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Presents this time a Trans-Am racing car, the Jaguar XJ-S Trans-Am from 1977 a real Yank Tank. This won in 1977 and 1978 the drivers championship in America on behalf of Jaguar against the Monzas, Porsches and Corvettes at time. A remarkable achievement for Jaguar by Group 44. Idea for this supplied by JogoAsobi
On September 10, 1975 Jaguar unveiled the new XJ-S, the long-awaited replacement for the glorious E-Type which had finished production the previous year.
The long lines and a 5.5-litre V12 in the nose might have continued, but the difference in design ethos was obvious: ’60s curves gave way to ’70s straight edges and performance was definitely modern as well. Sub seven seconds was quoted for the sprint to 60mph and 150 mph as the top speed.
At first glance the car looked relatively stock, a trick of the car’s long length misleading the eye when it came to width. But the XJ-S’s fenders were seriously widened and huge racing rubber was bolted on to these glorious split rims.
Group 44′s iconic livery was already well established with their previous cars, and the white with green stripes came to define racing Jaguars until the classic Silk Cut liveries of the mid ’80s.
The car was built in 1976, also racing it four times towards the end of the season to speed up development ahead of a full campaign the following year.
The XJ-S was on the pace straight away, and Tullius swept to the driver’s championship in ’77. He won five times and got on the podium a further two times in his singleton XJ-S against the massed Monzas, Porsches and Corvettes.
In 1978 they developed a silhouette tube-frame car, with weight was dramatically cut away, which raced alongside this car and allowed Group 44 to deliver both the manufacturers as well as drivers cup on behalf of Jaguar.
Power was not something the Group 44 XJ-S was short of. The car might have been based on a production chassis, but the V12 pumped out somewhere around 540 hp by the end of its competitive life thanks to the work of Group 44, up from an original figure of 475 hp. Power was delivered through a four-speed ‘box straight from the road car.
The XJ-S was converted to a bespoke dry sump oil system, and the street Lucas/Bosch D-Jetronic fuel injection system stripped out and replaced with six twin-choke Weber 441DF carburettors. The suspension was tweaked and AP Racing brakes fitted, but the general layout and handling of the base car certainly helped development – another tick for Malcolm Sayers.
THE OTHER JAGUARS ARE HERE:
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