Enjoy this Classic Jaguar XJS being thrashed around Bathurst
Check out this amazing race footage of a high-revving Jaguar XJS, circa 1985.
Back in the 1980’s and early 1990’s, touring cars were analog monsters, and the Mount Panorama Circuit was yet to be sanitized for safety. It made for incredible races and created true heroes. This footage posted by Fuck Yeah Race Cars on their Facebook page is a reminder of just how insane that time period was. It’s also a reminder of how a team driving Jaguar XJS V12’s dominated Ford and Holden on their own turf. To add insult to injury for the Aussie’s, the fastest Jaguar driver was also a Brit.
This fantastic piece of footage shows Tom Walkinshaw manhandling his XJS through the backmarkers as he leads the 1985 James Hardie 1000 race. If the speed he carries through the corners isn’t enough to get the adrenaline going, this was before The Chase section was added to shorten Conrod Straight. We can only imagine now how buttock clenching it must have been touching 170-mph over the humps and feeling the steering go light with the car shifting around under the driver. What we can hear though, is the sound of Walkinshaw’s glorious V12 when he buries his right foot and winds it up to full chat.
Perhaps even more impressive is Walkinshaw’s qualifying lap that put him in pole position for the race at Bathurst. It’s an absolutely fearless lap and he’s balancing the XJS right on the very edge to pick up every 100th of a second he can.
Ultimately, Walkinshaw didn’t win the race. His oil cooler broke and he had to pit to have it replaced. Amazingly though, he still finished in third. The good news was his TWR teammate, John Goss, took the win in another Jaguar XJS. The even better news for him was that TWR stood for Tom Walkinshaw Racing.
