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This race winner Fangio XJR-15 was forever lost – until now


This race winner Fangio XJR-15 was forever lost - until now

While the McLaren F1 is arguably the world’s most sought-after supercar, the Jaguar XJR-15 is far rarer with just 52 units built. This Fangio-driven example is perhaps the most desirable of all.


This race winner Fangio XJR-15 was forever lost – until now

This race winner Fangio XJR-15 was forever lost – until now

Of course, the McLaren has its Le Mans winning pedigree and that record breaking top speed, but would the F1 be the car it is if it weren’t for the Jaguar Sport XJR-15? A Le Mans racing driver for the road was a long-standing dream of the legendary Tom Walkinshaw, who headed Jaguar’s own Group C racing program in his TWR outfit in the 1980s. The idea quickly escalated, and Peter Stevens (who later designed the F1) was designed to visualize what the idea might look like.


This race winner Fangio XJR-15 was forever lost – until now


This race winner Fangio XJR-15 was forever lost – until now

This race winner Fangio XJR-15 was forever lost – until now

“I did a lot of projects for Tom; we got along very well, ”Stevens tells us. “After the Le Mans victory in 1988, the idea was proposed by his right-wing man Andy Morrison with the full support of Tom. He always wanted to build his own car, and originally only a street version of the Le Mans racing car was planned.


This race winner Fangio XJR-15 was forever lost – until now

“I made a few sketches to show him that this was really not the way to go; It would be very difficult to get in, prospects would struggle, and sales would be lost. I gave him three options and he said, “Well, you’re the designer, buddy, what should we do?” So I picked one.


This race winner Fangio XJR-15 was forever lost – until now


This race winner Fangio XJR-15 was forever lost – until now

This race winner Fangio XJR-15 was forever lost – until now

“He wanted to drive a car when he came back from Le Mans in 1990, which they won. He was full of energy, took the license plates from his Range Rover and drove off with the R9R development car! “


This race winner Fangio XJR-15 was forever lost – until now


This race winner Fangio XJR-15 was forever lost – until now

This race winner Fangio XJR-15 was forever lost – until now

By the time the XJR-15 project was in full swing, Stevens had come to McLaren and brought Gordon Murray to himself to show him the pros and cons of working with carbon. It’s clear that the lessons learned from the XJR-15 helped make the McLaren F1 what it is today.


This race winner Fangio XJR-15 was forever lost – until now


This race winner Fangio XJR-15 was forever lost – until now

This race winner Fangio XJR-15 was forever lost – until now

Does Stevens look back with fond memories 30 years later? “It’s spectacular on the road, a real eye-catcher,” he says. “It was one of the projects in my career that I enjoyed the most. We were a very small team, it was really fun and we enjoyed Tom’s enthusiasm for it. “


This race winner Fangio XJR-15 was forever lost – until now


This race winner Fangio XJR-15 was forever lost – until now

This race winner Fangio XJR-15 was forever lost – until now

And what about that Fangio car? It was driven to victory by Juan Manuel Fangio II in the second round of the Jaguar Intercontinental Challenge, held at Silverstone in 1991, and is one of only 16 of the original cars that have driven. One of many things that make this car special is that it still carries its racing prize of an unused Jaguar XJR-S. But most of all, it’s very original in every way. It’s one of the most recent discoveries by XJR-15 specialist Neal Gordon, who over the past few years has gradually unearthed as many of these now highly desirable cars as possible.


This race winner Fangio XJR-15 was forever lost – until now

“I know about 28 and tend to get a head start on a different car every other month,” says Gordon. “A lot of people just forgot about them when they disappeared into the private collections of the ultra-rich. You still have to explain them to a lot of people and then they’ll remember.


This race winner Fangio XJR-15 was forever lost – until now


This race winner Fangio XJR-15 was forever lost – until now

This race winner Fangio XJR-15 was forever lost – until now

How did the Fangio car come about? “I got a call out of the blue that the car was in California. Among my somewhat geek group of XJR-15 anoraks, we got the idea that this car could exist; My focus was on tracking down all the cars, especially the racing drivers.


This race winner Fangio XJR-15 was forever lost – until now

“XJR-15 owner and very knowledgeable enthusiast David Bradbury had seen an old grainy photo of what we thought was this car, but it turned out to be a street car with stickers on. So, apart from the owner and his friends, no one had seen it for 30 years. It just disappeared after Spa. It was in a collection, with no miles, and in completely new, original condition. We think it did the three races, then it went to Germany. In 2006 it went to the United States and there it appeared. I could not believe it. We were shocked when it finally arrived at Heathrow. “


This race winner Fangio XJR-15 was forever lost – until now


This race winner Fangio XJR-15 was forever lost – until now

This race winner Fangio XJR-15 was forever lost – until now

My brief phone call with Gordon turned into a cozy chat that lasted for hours while we discussed all the cars. Many examples went to Japan, including the little-seen LMs, and this has been a good source for XJR-15s lately. It is rumored that the Sultan of Brunei had at least two; allegedly one is now residing in the port of the sultanate, having entered to teach his brother a lesson “because he is spending too much money”!


This race winner Fangio XJR-15 was forever lost – until now

The values ​​for the racing cars are now easily over £ 2 million, but in 2008 a new example was auctioned for only £ 70,000. You couldn’t sell them then. Today, however, McLaren F1 owners, along with many other collectors, are looking at XJR-15s. The cars share one designer and are based on a similar concept, but the Jaguar was the first carbon fiber supercar. There are plans to create an XJR-15 drivers club in Monaco next year, featuring multiple examples that coincide with and celebrate the launch of Stevens’ new book on the car.


This race winner Fangio XJR-15 was forever lost – until now


This race winner Fangio XJR-15 was forever lost – until now

This race winner Fangio XJR-15 was forever lost – until now

While the XJR-15 is basically a Group C car for the road, it’s incredibly usable, powered by a strong, reliable, under-loaded, and extremely high-torque 12-cylinder engine. “They drive really well,” says Gordon. “For an hour they are brilliant fun; You need to be vigilant, synchronizing your gear changes, and knowing how to handle your heel and toe. If you can do all of this you will love it. If you want paddle shifters, automatic blips when downshifting and a soft leather interior, you have to look elsewhere. “


This race winner Fangio XJR-15 was forever lost – until now

In further conversation with Stevens it becomes clear that the XJR-15 is still very important to him 30 years later. “Collectors like something with a bit of history. These cars don’t scream “flashy”, there’s no vulgarity with an XJR-15 or McLaren F1. Ultimately, it’s just cars, but they mark a very important time in car design. From my point of view, I really wanted to get away from the Italian “folding box” look. “If you talk to someone who’s gone to Goodwood in his car, he’s done, but he growls, there’s no doubt that you get there in a modern hairless supercar, but when you get out of an XJR-15 , you feel 100% alive. “


This race winner Fangio XJR-15 was forever lost – until now

I couldn’t agree more. Watching John Watson slide into the seat of the Fangio car – he drove it on the last lap at Spa – was a very special moment for everyone who appreciates the XJR-15. For Watson it was just another day in the office, the last car he drove and the first time in many years behind the wheel of a racing car. The awareness, values ​​and desire for the XJR-15 will continue to grow and with the introduction of the Drivers Club in 2022 I can’t wait to discover more of the 52 examples. For now, this Fangio car remains perhaps the most impressive of them all.

Photos: GF Williams © 2021


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https://formulaone.news/mclaren/verstappen-is-clearly-an-f1-star