Page 21 - On the Prowl: The Definitive History of the Walkinshaw Jaguar Sports Car Team

ON THE PROWL
1988: Mercedes Takes Over
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Melbourne, that was a very twisty-turny track as well,
which is never Jag’s best sort of track. But we were
soundly beaten there and that was when the writing was
on the wall. The V12 cars reached their limit.
The Merc was just going to get better.
– Jeff Wilson
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‡‡
All that remained for TWR was a trip to Australia for the final round of the WSPC at Sandown, a circuit that
ran around the outside of a horse-racing track in Melbourne.
With all titles wrapped up, it seemed like an unnecessary expense, except that the team viewed it as a
chance to test some new brake technology in race conditions.
“Melbourne, that was a very twisty-turny track as well, which is never Jag’s best sort of track,” recalls
Jeff Wilson. “But we were soundly beaten there and that was when the writing was on the wall. The V12 cars
reached their limit. The Merc was just going to get better.”
Following the inevitable and comprehensive victory, there were credible theories circulating that the Swiss
team had been using a non-standard fuel to give them an even greater advantage, possibly in an effort to
convince Martin Brundle to join them for 1989…
Any racing year that includes a victory at Le Mans and teams and drivers world titles can’t be considered
a bad one, but the tougher competition from Sauber in Europe and Nissan in the USA was giving TWR some
pause. Tom Walkinshaw had publicly stated that he expected to win half of the IMSA races at the start of year,
but ended up with just two, and following Le Mans the Group C team only took two further wins against Sauber’s
four. It was clear that the V12 engines and the three-year-old chassis design beneath them were losing their
competitive edge, and something new was required.
TWR’s chief engineer in the USA agreed. Ian Reed recalls, “In 1988 we were at Road Atlanta and the turbo
Nissan was a lap behind us and in under half a race distance caught us up, passed us and then sat in front of
us and it became obvious we had to have a turbo engine.”
Following publication of the new FISA rules in October, TWR was now in a quandary. The existing production-
based V12 design was clearly outgunned. A move to a turbo powerplant could bring it back to competitiveness,
but be legal for just two years, during which time the rules would begin to handicap such engines so as to make
the whole package less competitive, especially if any other manufacturers came in with cars powered by the
new 3.5-liter racing engines. It was highly unlikely that the folks funding the race program, Jaguar themselves,
would agree to putting a non-Jaguar 3.5-liter race engine into their Group C car.
The new ruleset had been a stinging snub of Jaguar and TWR. A commission of manufacturers assembled
to work on the rules had excluded them, instead choosing Mercedes, Peugeot, Alfa Romeo and Nissan, two
of whom didn’t even compete in Group C. Perhaps that was the point, though — disenfranchise the existing
competitors so as to include future entrants who were more aligned with the preferred plan.
In the end, there was little choice for TWR. They had to move to a turbo package, even with its likely short
lifespan.
In August of 1988, during one of numerous meetings about what to do for 1989, Tony Southgate presented
a design of the XJR-9 that would accommodate a small capacity turbo engine, which Walkinshaw agreed with.
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