Cars that rock Donington Historic: #3 Jaguar XJ‑S

Few cars in the Donington Historic paddock held the public’s attention better than the ex-Bob Tullius Jaguar XJ-S. Mick Collins of JD Classics kindly took a few minutes out of his busy raceday schedule to talk to us about it. ‘It is faster and apparently better to drive than the TWR XJ-S we have’ he explains. ‘We acquired the car about five years ago and it needed a full nut-and-bolt rebuild. It’s as close to how it was when Bob Tullius and Jerry Titus drove it to the Trans Am Championship in the late Seventies. It had been engineered somewhat differently to the way we do things, and those enormous wheels and tyres were a pain to locate, but it was worth the effort.’ As if to illustrate Mick’s assertion that the car is quick, we watched it storm to pole position in the hands of Goodwood regular Chris Ward ahead of an extremely rapid ex-Broadspeed Capri. Tragically we weren’t able to capture the sound its carburettor-fed V12 made, but suffice to say if you head to Brands Hatch for the Masters Historic Festival on May 24^th and 25^th we guarantee you won’t be disappointed!

Link: Full coverage of Donington Historics here on Goodwood Road & Racing