Words and photos by Andrew Coles.
Jaguar and the Invictus Games Foundation have announced that the F-Type will finally hit the track in 2018/19, with an entry in the British GT Championship for a new team – Invictus Games Racing.
The Invictus Games Foundation was established to oversee the biennial Invictus Games, where wounded and injured servicemen and women from the British armed forces compete in a range of inclusive sports at an international games held throughout the Commonwealth. The 2018 Invictus Games will be held in Sydney, Australia, in the final week of October.
Invictus Games Racing is the brainchild of Superdry clothing empire co-founder James Holder, an eager petrolhead and motorsport competitor. The new team will tackle the GT4 class of the British GT Championship, and its four drivers and many crew members will be comprised of recovering ex service personnel.
Funding the project himself, Holder has commissioned Jaguar Special Vehicle Operations (SVO) to develop the F-Type SVR into a competitive GT4 specification machine. Motorsport specific suspension, brakes, aero and safety equipment were fitted, and further modifications were made to meet GT4 class regulations. The 5.0 litre supercharged V8 was detuned to around 400bhp, and the SVR’s all-wheel drive system was converted to rear-wheel drive only.
It is the first time an F-Type has been officially raced, and marks Jaguar’s first entry in a GT championship since 2007, when a factory supported XKR was campaigned in British GT.
The drivers have been named as Ben Norfolk and Basil Rawlinson in Car 22, who will be mentored by professional driver Jason Wolfe, and Paul Vice and Steve McCulley in Car 44, with Matthew George providing the instruction.
Speaking about the project at the official launch at the recent Birmingham NEC Autosport International trade show, Holder said:
“Invictus Games Racing will enable ex-servicemen and women who have experienced physical or psychological trauma during service to compete against each other and the rest of the top-level racing field, in cars that are tailor-made for them. We wanted to give these men and women the chance to compete in a professional racing competition with the established teams.
“Motor racing is often seen as elitist and our vision is to open the sport up to all wounded, injured and sick service personnel supported by the Invictus Games Foundation – including their families – through the race team itself and with exclusive Invictus Games Racing ‘experience events’. These track days will be held at some of Britain’s most iconic racing circuits with the first event being held at Silverstone on 7 June 2018.
“As well as representing their incredible profession, the drivers will be an inspiration and a sign of empowerment to those who have been wounded, injured or become sick during or as a direct result of their service.”
The presentation of the team at the Autosport International was exemplary, with the team cars, transporter and personnel wearing distinctive and striking branding. The F-Type SVR looks like it was designed to be a GT4 racer from the outset, and will surely create a striking presence out on the track. Inside, the F-Type is pure race car, with the luxury trimmings of the road car discarded for miles of roll cage tubing, an enveloping race seat and all of the modern electronic controls that one would expect in a contemporary factory racing car.
A spokesperson from SVO has said that the F-Type SVR GT4 has been in top secret development for over a year, which means that it is sure to be competitive as soon as it turns a wheel in anger. Unlike other manufacturers such as McLaren, BMW and Ferrari, SVO has no plans for a customer racing program, and is not actively pursuing the sale of the F-Type SVR GT4 to other teams. However, it is willing to custom build more cars to order should they be commissioned.
