The Unlikely Race Car

23 June 2015 Redazione Racing Cars

Broadspeed Jaguar XJ12C

This could be described as the most unreliable racing car in history, but in doing so, we would diminish the extraordinary speed quality of this XJ12C, that more than any other road model-derived racing car, was able to show that you’d better not judge things by external appearances. Commissioned and designed by Ralph Broad’s Broadspeed, Team that took part in the ETCC in 1976, after obtaining large successes in various Touring championships since the early ’60s, the XJ12C was based on its elegant street version. The V12 had been boosted up to 550-hp, while the suspension, the whole car body, brakes and the cooling system, had been revised for racing use, changing almost completely the skeleton of the starting model. An extremely aggressive look and tremendous performance, however, were not able to make it a winning car, indeed, despite often was able to start from pole position and grind fast laps, it could barely cut the finish line due to mechanical problems, often due to oil pressure. The curse of the XJ12C continued race after race, disintegrating the splendid performance that drivers like Derek Bell and Andy Rouse were able to obtain at the wheel of this car, much faster than the BMW CSLs and all other opponents. British Leyland denied to this car a third season, just when reliability problems seemed to have been resolved. Too bad, because the XJ12C has however shown that a big car of almost two tons, if tuned and driven by the right hands, can be an extreme track weapon.