is one of the most comfortable GTS that exists, with very soft suspension and was never really intended to be a sports car, but in 1982 Walking Shorta approached Jaguar and told it that he wanted to use it in the European Touring Car Championship, although It was a heavy Beast, there were quite a few things that worked in its favor with the regulations at the time, the first being that it had independent suspension throughout, secondly it had fuel injection, the intake manifold had to remain as it had to have injection really helped overcome that. limitation, lastly, the standard

cars

already had fairly wide tires during racing, you were limited to the maximum width of what the street

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would have in terms of tires.

Tww had real success with this in 82, the first year it ran, they already did it. to get second place the same in 1983 and I think it was even closer and in 84 they won the Touring Car Championship, it was only because Jaguar decided from 1985 to concentrate their efforts on L man again with the help of tww that they stopped pushing . these, after that might have been even more successful, but after that they didn't really campaign in the same way. Let's stop now and I'll quickly tell you what makes an xjs a TWR xjs before Jaguar officially started. producing under Jaguar sport the You can see here is the aerodynamic body kit which includes the front bumper, side seals, rear bumper and spoiler.

Together they were supposed to add about 10% aerodynamic efficiency and also help reduce lift at the front. Next up are what tww called the low resistance wheels which also had some bigger tires, 225's in the front and two FS fours in the rear. Next was the suspension which consisted of lower and stiffer springs. I think they are about an inch lower. As well as the standard ones, bespoke Billstein shock absorbers were also fitted and at least some of the cars also had two of the rear bushings swapped for some stiffer units for £800. The suspension kit appears to be good value for money. for double 1,700.

You could also have the largest one. The brakes, twin exhausts show that this also has the high efficiency kit. What he did was add 10% air with a Freer exhaust and air induction kit. A tww specific leather steering wheel completes the list of options that were ticked for this car, also available but much less chosen was a 6L engine conversion and a 5 speed gearbox, both very expensive, the gearbox manual was £5800 and engine conversion 6500 as this package would have cost 9400 if bought as a series of options without the engine and gearbox obviously there is also a adjustment to the steering rack which I am not not sure if it's been done on this one or not, but we'll find out when I drive it.

Some people prefer the more original lines of the bodyless cars with steel bumpers and I suppose they are more delicate, but personally I think they did a very good job with this, it gives it just the right Menace feel and there is nothing that looks like an xjs and much less. an XJ RS or one of these two previous prepared cars. I haven't driven an with that mod it feels pretty standard, kind of xjs to me, which isn't necessarily a bad thing, it's still a pretty nice direction, it's very very lightweight, you get some feedback, not enough to know what they're doing those front wheels. and the steering speed is judged pretty well like all the high performance Jags of the last few years, although it has a stiffer suspension it is still a very very comfortable car, you feel the road much more than in a standard xjs and definitely it's more Tau too, let's see what it's like through these ERS keeping in mind that this isn't really the natural place where you'd want even the sport version to be, but the curves are definitely a lot flatter than a normal one now with this package.

I think it's supposed to have 310 horsepower, the 5.3 maybe another 10 horsepower with the exhaust system. Under normal circumstances you can't really hear it, it's just a whisper when you put your foot down and it goes above 2 and 1 12. 3 you get a nice growl but it's still quite muffled, it feels like a heavy car. I'm so glad it has upgraded brakes. The cornering is very positive, it's still a big beast so like I said this isn't really the natural environment for it and you can feel it, you just can't disguise the weight when you have those really tight corners, it's still pretty good but It's not so happy doing it as soon as you hit the road.

It opens up a little bit and you have some longer radius corners that are faster, then it seems to pick up steam and feels a lot more comfortable. One of the interior options you could get through tww was to have some Scottish Tweed. inserts in the center of the seats, this does not have, I think it has all the beauty and charm of the standard XJS interior. These pre-facelift cars still have those little glasses on the instruments, um, which are just lovely and very At the time, the only thing about the interior that would be a problem for taller people like me is that there are very, very Little space, especially considering the overall size, a super 80s touch is the car foam, which I wisely think Dave has left here.

It has the old British Telecom logo which it really reminds me of. In 1988 Jaguar officially became involved in this project, they formed Jaguar Sport which was initially 50% owned by Tom Walking Shore and I think after a year he opted out and Jaguar continued. Those cars started with the 5.3L, which is the same engine as this one, but later cars had a 6L with 330 horsepower instead of 310. The lack of power is not something I think is a problem with the steering , yes We are definitely looking for a sports car that interferes a little as does the gearbox.

Manual versions with upgraded steering I think would have made a big difference to the overall feel in this spec without the manual gearbox and without the upgraded version. steering rack, you still can't describe this as a fully sporty sports car. That said, as a distinctive-looking package, the much better-supported chassis is a very, very attractive car. I think if you want to drive it with a little more spirit than a normal xjs. This is actually a big compromise, you don't have as much float and you can corner a little harder than you would with the standard car.

There is nothing as relaxing as Driving an xjs of this era, the seats are wonderfully supportive and comfortable, the suspension, even in this modified tww version, really costs the whole V12 The Whisper experience, the effortless power and, of course the charm of the interior and knowing that "We are in something so different and in a car that knew what it wanted to be, it wasn't trying to be everything, it was primarily a GT and it works very well for that. Many thanks to Dave for bring it in and let me experience what a really rare car.

Thanks for looking. If you want me to review one of your cars, contact me here and we'll see if we can work something out. Thank you very much and I'll see you next time.