Photos and Words: Jathu Thillai
Jan Lammers was in the driving seat of the No. 02 Jaguar XJR-9 as it sped through the Mulsanne Straight, reaching a speed close to 240 mph during the final stint of the 1988 Le Mans 24 Hour race. His Jaguar was comfortably in the lead, with the second-place Porsche 962C a lap down. All Jan had to do was maintain that lead and bring home Jaguar’s first win at Le Mans since 1957.
He had started the race the previous day in the No. 02 car, moving from sixth to second on the opening lap. Through the night and into the morning, the Jaguar traded first place with the Porsche 962s. But with less than an hour to go, misfortune struck. The gearbox broke. It was the second Jaguar to suffer the issue, No. 03 had retired after 10 hours, with Raul Boesel at the wheel. Using Raul’s feedback, Jan forced the car into fourth gear and left it there, knowing he would either retire or finish the race stuck in that gear.
With 40 minutes remaining, Jan kept going, even managing a pit stop. It almost cost Jaguar the win, as the Porsche in second place began to close the gap. TWR, the team running the Jaguars, instructed the other two cars, running fourth and sixteenth, to get in formation behind Jan, ready to push him across the line if needed.
At 3 PM, Jan crossed the finish line in first place, the Porsche just 100 seconds behind. For a 24-hour race, it was remarkably close. Jaguar had finally won again at Le Mans after 31 years, breaking Porsche’s seven-year winning streak.
British manufacturers had a long history of success at Le Mans, starting in the 1920s when the Bentley Boys dominated with several versions of the Bentley Blower. After World War II, racing resumed with Ferrari winning the 1949 race. But the 1950s belonged to Jaguar. Between 1951 and 1959, Jaguar won five times with their C-Type and D-Type racers, fast, elegant cars that became fan favorites both on and off the track.
But that success didn’t last. Changes to the company’s corporate structure and government ownership pushed racing aside. Still, private teams continued to race Jaguars. One of them was Tom Walkinshaw Racing (TWR), who found success in touring car championships with the Jaguar XJS during the 1980s.
When Jaguar was privatized again, it wanted to return to top-level motorsport. In 1983, it commissioned Group 44 Racing to build a sports prototype for the IMSA series in America. The result, the XJR-5, won four of the 19 races in the 1983 IMSA GT Championship.
Jaguar then turned its focus to the World Sportscar Championship, especially Group C. TWR was commissioned to build the XJR-6 for the 1985 season. Tony Southgate, a seasoned Formula 1 designer, led the project. The XJR-6 didn’t win much aside from a Silverstone victory in 1986 and a third-place finish in the 1987 team championship. But in 1987, the XJR-8 won seven of ten races, clinching the team title, though Le Mans still proved elusive.
For 1988, Southgate led the development of the XJR-9. The Jaguar V12 was enlarged to 7 liters, producing over 700 bhp. Built around a carbon monocoque, the car weighed under 850 kg. Southgate’s use of ground effects and venturi tunnels meant the car generated 40% of its downforce at the front, compared to 25% for the Porsches. To reduce drag on the Mulsanne while keeping cornering grip, the car had a shorter tail than the longtail Porsche 962s. This helped the Jaguar reach 240 mph on the straights—15 mph faster than Porsche.
That advantage, along with the team’s grit, gave Jan Lammers, Johnny Dumfries, and Andy Wallace the platform they needed. Even with a broken gearbox, the car made it. The winning chassis, J12-C-488, was retired and placed under the care of the Jaguar Daimler Heritage Trust.
But the story didn’t end there. Tom Walkinshaw wanted to build a road car based on the XJR-9. Designer Peter Stevens created the XJR-15, using the same carbon monocoque—the first road car to feature carbon fibre body panels. It shared many parts with the Le Mans winner and was powered by a 6-liter V12 producing around 450 bhp, paired with either a 5-speed (road) or 6-speed (race) gearbox. Announced in November 1990, the XJR-15 was built by JaguarSport, a joint venture between TWR and Jaguar. Only 52 were made, 16 of them in race spec.
The race cars competed in the 1991 JaguarSport Intercontinental Challenge, a three-race F1 support series held at Monaco, Silverstone, and Spa. Each race winner received a unique prize—a road-going XJR-S at Monaco and Silverstone, and $1 million at Spa. With such high stakes, owners brought in professional drivers.
At the April 2025 Bicester Scramble, Pendine Classics displayed the 1988 Le Mans-winning XJR-9 (chassis J12-C-488), the 1991 Silverstone-winning XJR-15 (chassis 048), and the XJR-S awarded to that race’s winner. The XJR-15 was driven to victory at Silverstone by Juan Manuel Fangio II and was once owned by Samsung Chairman Lee Kun-Hee. Today, the XJR-15 and the XJR-S are up for sale, while the XJR-9 remains in the Jaguar Daimler Heritage Trust collection.
Editor’s Note:
Silk Cut wasn’t just a name on the side of a race car, it was a cigarette brand that sold an idea. Born in Britain in the early 1960s, it was cleaner, smoother, and marketed like something you’d find next to perfume in a duty-free shop. The ads were cryptic, almost artistic. Purple silk being sliced by a razor. No copy, no smoke, no fire, just association. It was luxury with an edge.
When Jaguar returned to Le Mans in the late 1980s, they weren’t subtle. The XJR-9 showed up in full regalia: white base, gold wheels, and massive blocks of purple and yellow that screamed “Silk Cut” even when the words weren’t there. The branding was bold, even beautiful. It didn’t just sponsor the car, it became the car. It’s one of the most iconic liveries in endurance racing history.
Silk Cut stuck with Jaguar across several XJR generations: XJR-8, XJR-9, XJR-11, XJR-12, and XJR-14, and helped define the Group C era. Other manufacturers didn’t wear it. You won’t find a Porsche 962 in Silk Cut colors. This was Jaguar’s suit and tie. It represented a moment when the cars were fast, the liveries were loud, and nobody asked too many questions about where the money came from.
