r/CarCulture_ES

First photo is from Porsche Cup Benelux

It was one of the most tantalizing and beautiful competition cars ever constructed, but only one was built, and even then it was very nearly destroyed.

"It" is the legendary Jaguar XJ13, which sought to reclaim some of the marque's fading LeMans glory in the wake of successes wrought by the Ford v. Ferrari wars of the 1960s.

Jaguar’s C-type had produced storied victories on the Circuit de la Sarthe in 1951 and 1953, while the later D-type delivered a tainted win from the ill-fated 1955 event with other triumphs running through 1957.

Rule changes ended the D-type’s dominance in 1958, leaving the Coventry automaker without a competitive endurance racer. It was into those crosshairs that the development of the Jaguar XJ13 was aimed in the early 1960s, as the British automaker sought to build a new generation of Le Mans-winning race cars, this in spite of there being an official moratorium on all racing activity coming from Sir William Lyons, who kept a watchful eye on the checkbook.

Ambitious in its specifications, the car was built to strict aerodynamic principles with precise mathematical calculations by designer (oh, how he detested being called such an epithet) Malcolm Sayer. It featured a rakish aluminum body and monocoque that used the engine and transaxle as a stressed member to reduce overall weight. Power came from an experimental 5.0-liter V-12, which used double overhead-camshafts on each cylinder bank and was originally fed by a sextet of SU carburetors, but was later fed by direct Lucas fuel injection. In this tune, the XJ13 reportedly produced 502 horsepower.

Rule changes rendered the XJ-13 obsolete even before it was new, however.

Sensitive to the increasing speeds of the Fords and Ferraris, and only a decade removed from the Le Mans tragedy, rulemakers decreed that cars must be slowed down. The FIA vowed that a 3.0-liter limit on Group 6 prototypes and a 5.0-liter limit on Group 4 sports cars would be imposed, which would then carry homologation requirements besides. Jaguar couldn't do the former, as a 3.0 liter XJ13 would be uncompetitive, and it was simply not in a financial position to do the latter. 

First, however, David Hobbs was able to give it a thorough shake down at MIRA, the Motor Industry Research Association test track in central England. There, he went on to set a track record, driving the XJ13 to a 161.6 mph lap.

The racy cat was then reluctantly pushed into a prolonged hibernation, but not until it had served as a development platform for Jaguar’s upcoming production V-12, which would debut in the E-type Series 3 in 1971.

Its slumber was only to be stirred by the promise of a promotional photo shoot.

Looking to promote the sporting nature of the new E-type, which admittedly needed all the help it could get, Jaguar pulled the tarp off the XJ13, trucked the car to MIRA, and handed the keys over to legendary Jaguar test driver Norman Dewis.

By all accounts the early laps went well. Late in the day, Dewis was asked by the crew to go out on track for one more session, "...and really put the stick to it" and that’s when disaster struck.

It’s still not precisely clear what went wrong – a tire puncture, or perhaps a suspension component or wheel failure – but Dewis put the XJ13 into track’s retaining wall before sliding to the infield and rolling the car twice. Incredibly, he escaped the crash with only minor injuries, but the XJ13 was very nearly totaled.

Making matters all the worse, Dewis was strictly warned by Jaguar's managing director "Lofty" England not to drive the car at high speeds, as the tires were known to be questionable, a result of it having been in storage for so many years.

The battered wreck was placed into storage, where it languished until Ted Loades, head of Jaguar supplier Abbey Panels, noticed it gathering dust one day. Loades waxed nostalgia about the beauty of the car and its important place in Jaguar's heritage, and, with Abbey Panels still in possession of the XJ13's original build sheets and jigs, floated the impossible: why not rebuild it, he asked?

Lofty pondered the thought, and accepted Loades offer to restore the car for a modest sum.

The "modest sum"? A mere £1,000 to Jaguar.

The XJ13 made its public debut in July 1973 when "Lofty" triumphantly drove it (very cautiously) around Silverstone at the British Grand Prix meeting. 

With only the one true XJ13 extant, the market for accurate replicas is robust, and this one is by Tempero Coach and Motor Company, Ltd. of New Zealand, which completed six XJ13 replicas from the mid-1990s into the early 2000s.

An old-school coachbuilder, Tempero began with the original factory drawings of the XJ13, and crafted their replicas in the same manner as the original, fitting aluminum body panels (styled per the latter XJ13) over an aluminum monocoque. Even the mounting system for the engine is quite similar to the original, though production 5.3-liter Jaguar V-12s were used out of necessity. Jaguar only built six four-cam 5.0-liter V-12 engines for its test program, and of these, only three made their way into cars.

Although a replica, it would take a well-trained eye to spot the difference: The Tempero XJ13 has shown well at Jaguar Clubs of North America (JCNA) events, scoring a 9.992 at the 2016 International Jaguar Festival, a 9.99 at the 2015 International Jaguar Festival and a 9.986 at the 2014 San Diego Jaguar Club Concours. 

Grace, space, and pace indeed!

In the early 2000s, Fiat's official racing team in Brazil modified and raced a Fiat Marea Weekend Wagon and a Fiat Brava in the Mil Milhas de São Paulo, the biggest endurance race in Brazil.

The cars raced between 2001 and 2003 in different classes.

The Fiat Marea Wagon had about 240 HP, while the Brava had about 162 HP.

The cars remind me of Supertouring cars. Apparently, in 2003, the Fiat Marea Wagon raced against an Audi RS2 and finished ahead of it.

The white Fiat Marea Of the last Photos, im not sure If its a oficial Fiat Race Car, but It raced in the same years that these two cars, pretty cool cars anyaways, all of them

Pretty Cool cars

A friend of mine got deered by what looks like a distracted driver and likely saved by his airvest.
It happened south of Ottawa, Ontario (Canada)