Group 44 xjs street clone
 

When I was 28 years old I was hired as the bodyman for Group 44.I did the body mods for the XJS and TR-8. I always wanted a XJS with our fender flares but the molds are long gone so I decided to replicate them. These are the flares that were on the car when we first raced it. The molds are done and I am making a set of flares now. The plans for my car are fuel injected v12 with Richmond 6 speed and painted Group 44 colors with 10 inch minilite wheels.

I always wondered what the wheel wells would look like if Jaguar made them round, instead of that squared off opening that it is.

It looks like your Group 44 molds kept the square-ish shape. I would think with the larger bulges, the wells would be rounder...scratch that...round. The openings should just be plain round...like the wheel itself.

Any chance to show some pictures without the crazy filter on it. It makes it difficult to see...

The rules stated fender had to have factory wheel opening shape.

I like that look. My XJS is similar.

It has fibre glass front wings but not bubble flares.

https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.jag...b755668aa7.png


https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.jag...d02368feb5.png

Your XJS looks great in red, and I love those classic Trans-Am fenders. Bob Tullius has a shop just outside of the raceway here in Sebring Florida. The list of championship drivers that drove for Group 44 is impressive.

It looks like the XJS is still very popular in the UK. Here I think of it as undiscovered. Americans consider it big heavy and troublesome. The truth is,its almost the same size as a c3 Corvette. The Jag has much better suspension and by stripping it down some you can remove a lot of weight and make it easy to maintain. They are cheap in price compared to a Corvette Camaro or Mustang and can be converted to v8 if desired with not much effort. It should be a hot rod guys dream.

Welcome aboard, John.

It's great to have a new member who has been part of the greatest, and most historic XJS racing effort in North America. I REALLY liked the bodywork of the earlier racers. They looked very brutal, and menacing. However, I realize that airdams, and ground effects made the later racers faster.

The flares on your car look great. However, the red camouflages them somewhat, and makes them seem a little smaller than the ones you made for the early racers. Are they actually smaller (to better match the narrower street tires), or, is it just an optical illusion caused by the gloss red paint?

Your post says that you made new molds. Did you make molds of each entire fender, or, just of the flares themselves? I'm assuming they are fiberglass, or some other lightweight composite (CF?). Fully composite fenders would be a great weight savings, and, something I would definitely be interested in, although I don't know how you could attach full composite rear fenders to the car. Will you be offering them for sale?

My plans call for either Group44 type flares, or wide-body style fenders stretched over 18x10 inch fronts, and 19X13 inch rears. I also have a Richmond 6-speed installed in my car, and paired with a 3.54 rear. I think it's a vastly superior transmission to any of the Tremec 5 or 6-speeds out there.

Here is a rough 1st sketch of what I am planning for JagZilla. Although many of the fine details are absent from the sketch (such as the later Group44 style side pipes), I think it pretty well conveys the look and attitude I'm going for.
Attachment 114267

I hope to see many future posts from you.

Is the Ricmond 6 speed any good ?

Seen a few advertised here in the UK. Is it a sequential type box?

Will it take 550bhp-bhp550ft/LBS ?

Firstly your car looks great, secondly not only in US but also in Oz its truly undiscovered commodity even though it won Bathurst in 85 nobody still knows what it is and because its not a Ford or Holden(Chev) nobody gives a dam, its just the mind sake of people. Don't quite now about the V8 comment, but I do encourage more people to it simply to raise the value of mine Lol.
I would really like to see what you come with when you put that six speed behind the V12, I take it that there will be a few modifications to the motor as well.
In realation to the gearbox, I think too many of us just go looking for figures to justify things, unless you are on the race circuit with the motor at full throttle and your short shifting everywhere, any of the latest manual gearboxes will hold up to street use and beyond in our cars without a doubt. The only thing with the six speed is you have two overdrives, do you plan to change your diff ratios or are you going to change the box ratios?

melhookv12 & Katoh,

I hope John will also reply to your queries, as he is doubtlessly more knowledgeable than I, and I in no way wish to hijack his thread.. However, as probably the only other owner of a Richmond 6-speed on this forum, I thought I could shed a little light on this often overlooked manual transmission option.

The reason so many people opt for the Tremec is because it is well publicized, readily available in junk yards, and even when new, it is at least $1,500 - $2,500 cheaper than the Richmond.

The Richmond, on the otherhand, was never offered in a production car, and is, instead, designed and built specifically as an aftermarket transmission for racers, and performance enthusiasts. It is a non-sequential transmission, having a traditional double-H shift pattern. It has straight-cut racing gears, as opposed to angle-cut street gears, and it can easily handle over 900 HP. Bradley Smith chose this transmission for just these reasons when he built his twin supercharged XJS in the late 90s. It's unlikely that any XJS will ever break this transmission.

Unlike the Tremec, and 99% of other 6-speeds, the Richmond box is a single overdrive transmission. 5th gear on the Richmond is 1:1. As such, it's a much better setup for both street and track, because, it spreads the performance across 5 gears, with only 6th being reserved for high speed cruising, compared to only 4 performance gears and two overdrives in other 6-speeds. I never understood the mentality behind having two overdrives, and in my opinion the Richmond is the only 6-speed that is designed correctly for performance driving.

Several ratios are available for this box, so, John's transmission may be geared differently than mine. Mine was purchased as a kit designed expressly for road course use in the XJS by Gran Turismo Jaguar, and has the following ratios:

1st: 3.27
2nd: 2.13
3rd: 1.57
4th: 1.23
5th: 1.00
6th: 0.86

Thanks for clearing that up, the Tremec is the double overdrive unit.
Your ratios look great, well suited to the taller XJS diff.

jagzilla your right my flares are smaller. There were two different fronts and 3 different rear flares. Mine are the first design. I put in a couple of more pictures of my car and Groups car. The silver car has the second type flares. you can see they are flared in the front of the wheels. The first type we made were not. The silver car was a rebuilt total that had flipped end over end and burned under the hood. We took it to two races to show it off and some guy bought it from Bob at the second race. It had two different red stripes but it doesn't show good in the picture. You have the same ratio trans as I do.

Thanks for those additional photos. Your flares look especially good in that side view, and in the photo looking down on the car from behind. I like your 1st version of the front flares better than the 2nd version on the silver car.

Thanks for clearing up the history behind that silver car. It would always show up when I would Google images of the Group44 XJSs. Although I could tell it was likely one of the group cars (your flares gave it away. lol), I didn't know what, if any role that car played in the team's history.

So, are your molds just for the flares, or, are they for the entire flared fenders, and, are you going to offer any for sale?

Jagzilla I am making complete front fenders and lower front valance panels and quarter panel skins that will glue over the existing quarter panel after the wheel opening has been cut round. I also started making a cowl induction hood skin that can be glued on the original hood frame once the original skin is removed. The plug is made but not the mold. It looks similar to a 1969 Camaro cowl hood but I raised the center section at the rear about 2 inches and extended it over the wiper area. I will post a picture soon. Thanks john

This thread is getting good.
I love the modifications. Keep me posted.
I would be interested in a set of rear and front flares.

Depending upon price, and whether they will cover the wheel/tire combo I put on the car, I too, may be interested in a set of flares, and rear fender skins. My plans have been to make my own fiberglass panels with group44 style flares, but, I may rethink that, because, there's a certain coolness factor about having flares made by the same man who made the originals for Group44.

jagzilla my wheels are 15x10 with 5 inch backspace . Tires are 295/50/15 on all 4 corners. It could probably take about a 1 inch wider tire in rear, the fronts I don't think so. Thanks john

This is the intake manifold I am making. The runners are from the factory intakes. They are on opposite sides now and will have fuel rails to the outside. I plan on using electrics from Electromotive. They are local and seem like good guys to work with. Thanks john

Looks good John. I can't tell from the angles of your photos, but, how hard, or, easy is it going to be to change plugs with that configuration?

Your engine looks good! It's an interesting way you have put together the plenum, really thinking outside the box, do you think heat from the V could be an issue?. There was an interesting thread some months back about the plenum design and a way to achieve more power from it, but hats off to you, your design is totally different. It will be interesting to see what your Dyno results will come back as. JagZilla made an interesting point about the plugs, I take it also your going down the coil pack path and doing away with the Dizzy?
Love the thread so far, keep us posted on developments.