The XJR-15 is one of the rarest Jaguars in existence, and I was fortunate to see it for the first time at the 2013 Amelia Island Concours d’ Elegance. Jaguar won the 1988 24hrs of LeMans with their XJ-9 Group C racing car, and decided to produce the XJR-15 as a limited production supercar to commemorate the victory. Tom Walkinshaw Racing (TWR), a racing subsidiary of Jaguar, developed the road-legal XJR-15 directly from the XJR-9 racing car. Around 50 XJR-15s were sold from 1990-1992, before it was succeeded by the legendary XJ-220, at a price of $960,000. Power came from a 6.0L V12 making 450hp. That may not sound like a lot these days, but back then it was a ton because the XJR-15 weighed in at just 2300lbs.

It was intended to be a racing car for the road, like many of the supercars of its time, but that may have hindered the car’s appeal. While the XJR-15 obviously had awesome performance, it was a notorious handful to drive and not very comfortable for use on public roads. It was also succeeded by the mighty XJ-220, which broke the production car speed record and was much better tailored for road use. That said, the XJR-15 is a much rarer find these days, and for me occupies a sort of “unicorn” segment of low number hypercars built in the 80s and 90s. As I said before, this is the first and only XJR-15 I have seen in person, and it was quite a thrill when I came upon it in the Jaguar tent. Enjoy.

-Nick Walker