THE only Jaguar to win the Bathurst 1000 across the event’s six-decade history has been placed on the market.
Tom Walkinshaw Racing ran the car’s factory touring car program in the early 1980s, fielding a Group A version of the V12-engined XJ-S model in the European Touring Car Championship.
Chassis 004 formed a key part of that campaign, culminating with victory for Walkinshaw, Win Percy and Hans Heyer in the crown-jewel Spa 24 Hours in 1984, a win that underpinned the Scot’s triumph in the ETCC driver’s championship.
In 1985, 004 was part of the trio of Jaguars that descended on Mount Panorama in a bold bid to win the first edition of the Bathurst 1000 run to Group A rules.
Chassis 004 was slated for TWR favourite Armin Hahne to share with Australian legend John Goss as the #10 entry, with the assault led by the #8 car of Walkinshaw/Percy, while Jeff Allam and Ron Dickson drove the #9 car.
Walkinshaw led early from pole but encountered engine issues while the #9 car retired early, so it was Hahne and Goss aboard 004 who emerged as the Jaguar squad’s best hope of victory.
Battling a broken seat, the pair clung on to take a famous victory that proved to be the Jaguar’s last major win in Group A touring car racing.
Chassis 004 was supposed to return to Bathurst in 1986 to defend its crown, but the late collapse of a sponsorship deal meant the works Jaguars were withdrawals, a year that also marked the XJ-S coupe’s final year of Group A homologation.
For a swansong, TWR fielded 004 in the Fuji 5 Hours and, courtesy of a temporary homologation extension, the Nissan-Mobil 500 series in New Zealand in early 1987.
Piloted by Hahne and Denny Hulme, 004’s racing life ended at Wellington when a blown tyre caused the German to crash, and the damage was too extensive to repair in time for the following weekend at Pukekohe.
The car went back to TWR headquarters in England where it was fully repaired, and it remained with the team until 1989 when it was sold to a private owner, and the car passed through the hands of an oil and gas millionaire before Australian Jaguar enthusiast Mike Roddy purchased the car in 2006.
While the car had hit the racetrack just once with its previous owner, Roddy has regularly campaigned 004 in historic racing events around Australia during his nearly two decades as its custodian.
Most recently, Roddy brought the car back to England to take part in this year’s Goodwood Festival of Speed, where it was reunited with its Bathurst-winning driving crew for demonstration runs up the event’s hillclimb.
Click HERE for the car’s listing with Duncan Hamilton ROFGO.
