Monterey Car Week: Jaguar I-Pace eTrophy is Ready to Win
Jaguar drops by Monterey Car Week with a pair of electric race cars, including a one of 20 I-Pace eTrophy.
If there’s anything we at Team Speed love more than seeing cool cars at Monterey Car Week, it’s seeing cool race cars at Monterey Car Week. Without motorsport’s relentless drive to push one and all to their limits and beyond, our cars would not be as awesome as they are today.
Case in point: Jaguar. The English automotive icon has certainly mastered “the art of performance” over the decades, translating their winning efforts with the likes of the D-Type, XJR, and XJ-S into success in the showroom. A few years ago, they jumped into Formula E, racking up a few wins and tons of knowledge in the all-electric circus.
That knowledge has not only led to the development of the stunning I-Pace, but the start of an entire spec support series based around the English electric crossover’s race-ready I-Pace eTrophy. This red-white-and-blue example was part of a showcase we checked out at the Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion, which also included one of Jaguar Racing’s Formula E cars.
The Formula E support series, dubbed the Jaguar I-Pace eTrophy Championship, will feature 20 identically prepared cars doing battle in 10 cities around the world, with the best driver raising the championship trophy at the end of the season. Each I-Pace eTrophy was designed by Jaguar Land Rover’s Special Vehicle Operations to get as much out of the production-based I-Pace components as possible. The result is a race car capable of hitting 60 mph in 4 seconds flat, maxing out at 121 mph on the straights.
And to think this series began with cars like the I-Type II above. Both of Jaguar’s efforts in Formula E and the new I-Pace eTrophy series will, of course, find its way into their road cars over the next few years as the English automaker moves into the electric future. What a time to be alive, indeed.
Photos for Team Speed by Nolan Browning
