Jaguar is a brand with a real buzz about it lately. With fresh investment capital to burn and a bright future to forge, Jaguar are truly on the cusp of automotive development and pushing the envelope in several different directions.
Rarely has this been more starkly obvious than at the recent Autosport International at the Birmingham NEC. Autosport is one of the biggest motorsport industry trade shows in the world, and Jaguar clearly dominated with several influential cars dotted about the halls.
We’ve already reported on the quartet of F-Types which starred in the Autosport Live Show, one driven by recovering racer Billy Monger, and in this post we will look at the more serious racing actives to be undertaken by Jaguar in 2018.
Formula E.
Like it or not, but we’re headed for an electric future. That’s in terms of new cars and motorsport, at least. Historic racing is booming and will be around for some time, but the future isn’t quite as rosy for the new stuff. Put it this way – we love Formula 1 dearly, but we’d hesitate to make a large investment in it right now. And it seems that many major manufacturers have the same opinion.
There’s no hiding that Formula E isn’t the best series out there today; the cars are slow, the battery technology doesn’t yet permit races of any meaningful distance without swapping cars, and the lack of noise means that events don’t have that booming atmosphere.
But remember, this is just the dawning of a new age. Internal combustion powered cars were pretty cruddy back in the early 1900s, and just look at them now. Who knows where electric cars will end up?
Try this for an example. The first Tesla Roadster, launched in 2008, would do 0-60 in 3.7 seconds, and had a range of 244 miles. The latest Tesla Roadster, announced less than 10 years later, can do 0-60 in 1.9 seconds, with a range of 620 miles. It’s faster in a straight line than a Bugatti Chiron, a McLaren P1, or anything else ever built, yet costs a tenth of the price. The pace of development in the electric car world is almost unheard of – trust us when we say that Formula E won’t be boring for long.
Jaguar are just one of many major manufacturers who are throwing their weight behind Formula E, which almost guarantees that the series will go places. Battery technology will evolve to the point where the cars can race harder and for longer than petrol cars do today, and they will almost certainly be faster in the near future.
And we, as Jaguar owners, can say that we were there from the start. How cool is that?
Jaguar I-PACE eTROPHY one make race series
Jaguar aren’t ones to do things by halves. Instead of just joining Formula E as a manufacturer, they’ve jumped in with both feet by announcing the I-Pace E-TROPHY – the world’s first international race series for a production battery powered car.
20 identical I-Paces will compete as the official support category at all 10 Formula E races, travelling around the world for the full Formula E calendar.
There is scant information available about the specification of the race cars, but they will be versions of the I-Pace road car, modified by Jaguar’s Special Vehicle Operations department. The road car features four electric motors giving a combined output of 395bhp and 516lb ft of torque. The racing version is likely to follow the usual formula – less weight, more power, more grip, more aero.
Whatever the final specification, the one-make series is sure to be an entertaining spectacle. It will undoubtedly put Jaguar on the map as the leader in the application of electric vehicle technology in motorsport.
Jaguar XE Project 8
If you’ve read this far into the story, you’d be forgiven for thinking that Jaguar have turned their back on the internal combustion engine. However, that notion couldn’t be further from the truth.
Right now, Jaguar are most famous for their big and brawny V8s. While the rest of the world is downsizing, Jaguar are still stuffing the most glorious dino-burners into svelte shapes, allowing their lucky owners to revel in the joy of the V8 engine, leaving a crackly trail of music wherever they go.
As if to reinforce this point, automotive website Motor1 had the latest customer car to come out of SVOs doors – the XE Project 8. Built in limited numbers and already sold out, the Project 8 follows the time-honoured super-saloon formula of stuffing the biggest and most powerful V8 engine into the smallest and lightest saloon body shell. Widen the wheel arches, sprinkle it with sexy carbon fibre aero bits, junk the rear seats in favour of a half roll cage, and you’ve got the ultimate track day toy.
But wait, there’s more…
We haven’t even mentioned Jaguar’s Autosport announcement that they would support a pair of SVO built F-Type’s in GT4 specification, racing in the 2018 British GT Championship. The team, financed by the founder of the Superdry clothing empire, will be named Invictus Games Racing and the drivers and many crew will be recovering ex-Servicemen.
We will cover that story in detail in a future post. For now, we reflect on just how much motorsport activity is happening at Jaguar in 2018. It’s an exciting time!
