Following Jaguars privatisation in 1984 (prior to which it had been a part of the British Leyland group) it was felt by the management of the newly independent company that taking the Jaguar name back into motorsport with factory support would be a major image booster for Jaguar. The independent American Group 44 racing team run by Bob Tullius had run Jaguar based racing cars in the US for many years and developed a sports prototype car based on the new for 1982 Group C regulations. Group C regulations were reasonably liberal in that eligible cars had to have a closed roof, enclosed wheels and obviously conform with current safety regulations. Engine size and design was pretty much unlimited in that designers could employ turbocharging or supercharging, or use large capacity engines. The main limitation was a maximum fuel allowance per race. The larger the engine or the higher the turbo boost pressure used would harm the overall economy of the car and result in a non-finish. Often Group C racing was criticised over the fuel economy rule in that many drivers had to hold back at some point in a race in order not to run out of fuel prior to the end of a race, but in general the series often produced close competitive racing.
Jaguar elected not to use the Group 44 organisation for it's factory supported racing effort and instead employed the services of Tom Walkinshaw Racing or "TWR". TWR founder and Scotsman Walkinshaw was in charge of Jaguars successful European Touring Car Championship team which used Jaguar XJ-S coupes between 1982 and 1984. For the new Group C effort he employed designer Tony Southgate to develop a car with a carbon fibre chassis and kevlar/carbon fibre bodywork. Powering the car was a version of the Jaguar V12 engine enlarged to 6 litres and giving approximately 630bhp in race tune. This first Group C Jaguar was known as the XJR-6 and it was first raced towards the end of the 1985 season. Weight was a problem and the cars were significantly heavier than the Porsche 962s, it's main opposition. For the 1986 season careful development work resulted in a lower overall weight and increased engine power. 1986 also saw the first appearance of the "Silk Cut" sponsorship livery thanks to a new deal with the cigarette brand owner Gallaher's. Jaguar scored it's first win in Group C with victory in the Silverstone 1000km race and overall finished the season in second place to Porsche.
In 1987 TWR introduced the much improved XJR-8 with a new 7 litre version of the Jaguar V12 producing around 720bhp and revised front and rear suspension. Out of ten races in the sportscar Group C championship, Jaguar won eight to take the drivers and constructors championship. One of the two races they failed to win however was Le Mans, which was a great disappointment to the team, especially as 1987 marked the 30th anniversary of the last Jaguar Le Mans win with a D-Type.
In 1988 Jaguar fielded a further improved car, the XJR-9. Throughout the season the team faced stiff competition from Sauber with their Mercedes powered C9s. The main aim for Jaguar however was a win at Le Mans. As it turned out, the expected challenge from the Sauber C9s did not materialise as following an unexplained tire failure in practice Sauber withdrew his cars as Michelin could not guarantee a similar failure would occur again. A special XJR-9 LM model was produced based on the sort chassis sprint race version of the XJR-9. It had a repositioned engine to lower the centre of gravity, a new underbody to improve it's aerodynamics further and also had rear wheel covers for the same reason. The most obvious difference between the LM versions and the regular XJR-9s was a large set of twin front headlights in place of the smaller single headlights on the non-LM specification cars. The LM versions also had approximately 750bhp from their 7 litre V12s.
Despite a stiff challenge from the factory supported Porsche team, the number 2 Jaguar XJR-9 LM driven by Jan Lammers, Johnny Dumfries and Andy Wallace won the 24hr race, completing 394 laps at an average speed of 137.72mph. The Porsche 962C of Derek Bell, Hans Stuck and Klaus Ludwig finished on the same lap less than three minutes behind the winning Jaguar. It was a close run thing for Jaguar as the 2nd place Porsche had been delayed for several laps early on in the race while a fuel filter problem was sorted out. Otherwise Porsche may well have scored their 8th consecutive Le Mans win in 1988. Bell, Ludwig and Stuck drove so hard to catch up to the winning Jaguar that they nearly ran out of fuel. Apparently they only had 1.5 litres of fuel left in the tank at the finish line! One more lap and they would have run out.
Needless to say Jaguar were thrilled with their 6th Le Mans win and their first in 31 years. A further win in 1990 with a modified version of the XJR-9 known as the XJR-12 made a total of 7 Le Mans wins overall for the British firm. As well as winning Le Mans in 1988, the Jaguar-TWR team went on to win both the drivers and constructors sportscar championship for the second year in a row.
Exoto produced this model of the 1988 Le Mans winning Jaguar under their new Motorbox Gold Label brand. The idea behind the Motorbox brand according to Exoto is to produce models that are not quite as "furiously detailed" (as Exoto usually describes it's products!) as regular Exoto releases, but good models none the less and at a lower price. However, with Exotos fondness for constant price rises, this Jaguar costs as much as regular Exotos did a few years ago! Exoto had previously in 2005 released unliveried versions of the XJR-9 LM which is their normal practice (not to release the generally more popular liveried cars first) in order to prompt collectors impatient to get a model of the Jaguar to buy the plain one first and later the liveried ones. Late on in 2005 the first of the Le Mans cars was released, the No1 car which failed to finish. Much to the disappointment of most collectors it had a censored version of the Silk Cut livery, which would have been accurate on the sprint versions of the car as it had raced in the UK (where branded cigarette advertising on cars was banned in 1988) but not on the LM spec cars which only ran with Silk Cut logos and only at Le Mans.
The No3 car (which also retired) was released early on in 2006 again with the censored logos. Many collectors (including myself) were frustrated at this development as usually for models over a certain price point cigarette logos are allowed, unlike for cheaper models which are legally considered toys, and therefore are not allowed have tobacco logos on them. Also, it was predicted that every single possible version of the XJR-9 LM would be released by Exoto before they would give us the one most collectors would want, the Le Mans winner. However, Exoto surprised many by releasing the LM winner complete with cigarette logos in the first half of 2006. I myself was surprised (pleasantly!) by this development and put my order in for one straight away! I think it is still available from most stockists of Exoto models (as of August 2006) but I'm sure this will be a hard model to find in the future (as most LM winners are).
As a model I don't think it is as good as the AUTOart Mazda 787B 1991 Le Mans winner (which was also released in 2006) and it is certainly not as good as a contemporary non-Motorbox Exoto release. But having said that it is a good model in it's own right. The bodywork complete with Silk Cut logos appears accurate and there is good engine and interior detail. The rear bodywork comes away to expose the rear end and engine and both doors open. The front bodywork is not removable however (although it looked to me like it is a separate piece from the main bodywork, so it would probably be possible to modify it to open).
Le Mans winners are among my most prized models so this new release by Exoto is now one of my firm favourites! Unfortunately all my models are in storage as of August 2006 awaiting a house move. Once the move is complete I plan to properly rate the model according to my rating scale below, which for the moment has been left blank. Once I review the car I will add the rating to this review.
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