Tom Walkinshaw Racing - TWR in Touring and Sportscar Racing

TWR in Touring and Sportscar Racing

TWR started by modifying BMW 3.0 CSLs, but soon was contracted to head Mazda's works program in the British Touring Car Championship. The TWR developed RX-7, with Win Percy in the driving seat, won the title in both 1980 and 1981. Walkinshaw himself also took a win in the Spa 24 Hours.

After preparing the Dakar winning Range Rover for René Metge in 1982, TWR began an association with British Leyland, preparing the Jaguar XJS and Rover 3500 Vitesse for both the BTCC and European Touring Car Championship.

Success in the latter series (as well as the French championship) with both cars led to a partnership to develop a Jaguar prototype for Group C racing, for use in both the World Sportscar Championship (WSCC) and the IMSA GT Championship (IMSA). John Egan, Jaguar chairman, was keen to put Jaguar back on the map after being freed from the yoke of British Leyland in 1984 and felt that a return to sports-car racing would give Jaguar a much needed boost in international markets. As Bob Tullius' Group 44 initially ran Jaguar powered cars in IMSA, Jaguar partnered with both Group 44 (for IMSA) and TWR (for WSCC). However, it soon became clear that a single partner could successfully run in both WSCC and IMSA and so, by 1988, TWR had secured the contract to run in both series.

TWR Jaguar cars won the WSCC outright in 1987, 1988 and 1991 and won the prestigious 24 Hours of Le Mans and the 24 Hours of Daytona in 1988 and 1990. The series started in 1985 with XJR-6 (Group 44 used XJR-5 and XJR-7), designed by Tony Southgate, with a chassis built from carbon-fibre and power provided by a highly tuned Jaguar V12 engine. This was followed by XJR-8, which won the WSCC Manufacturer's Championship in 1987, then XJR-9 which won the WSCC Manufacturer's Championship in 1988 and also secured victory at Le Mans the same year, returning in much the same form as the XJR-12 to win Le Mans again in 1990. TWR developed its own engine for the next series of cars, the XJR-10 (for IMSA) and XJR-11 (for WSCC) of 1989 and 1990, a V6 turbo-charged 3.5 litre, which was capable of far more power than the V12 but was less suited to 24 hour racing (hence the XJR-12 being deployed at Le Mans and the 24 hours of Daytona).

However, rule changes made the 3.5 litre turbocharged cars defunct within just one season of the WSCC and so TWR developed the all-new XJR-14 for 1991 - the first full Ross Brawn car - for the final year of Jaguar racing in WSCC. Although this car won both the WSCC Driver's and Manufacturer's championship, Jaguar (along with almost all other manufacturers) decided that it no longer had any interest in WSCC due to unfair rule changes. For IMSA in 1991, TWR ran the XJR-16, a development of the XJR-10 turbo car. In spite of securing six wins in fourteen races, TWR-Jaguar had to make do with second place overall to the more consistent Nissan team. For IMSA in 1992, Jaguar's last season in sportscar racing, XJR-14 was brought to America, but lack of development to deal with tighter, bumpier US circuits, meant that it could not repeat the stellar result of the previous year in WSCC, taking second in the Driver's championship (Davy Jones) and third in the Manufacturer's Championship.

In 1991, in parallel with production of the XJR-14, TWR also developed the £500,000 XJR-15 for privateers, based on the Le Mans winning XJR-9. This was raced in its own series, the Jaguar Intercontinental Challenge, supporting F1 races at Monaco, Silverstone and Spa, the winning driver (Armin Hahne) taking a $1m prize. The car was also road-legal, the only road-car to be fully designed and built by TWR.

TWR modified its Jaguar XJR-14 design (which had also been used by Mazda in the final years of the World Sportscar Championship as the rebadged Mazda MXR-01) into the TWR WSC-95 for Porsche. Porsche decided against using it in 1995 due to a sudden rule change, but in 1996 it was entered at Le Mans by Joest Racing and won the race, a feat it repeated the following year at the 1997 24 Hours of Le Mans.

In 1997, Nissan Motorsports turned to Tom Walkinshaw Racing to help them develop the Nissan R390 GT1 race car (a re-bodied XJR-15) to compete in sports car racing. In the 1998 24 Hours of Le Mans, Nissan was able to achieve considerable success with all four of their cars finishing the race, placing 3rd, 5th, 6th, and 10th overall.