This Jaguar XKR GT3 is on display at Goodwood!
Jaguar is a marque that will be forever remembered as one of the great sporting icons of endurance racing. A motorsport powerhouse in the 1950s, Jaguar took five victories at the Le Mans 24 Hours in that decade including three on the trot with the legendary D-Type.
It would be another 30 years until this historic name returned to the top of sportscar racing, when the XJR-8 with its famous Silk Cut livery claimed Jaguar’s first World Sportscar Championship title in 1987.
Jaguar also put a stop to Porsche’s run of seven consecutive victories at Le Mans in 1988, as the XJR-9 and XJR-12 both dominated to claim Drivers’ and Teams' Championship doubles in ’88 and ’91.
Such an illustrious history means anything bearing that famous logo immediately grabs our attention, and that includes this meaty machine currently on display in the Goodwood Shop.
Based on the second generation of the production XK that launched in 2006 with an aluminium chassis and a 4.2-litre V8, the Jaguar XKR GT3 competed in several GT3 races over three seasons from 2007 to 2009.
Jaguar reached out to Apex Motorsport, the team behind Audi’s successful entry into the BTCC in the late 1990s and Bentley’s Le Mans 24 Hours victory in 2003, to develop a racing version of the XK according to the newly formed GT3 regulations.
With the help of Mountune, the supercharged version of Jaguar’s 4.2-litre V8 was uprated from 426PS (313kW) to more than 510PS (375kW). Power was transmitted through a Hewland gearbox to deliver a 165mph top speed and the potential for some pretty striking performance.
The car made its competitive debut at the 24 Hours of Silverstone in 2007, finishing 34th overall and sixth in class, but crucially completed the full 24-hour duration. That was followed by further outings in the British GT Championship and the final round of that year’s FIA GT3 European Championship in Dubai. Although not hugely successful, Jaguar was keen to continue developing the car for a more complete schedule in 2008.
That began with a second appearance at Silverstone for a two-hour race in the Britcar series, where the XKR managed a 12th-place finish. But tragedy struck a week later when Apex Motorsport founder Richard Lloyd was killed along with test driver and former BTCC star David Leslie, and engineer Christopher Allarton in a plane crash on their way to a test in France.
It was a major blow to the XKR GT3 project, and although the team continued to run its car for the remainder of the 2008 campaign, which included a best result of third place in a four-hour race at Spa, Jaguar was eventually forced to pull the plug in 2009.
Ultimately, the XKR GT3 never quite managed to reach the heights of its predecessors in endurance racing, and Jaguar was forced to wait for further motorsport success until 2024, when it triumphed in Formula E.
As we build up to the 82nd Members’ Meeting presented by Audrain Motorsport, and prepare to welcome a fleet of GT3 cars to for an exciting demonstration including the highly anticipated GT3 Shootout, for the next few weeks you can get up close and personal with this little piece of Jaguar history by visiting the Goodwood Shop here at the Motor Circuit.
The 82nd Members’ Meeting will take place on 12th and 13th April 2025 and tickets are now available for Members and Fellows of the GRRC.
If you’re not already a Member or Fellow and you’d like to enjoy all the racing, demos, and other exciting content at the Members’ Meeting, you’ll need to join the GRRC. Click here for more information or to join the club.
Photography by Max Carter.
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