[LM24] Why didn't Jag run the XJR 14 at Le Mans in 1991?

[H16]

Seeing as how the car cleaned up in the other races with a Ford Cosworth behind it, I would think that at least one would race at Le Mans. But in 1991, only the XJR 12s ran, and finished second, third, and fourth. What was the deal, did they think the V8 (which was virtually Ford's F1 engine) wouldn't last?

Mazda ran it in 1992 and of course, Joest ran it in 1996 and 1997...

[Banks]

The XJR 14s did appear in practice for the race but I think they thought it was too fragile to last the distance and the old car was a proven winner (all though a little long in the tooth)

As for the Mazda I don't think it was same spec as the Jag , and the Joest version of the car was only the same chassis but with Porsche magic added to it you can hardly regard it as the same car

[Dr. Austin]

Teams running in the 1991 championship were required to race every race on the calendar. Not only that, but there was something like a $200,000 fine for missing a round (ask the 1989 Astom Martin AMR-1 team). The XJR-14 was entered at LeMans merely to satisfy that rule and was withdrawn under the guise that the driver (Wallace, I think) has missed a shift and buzzed the engine. You would think the Jag factory could lay their hands on another engine, but they were allowed to withdraw the car.

The Mazda was run under group C regulations, with an addditional weight break of some 200lbs or so (I'll bet Cybersdorf knows the exact amount)just for LeMans.

[Aysedasi]

The thought at the time was that the 14 was not raced because Uncle Tom was peeved that the turbo Merc went faster in qualifying. The 14 could have started on pole (as the first 10 places were "reserved" for the 3.5 litre cars), but......

[Nordic]

Merc had to do the same with the atmo car, it ran in practice, if very slowly and was withdrawn for the race.

[Aysedasi]

Originally posted by Nordic
Merc had to do the same with the atmo car, it ran in practice, if very slowly and was withdrawn for the race.

One 6 minute lap! A tremendous effort - almost sarcastic!

[Aysedasi]

Pardon the long post, but this is what Autosport said at the time.....

TWR had scrutineered two of the new cars to satisfy FISA rules, but only one was due to go for an all-out pole attack to frustrate Peugeot. Derek Warwick was the intended driver, but Tom Walkinshaw correctly out-guessed FISA. He found an ambiguous rule which suggested that as pole man, Delboy might be forced to start the atmo machine (and thus not get points when he switched to the V12 car), and brought it to the attention of the stewards, who agreed he was right. Normally, its the other way round...
Thus, at the last minute, Andy Wallace was unexpectedly given full qualifying responsibility, having expected just to drive the car for the first stint of the race, after Derek had (hopefully) stuck it on pole......

Tom was not impressed with Andy's time, but perhaps there had been a touch of over-confidence in the straightline ability of the high downforce car. A trick high-speed wing configuration was available - without the upper plane - but it was never tried. Andy reckoned he'd wrung as much out of it round the corners as he could manage, given his lack of experience with it.....

On Friday, after much thought, Tom announced that the XJR-14 would not, after all, start the race...

It was Radio Le Mans that suggested that the car was withdrawn because Schlesser had put the Merc on pole....