The return of famed motorsports outfit Tom Walkinshaw Racing has seen the agency launch its trendy tackle the Jaguar XJS grand tourer.
It’s known as the TWR Supercat, and follows the identical precept of the plethora of different ‘restomods’: take a basic automotive and match it with trendy tools whereas protecting the spirit of the unique.
TWR is not any stranger to Jaguars, having beforehand ready V12-powered monsters as a factory-backed crew and profitable on the 24 Hours of Le Mans twice (in 1988 and 1990).
The agency was additionally concerned in Australian motorsport, having positioned first and third on the 1985 Bathurst 1000 with a pair of Jaguar XJS coupes, and later founding what grew to become the Holden Racing Staff, which gained six V8 Supercars championships within the late Nineties and early 2000s.
Whereas the TWR Supercat is essentially primarily based on the core design of the XJS, there are nods to different Jaguar racers such because the XJ220 and its XJR-series Le Mans champion machines in its carbon-fibre bodywork.
This consists of a big entrance splitter, vast boxy wheel arches, large rear diffuser and aero disc wheels, all of which had been designed by digital artist Khyzyl Saleem with assist from guide and prolific Porsche collector Magnus Walker.
Although there are not any pictures of its drivetrain, TWR says the Supercat hides a supercharged V12 engine underneath its bonnet, good for making 447kW (or 600 horsepower) which is shipped to the rear wheels by way of a six-speed handbook transmission.
TWR isn’t naming names, nevertheless it guarantees the Supercat is greater than only a showpiece, with technical enter from engineers who’ve labored for McLaren, Ferrari, Porsche, Williams, Mercedes F1 and Renault F1.
We’ll have to attend till the European summer time (late June to September) to see what the Supercat’s inside seems like, however given the wild therapy to the outside it’s unlikely to retain the identical plush, subtle look of the unique XJS.
Fergus Walkinshaw – the son of the late Tom Walkinshaw, and now head of TWR – has confirmed there are plans to provide 88 examples of the Supercat (honouring the crew’s 1988 Le Mans win), every priced from an eye-watering £225,000 ($435,000) earlier than on-road prices.
There’s an out of doors likelihood we might see one in Australia too, with TWR making the Supercat accessible within the UK “and main worldwide markets together with the USA”.
Whereas we wait to see the TWR Supercat hearth up its supercharged V12 engine, right here’s a throwback to the Jaguar XJS main the opening laps at Bathurst in 1985 with Tom Walkinshaw behind the wheel. Flip it up and luxuriate in.
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