Tom Walkinshaw Racing
Tom Walkinshaw Racing (TWR), was an auto racing team and engineering firm founded in 1976, in Kidlington, near Oxford, England by touring car racer Tom Walkinshaw. The company initially handled privateer work, before entering works touring car racers for manufacturers such as Mazda and Rover. However, TWR became most closely associated with Jaguar, a relationship which started in 1982 with the successful entry of the Jaguar XJ-S into the European Touring Car championship, chalking up a number of wins that year. The relationship continued and by 1988, TWR-Jaguar had taken its first Le Mans victory in a V12-powered XJR-9. Further success followed with a Le Mans win in 1990. TWR and Jaguar formed 'JaguarSport' initially to build tuned versions of Jaguar road-cars, culminating in the production of the XJ220 and XJR-15 supercars at a new facility at Bloxham. With Jaguar falling under Ford's control in 1989, the TWR relationship declined and by 1994, JaguarSport had been liquidated, with the Bloxham factory being turned over to production of Aston Martins (also under Ford control). TWR nonetheless continued to notch up racing success with other manufacturers, notably winning Le Mans again in 1996 and 1997 in a Porsche-powered WSC-95. However, it was Tom Walkinshaw's decision to buy Formula-1 team Arrows in 1996 that led to the demise of TWR. Over the subsequent six years, Arrows burned through cash until, by 2002, TWR was bankrupt. The UK assets and facility were bought by Menard Competition Technologies, which continues trading to this date, while the Australian part of the business was sold to Holden.
Read more about Tom Walkinshaw Racing: TWR in Touring and Sportscar Racing, The Team, The Cars, TWR in Formula One, Road Going Vehicles, TWR in MotoGP, Return To British Touring Car Championship
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