Video: Zak Brown races a Jaguar XJR-10

29th June 2023

Simon Ostler

Whenever Zak Brown isn’t working his day job as CEO of McLaren, you can often find him frequenting the world’s greatest race tracks to get some downtime behind the wheel of one of his many classic racing cars. In this case, we caught up with him as he was about to climb into this Jaguar XJR-10.

It’s a former IMSA machine that won five races between 1989 and 1991 in the hands of drivers such as Martin Brundle, Jan Lammers and Raul Boesel. Powered by a twin-turbocharged V6 3.0-litre engine producing around 850PS (625kW), which we imagine must be pretty potent for a car that weighs little more than a tonne. Zak reckons he could reach up to around 190mph down the Kemmel Straight at Spa, which is hardly surprising.

Aside from us getting an up-close look at the car as it’s parked up in the garage, we also got a tour around the interior of this special Group C beast. It’s recognisably a racing car from the early 1990s, but with a few modern quality-of-life adjustments. It’s also set up with a five-speed dog-leg manual gearbox.

When it comes to cars that look absolutely spectacular around the high-speed turns of Spa-Francorchamps, this Jaguar XJR-10 certainly fits that criteria.