The Jaguar XJR-17 was an IMSA Lights racing car, built by

Tom Walkinshaw Racing Tom Walkinshaw Racing (TWR) was a motor 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 ...

. Rebuilt from a

Jaguar XJR-16 The Jaguar XJR-16 is an IMSA GTP sports prototype race car, with the aim of competing, from 1991, in the IMSA GT Championship. The Jaguar XJR-16s had a short lifespan, competing for only one season, before being hastily replaced with the Jaguar ...

for the IMSA Camel Lights, the XJR-17 never competed in the event due to funding issues and has since only been used in a few minor British events and historic races. It used a modified version of the XJR-16's 3.5-litre

V6 engine A V6 engine is a six- cylinder piston engine where the cylinders share a common crankshaft and are arranged in a V configuration. The first V6 engines were designed and produced independently by Marmon Motor Car Company, Deutz Gasmotoren Fa ...

, stripped of the twin-turbochargers and producing a claimed output of , whilst its bodywork was cobbled together using various parts from older

Jaguar XJR Sportscars The Jaguar XJR sportscars were a series of race cars used by Jaguar-backed teams in both the World Sportscar Championship (WSC) Group C and the IMSA Camel GTP series between 1984 and 1993. History Starting in 1983, the project was started by an ...

Design and development

Andy Evans approached

(TWR) about the possibility of running a full-works

IMSA GTP IMSA GT was a sports car racing series organized by International Motor Sports Association. Races took place primarily in the United States, and occasionally in Canada. History The series was founded in 1969 by John and Peggy Bishop, and Bill F ...

Jaguar The jaguar (''Panthera onca'') is a large cat species and the only living member of the genus ''Panthera'' native to the Americas. With a body length of up to and a weight of up to , it is the largest cat species in the Americas and the thi ...

sports prototype A sports prototype, sometimes referred to as simply a prototype, is a type of race car that is used in the highest-level categories of sports car racing. These purpose-built racing cars, unlike street-legal and production-based racing cars, are ...

for the 1991 IMSA GT Championship season, but such a deal proved unworkable. However, as TWR were winding down their project, a deal was struck to instead strip down a

for use in the IMSA Camel Lights championship. David Fullerton designed the car, dubbed the XJR-17, whilst TWR SVO and Andy Morrison were the constructors. The XJR-16 chassis was stripped down to reduce cost and parts from various

were installed: the front wing came from the XJR-14, the rear wing came from one of the

XJR-9 The Jaguar XJR-9 is a sports-prototype race car built by Jaguar for both FIA Group C and IMSA Camel GTP racing, debuting at the 1988 24 Hours of Daytona. Development An evolution of the design for the XJR-8, the XJR-9 was designed by Tony S ...

, the gearbox casing was a mixture of XJR-11 tunnels and the XJR-16's bellhousing, and the nose was remodelled in the style of the XJR-14, as was the engine inlet. The engine was essentially the XJR-16's 3.5-litre V6, but with the twin-turbochargers removed; in this configuration, it produced a claimed .

Win Percy Winston "Win" Percy (born 28 September 1943, near Tolpuddle, Dorset) is a former motor racing driver from England. Percy was British Touring Car Champion three times, and at the time of his retirement was the most successful non- Antipodean driv ...

gave the XJR-17 its first shakedown at Enstone Airfield before a test session was held at

Snetterton Snetterton is a village and civil parish in Norfolk, England. The village is about east-northeast of Thetford and southwest of Norwich. The civil parish has an area of . The 2011 Census recorded a parish population of 201 people living in 74 h ...

. However, the deal collapsed, and Hugh Chamberlain instead was to use the car as a

Group C2 Group C was a category of sports car racing introduced by the FIA in 1982 and continuing until 1993, with ''Group A'' for touring cars and ''Group B'' for GTs. It was designed to replace both Group 5 special production cars (closed top touri ...

entrant in the

1992 24 Hours of Le Mans The 1992 24 Hours of Le Mans was the 60th Grand Prix of Endurance, and took place on 20–21 June 1992. It was also the third round of the Sportscar World Championship. For this race, both C1 and FIA Cup class cars ran under the C1 category to ...

. Chamberlain, however, was also unable to get enough funding to compete, and the car, already prepared for the Le Mans qualifying session, was not used in the event. The XJR-17 eventually ended up in the hands of Brian Chatfield, who ran the car in a few minor races held at

Castle Combe Castle Combe is a village and civil parish within the Cotswolds Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty in Wiltshire, England. The village is around north-west of Chippenham. A castle once stood in the area, but was demolished centuries ago. The vil ...

in 1993 and 1994, whilst racing driver John Grant used it in some races from 2003 until 2004.

References

{{Jaguar modern timeline XJR-17 Group C cars Sports prototypes Rear mid-engine, rear-wheel-drive vehicles