Jaguar’s Special XJR-15 LM Remained A Secret For 28 Years
Only 5 of these XJR-15 LM cars were built, and all of them have remained in the secret possession of a Japanese businessman.
Tokyo’s Auto Salon isn’t much different than SEMA for us here over in the states. It’s a show for aftermarket component manufacturers, and often has wild displays and exhibitions. However, an air suspension company, Roberuta, had a nearly all-original car in their booth. But this wasn’t just any car. It was an ultra-rare Jaguar XJR-15 LM. More interestingly, it was the car’s first public showing after being built in 1992.
Scoped out by Jalopnik, this XJR-15 is almost a missing link in Jaguar and Tom Walkinshaw Racing’s history. TWR was pivotal in Jaguar’s Le Mans success in the late ’80s and early ’90s. Those racers all went by an “XJR” designation, up to, and terminating at XJR-14. XJR-15 models were well known, and entered the scene right around the same time as cars like the McLaren F1 LM, and Porsche GT1. The XJR-15 never officially raced in Le Mans but the special LM versions, all five of them, remained in a private collection. That collection belonged to Japanese businessman Katsuji Tachi.
Tachi had been a well-known collector and commissioned TWR to build 5 additional XJR-15 road cars. TWR decided to make them a bit unique by stuffing in the XJR-12’s 7.0 liter V12, replacing the 6.0 v12. In fact, Jalopnik reports these two engines share no common parts. The result was the XJR-15 LM. That means the LM versions of this car were never an idea from Jaguar or TWR, but rather from a customer who wondered “what if?”
You can identify these five cars from other XJR-15s such as this one featured in Road & Track magazine by the overhead intake scoop on the roof, and larger aero front and rear. But interestingly, Tachi never had these cars on the road. It may be due in part to the fact that the driveline was pure Group-C race car material. After all, Jalopnik reported the 7.0 V12 in the XJR-15 LM “was just a pure racecar engine designed to run the 24 Hours of Le Mans and not to take to the shops. The engines only have a lifespan of around 6,000 kilometres or 3,728 miles.”
Tachi didn’t drive these cars, and it put them in a state of neglect. Car No. 001, the white one at the TAS show, is the cleanest of the five, but four others (two blue, two green), are in need of attention. Thankfully in the Jalopnik report, we learn that they are in the care of experts and are to be revived to their former glory once more. But there’s a problem. When TWR went under in 2002, documentation for their vehicles went missing. Perhaps with the revival of these XJR-15 LM’s, their secrets and unique history will be fully revealed.
Photos: Jalopnik
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