Hugely interesting insights. As all the LM's ended up in Japan, was there a specific series that they were commissioned for?

 

Boxer, the information I have at the moment is that a wealthy Japanese individual purchased a number of XJR-15’s for resale in the Japanese market. To the best of my knowledge the cars were not produced to compete at all. That said, one of the cars was cannibalised by a university to produce a racing car, but I don’t know if this started life as an LM. Strangely however, my blue car was originally exported to France and from there it went to Japan. Consistent with the Japanese buyer, my car was bought by a guy who purchased a number of XJR-15’s. I hope that one of these days he might disclose some information about the car. From what I have gleaned thus far, I think that all of these cars were amongst the last produced. I will try to upload pictures of the LM’s I have identified, but I am having trouble uploading pictures to the thread.

 

A few LM's

 

The white one in the lower right hand corner picture is very interesting. Looks almost like a cross between a F40 LM and a XJR-15.

 

Sounds like you have made fantastic progress Tomcat, the cars are looking fantastic and it seems you are becoming the world authority on the engineering and history – long may it continue!
I have not been around much recently so it’s interesting to see how you have been developing the car. I agree the handling ‘issue’ is easily dealt with by suspension geometry changes, getting the front closer to the ground. Also the six speed box – once you have the hang of it – is actually nicer to use (most of the time) than a syncro. I know what you mean about the driving experience, it’s just so much quicker. Just need to master the downshifts. This vid shows what it’s like on the open road (awesome) and in town (not so awesome!)

 

Fantastic SteveO! Enjoyed that more than should be allowed! Thanks for posting. The town bit going up the hill stuck behind the lorry did look painful though!

 

Love the stories, love the road footage. Keep 'em coming guys, the more XJR-15 material we get the better and again thank you so much for everything you've shared so far.

Just found this and couldn't remember if it'd been shared yet or not.

 

Thanks for posting, sounded good even if I could not understand the French too well.

I also made this in the summer I now recall, so you can see what it's like to overtake a horse-box and drive over railway tracks in an XJR15 (if you want to)...

 

Tomcat, I was wondering if you had any plans to stick the LM (or indeed any of your cars/same to the other owners) on a dyno to see just what the engines are actually producing.

Would be nice to see the actual difference in performance between the variants. Perhaps the likes of Autocar or a Jaguar Enthusiast mag would be interested in doing performance tests.

 

There were 5 LM cars converted for a wealthy Japanese gentleman. This deal included the handing over of suitcases of cash the exact details of which have been published elsewhere. The LM's were converted by XK Engineering who did much work at that time for TWR and was under the management of Neal Smith. The XJR15 engines where changed for complete rebuilt 91 Le Mans engines at 7.4L They retained their slider throttle valves and the extra height (particularly at the rear) was overcome by using the scoop somewhat similar to the XJR14, but not the same as. There were apparently 60 detail differences in the LM's from the gold wheels to the arches, some subtle some very obvious.
I have the molds should you ever be unfortunate enough to have a parts requirement.
The XJR15 Brian Wingfield (of XJR13 D/C Type fame) owned had its handling fully sorted and thereafter had no issues even being able to out handle most Group C cars one wet day at Spa Franco-champs. Brian was ex Ford SVO and knew how to make most things handle. It also had one of my splitters fitted and the wing mount slugs to raise the rear wing, later the Group C rear wing replaced this to give extra downforce and we fitted Group 44 sliders instead of the std v12 inlet manifolds. The ECU had a processor problem solved by piggy backing in a later stable processor by the designer a chap called Moss if I recall correctly. He had been involved in the development of the ECU and had all the floppies to change the program or even change the values (laws) for each box on the map. The Zytec pickups were always problematic and even when he had new ones manufactured they never seemed to function without problem.
I have the molds for the double seat system should they ever been wanted, made a couple for JD Classics a while back.
Made a new tub for the designer a while back incorporating some further improvements. On display at the offices of the Norfolk Design Team at the moment.
Lovely car if a tad impractical, guess its all in the balance of the buzz of the drive against the practicality and discomfort.
One car was bought by a chap called Larry a wealthy Scott, He collected it from XK near Birmingham with intention of driving it back to Scotland. He never made it! Phoned XK up from a service station near the boarder and told them to come pick it up. So yes its a classic but the driving for pleasure is limited by your resistance.