Couldn't find anything here on the forum about these cars...



Back in 2007, Palmersport in the UK had at least ten special XKR's built for use at their trackdays.

Here's some blurb from back in the day;

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Top Gear, 19th April 2007

A Jaguar XKR with stripped interior, uprated brakes and suspension, and a top speed of 185mph sounds like just our sort of car.
It does indeed exist, but the only fly in the multigrade is you can only drive this Jag XKR at PalmerSport, Jonathan Palmer’s automotive
playground in Bedfordshire.
Palmer ordered up the stripped-for-action XKRs after driving the road car.


He’s so impressed with the Jag that he’s even altered the
circuit layout to include a 140mph stretch and flowing corners to show off the XKR to its best.
If you book yourself a day at Palmer’s Bedford Autodrome, you can also try out a number of other high-performance cars, including Palmer’s very own Jaguar-engined JP1 Le Mans-style sports prototype.
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In 2010 or maybe 2011, the cars were retired from the trackday events and sold off. Here's an ad for one of them. H&H Classics | Buy Classic 2007 Jaguar XKR Car's At Auction

The description in the ad is very interesting....

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The second generation of Jaguar's high performance sports Coupe, the aluminium-bodied XKR, was unveiled at the Frankfurt Motor Show in 2005. It was designed by Ian Callum, who also penned the Aston Martin DB7 and Vanquish. The newcomer's retro radiator grille was a deliberate echo of that on the immortal E-Type.

The righthand drive XKR being sold is particularly special. It was modified and prepared by Jaguar Cars for use in the PalmerSport corporate track days, organised by former F1 driver and commentator Jonathan Palmer at his premier driving centre near Bedford. It is powered by a 420 bhp version of Jaguar's super smooth 4.2-litre supercharged V8 engine - output sufficient to accelerate the big cat to 60 mph in just 4.3 seconds and on to a top speed of 185 mph. The unit is mated to a remapped, six-speed, paddle-shift ZF transmission for F1-style gearchanges, which in turn leads to an uprated Dana differential. The track modified suspension features Bilstein dampers and Eibach springs and the AP Racing brakes comprise uprated callipers and discs.

The striking go-faster body is finished in Metallic Gray with a broad White stripe running from stem to stern down the middle and large 'leaping cat' logos on each flank. The purposeful nose features carbon fibre front air scoops and splitter, while a GT2-style spoiler dominates the rear. Huge 10-spoke, split-rim alloys fill the wheel arches. The salient features of the business-like interior include: a full roll-cage, racing steering wheel, lightweight Sparco racing seats and full harness seat belts, a plumbed in fire extinguisher and lap timer. As befits such a high-tech machine, the cockpit is trimmed in lightweight carbon fibre. According to the vendor, the bodywork, paintwork, stripped out interior, engine and transmission 'are all in very good condition'.

Having been built specifically for track use, this very exciting one owner (Jaguar Cars) XKR is so far unregistered, but could be modified for road use if required. It therefore represents a unique opportunity to acquire a truly stunning-looking modern performance car for use on the circuit, road, or both.

PLEASE NOTE: The chassis number for this vehicle is B15124.
PLEASE NOTE: The year of manufacture for this vehicle is 2007.
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Highlights from my side:

**modified and prepared by Jaguar Cars
**one owner (Jaguar Cars)
**a remapped, six-speed, paddle-shift ZF transmission

Very interesting...

What's also interesting is that these XKR's were developed in paralell to the Apex XKR GT3, and broke cover before the 2008 XKR-S.

This also goes some way to explain the XKR mules that were spotted in 2007 running around Europe with roll cages in them.

Would also explain the unique "GT" transmission file which can be flashed to a 4.2L X150 XKR with the ZF.





They sold for peanuts in the end, there was an ad on pistonheads at the time "£18,000 each, or £145k for ten"

If I can figure out the two additional digits for that VIN B15124, would be interesting to see if there is a build sheet available, or the as-built file...

EDIT

Worked out the VIN, no detailed build info in Topix, and the ETIS shows it as a regular road car, built on 26.01.2007, with normal road car options, I guess they stripped out a normal production car (not how I would have expected it, but there you go...)

 

Except for the front brake ducts, splitter, rear wing, stripes and exhaust tips, the exterior looks exactly like the OEM street coupe including the Selena wheels. Even the Leaper side graphic is a factory accessory. But you can't tell a book by its cover.

 

It's hard to find interior shots of these cars... but they had a pair of race buckets, roll cage and the steering wheel was swapped out for something "sporty" with no airbag...



You can see in this pic, it looks like they had the 6-piston Alcon's



Although the rotors appear to be a 2-piece design.

I find these cars interesting because they appear to be a predecessor to the 2008 XKR-S, or at least developed along side it.

The engine tune in these cars is most likely the "GT" tune which was in the 2008 XKR-S, and from what I can tell the "GT" transmission tune was for this car, which was not used in the XKR-S.

Probably the XKR-S suspension was taken from this car as well.

 

Here's another one of the front brakes:

 

I think those are Senta wheels.

 

Are you sure it's the same car. The picture immediately above shows red calipers and this one has a grey caliper?

 

They built at least 10 of these cars, looking at the pics each one seems to have some subtle differences...





Not to mention that they were probably rebuilt once or twice over their lifespan, and i'd say several of them were probably crashed at some stage as well...

 

Mine appears to have a different, smaller hat.

 

The production cars with the 6-piston Alcons (2008 XKR-S, the Portfolios) have a 1-piece rotor, these Palmersport cars have a 2-piece rotor, you can see the bolts around the edge of the hat.

2-piece rotors aren't cheap (look at the ones from Spires) so Jag probably saved some money on the production cars with a 1-piece rotor.

 

Interesting that was the size wheel they raced with. Figured they go with 19" instead. Unless it was a space issue with caliper...

 

You're absolutely right. I know they're Sentas. I can't believe I typed Selena - must be because that's what's on my car.

 

Like this one?

 

Yep, 19" does not have enough clearance.

Some more pics of the cars. Interesting how much of the car was left stock and note the modified shifter gate, wonder why they eliminated the DS mode. I tried driving my car with much of the cosmetic covers removed from the trunk area when I did the tail lamp update but did not like the increased cabin noise, surprsiing how much those bits help to quiet the the interior.

 

There's a few videos of these things kicking around as well

 

I was fortunate enough to acquire one of the Palmersport XKR's No.09 in fact and have now had it made road legal. Although I am no technical wizz I can try to answer any questions.

 

Here is a link to some more pictures on No.09

https://flickr.com/photos/68554856@N...57670173851113

 

What did you have to do to make it street legal?

 

Nice find!
Bet none made it to this side of the pond!

 

There were a few things required:

Install CATS
Install parking brake, recommission electronic park brake using S type R rear brakes
Install door locking mechanism, which was missing
Install headlamp washer system
Number plates
MOT test certificate

.....and for comfort

Re-commission air conditioning
Re-commission sat nav
Carpet in front foot wells
Modify roll cage to make passenger access easier
Remove remnants of dual control system

 

Oh yes - one more very important mod

The car is used for track days and I found even in "off" mode the DSC was very intrusive so I had the electronics altered via a switch on the dash to disable the DSC completely but importantly leave the ABS working.