Group A TWR Jaguar XJS ETC cars

[VIVA GT]

Originally Posted by Graham Clayton

Slightly off-topic, but would anyone know the reasons why there were no privateer Group A XJS's in the BTCC and ETCC in the mid-1980's? Was it:

1. TWR did not want privateers to have access to parts, information and support?
2. If TWR did allow privateers access, the costs and complexity of the XJS made it not a feasible option for a privateer team to run?

I thought I'd posted to say that the BTCC had an upper capacity limit of 3600cc meaning that the V12 XJ-S was ineligible but I can't find that post... (Early onset of old-timers maybe?)

[KA]

For the BTCC, it would definitely have also fallen foul of the 3.6-litre maximum capacity rule that Viva mentioned- IIRC it was brought in at some point in the 70's, to outlaw the Camaros etc that dominated around that time, and wasn't lifted until 1987, by which time the big Cat was out of homologation.

I'd agree with Peter that the big issue for privateers was cost and complexity, although I don't think parts supply was particularly easy either- IIRC the most extensively-campaigned privateer XJS, Peter Willmington's red car in Australia, was built up from a second-hand road car

[Frank de Jong]

In the Netherlands, a guy called Eddy Fresco built his own Jaguar XJS in 1985 without any help from TWR. It wasn't a success, even in the limited Group A world of Holland.

[david5]

Originally Posted by KA

For the BTCC, it would definitely have also fallen foul of the 3.6-litre maximum capacity rule that Viva mentioned- IIRC it was brought in at some point in the 70's, to outlaw the Camaros etc that dominated around that time, and wasn't lifted until 1987, by which time the big Cat was out of homologation.

I'd agree with Peter that the big issue for privateers was cost and complexity, although I don't think parts supply was particularly easy either- IIRC the most extensively-campaigned privateer XJS, Peter Willmington's red car in Australia, was built up from a second-hand road car

Willo is a gifted home taught engineer, he built the injection system himself for his car from a picture of a TWR XJ-S in a magazine. There was also the Goss Jag that Tom copped the Liberace in on the grid at Bathurst in 1984, that was converted to Group A spec and ran from time to time, still owned by Goss and repainted to look like the 85 Bathurst winner.

[D-Type]

Translation please: what does "copped the Liberace" mean? I assume it's Aussie slang, but it's lost on me.

[davyboy]

Originally Posted by D-Type

Translation please: what does "copped the Liberace" mean? I assume it's Aussie slang, but it's lost on me.

I think that was the year Walkinshaw was left on the line as they all took off... so I'm guessing it's something to do with that. It'd be interesting to get a 'translation' though... great piece of slang.

[E36ST]

Yes, taking one right up the... 'behind'.

[Redzone]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberace

[Peter Mallett]

Don't you just love enlightened Australians?

[chunterer]

Originally Posted by Peter Mallett

Don't you just love enlightened Australians?

Yes, but I have a funny feeling that David is from these shores!

[pigs fly]

Suggest you look at u-tube footage of 84 Bathurst start and then you will understand.

[Al Weyman]

The cockney version would be 'One up the deaf and dum!'

[pigs fly]

I will put it in plain English so you poms can understand he was rear-ended.

[david5]

Sorry about that, thought it was a widespread motoring term. Not that there's anything wrong with that

And yes I'm an Australian, living in a very sunburnt rural New South Wales.


Didn't mention the cricket either..........oh drat.

[275 GTB-4]

Originally Posted by KA

For the BTCC, it would definitely have also fallen foul of the 3.6-litre maximum capacity rule that Viva mentioned- IIRC it was brought in at some point in the 70's, to outlaw the Camaros etc that dominated around that time, and wasn't lifted until 1987, by which time the big Cat was out of homologation.

I'd agree with Peter that the big issue for privateers was cost and complexity, although I don't think parts supply was particularly easy either- IIRC the most extensively-campaigned privateer XJS, Peter Willmington's red car in Australia, was built up from a second-hand road car

Did you mean to say Gary Willmington?

and fellas, there is only one "Willo" in Oz motor racing folklore and that is Peter Williamson...

Merry Christmas to all

[david5]

Originally Posted by 275 GTB-4

Did you mean to say Gary Willmington?

and fellas, there is only one "Willo" in Oz motor racing folklore and that is Peter Williamson...

Merry Christmas to all

Edit. sorry, wrong quote.

[GTRMagic]

How about an incar camera on Mr Walkinshaw's #8 TWR Jaguar at Bathurst 1985... 20 minutes of balls out running round Mount Panorama... WOW!!

Here

With commentary from TW as well... complete with swear words... amazing footage!

[Holden308]

Originally Posted by GTRMagic

How about an incar camera on Mr Walkinshaw's #8 TWR Jaguar at Bathurst 1985... 20 minutes of balls out running round Mount Panorama... WOW!!

Here

With commentary from TW as well... complete with swear words... amazing footage!

I wish Seven would release some or all of their raw racecam footage from when it all started back in 1979 with Peter Williamson's no-so-legal (with hand cut gears....) Celica. Hearing what Willo, Dick, Gricey, Brocky etc were all saying to their pit crew (and other drivers - who will ever forget George Fury's 1983 Bathurst comments?) without the television audience listening in.

Some of the things that the people in Seven's OB truck would have heard would have been incredible.

I watched that footage of Tom in the Jag. Its interesting to watch and listen to. Telling his crew to tell Armin [Hahne] in the #10 Jag "To go for f**k sake" and yelling at his crew that they were doing a pit stop, not a 10,000 km service. The funny part was that soon after he left the pits, he was talking to Mike Raymond on racecam and told him the reason he was so calm about things was that "There's no point throwing a hairy fit" lol.

[bauble]

A small contribution to this thread if I may;

In 1982 Walkinshaw and Nicholson won the Tourist Trophy race at Silverstone in a Jaguar and I have the Winner's Magnum signed by both drivers.

bauble.