Jaguar Cars

For the team operated by Jaguar, see the Jaguar Racing article.

Jaguar Cars
Background
Based	Whitley, Coventry, United Kingdom
Founded	1922 (Sir William Lyons and William Walmsley)
Founder	Unknown
Key People	Cyrus P. Mistry
Industry	Luxury and Sports Cars
Formula E Record
Début	2016 Hong Kong ePrix
Total Entries	37 (37 Starts)
Wins	Poles	FLs
1	1	2
Total Points	262
Former Team(s)	Unknown
Current Season
Team(s)	Panasonic Jaguar Racing
Car	Jaguar I-Type III

Jaguar Cars are a British car manufacturer, renowned for making luxury cars and for their motorsport heritage, particularly at the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Jaguar would make their electric racing debut at the start of the 2016/17 FIA Formula E Championship in Hong Kong, an event which marked the return of Jaguar to international racing for the first time since they ended their Formula One programme in 2005.

As a manufacturer, Jaguar have partnered with Williams Advanced Engineering to build their Formula E cars, with the Jaguar I-Type I their first creation, run by the reincarnated Jaguar Racing team. A quiet debut season would see the British marque end the year in tenth having fielded two rookies, although with several promising performances, including a fourth place in Mexico City.

2017/18 would see Jaguar secure the signing of 2014/15 Champion Nelson Piquet Jr. to the team, with the Brazilian partnering Mitch Evans throughout the season. However, it was Evans who would secure the marque's maiden FE podium, claiming third at the 2017 Hong Kong E-Prix II, before going on to hand Jaguar their first pole at the historic 2018 Zürich E-Prix.

Both Piquet and Evans would be retained for the 2018/19 season, with Jaguar also committing to run a support series, the Jaguar I-Pace eTrophy for their third FE campaign.

Background

One of the oldest marques still building cars, Jaguar can trace their heritage back to the Swallow Sidecar Company, formed in 1922 by William Lyons and William Walmsley, although the latter would sell his half of the business in 1934. Lyons then began selling shares to the public, forming S.S. Cars Limited, with the name Jaguar first applied to a 2.5 litre saloon which would become the company's best seller in 1935. A brief few years of trading would follow until the start of the Second World War, with Jaguar, like many a British manufacturer, drafted into the war effort.

Pedigree and Performance

A board meeting on the 23rd of March 1945 proved to be the turning point for the company, with Lyons getting unanimous agreement to change the name to Jaguar Cars Limited. A quick series of sales saw Jaguar sell off their bodywork departments, only retaining design staff, with the firm taking over the Standard Motor Company instead. It was a fateful decision, for Lyons had spent time during the war to design a legendary engine which would power his cars in some form or another for the next 50 years.

It was at this point where Jaguar began to flirt with motorsport, using the funds from their spectacular sports car sales to build the legendary C and D-Types. Those two cars would seal Jaguar's place in automotive history, with the factory blessed efforts taking victory in the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1951, 1953 and 1955, with two privateer triumphs in 1956 and 1957. The D-Type was also heralded for being the first car to use disc brakes at Le Mans, a development that would soon appear in Jaguar's road cars.

The success of their sports car programmes, which were ultimately blended into the E-Type in 1961, pushed the company back into the realm of producing large saloon cars. Again, Lyons' engine would be the beating heart of the new beasts (as well as the E-Type), with numerous drivers taking the venerable Jaguar Mk II into battle in the early years of the British Saloon Car Championship. The company was going from strength to strength, until their major suppliers were all bought by the British Motor Corporation, a move Jaguar were forced to follow in 1965.

Battles and Brands

From the late 1960s, Jaguar would become as much of a brand as it would be a car builder, with the beast that was to become British Layland scrapping any attempts for the luxury car firm to look at racing. The 1980s proved to be happier times, with Jaguar going back into private hands, followed by a huge spike in sales, a result of better suited management. They would also get the chance to go racing again, with the Jaguar XJ-S becoming a flagship in the Touring Car scene, taking the European Touring Car Championship title of 1984. The firm would also return to Le Mans, with the XJ-R programme, a semi-factory blessed effort, taking numerous wins in the World Sportscar Championship as well as the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1988 and 1990.

Yet, the firm would be sold to another large corporation, this time going off to American hands at the end of 1989 when Ford bought a majority of the firm's shares. United with Land Rover, and associated with Aston Martin, Jaguar would once again return to simply being a badge, although Ford did try to get the firm racing once again. Having bought out Stewart Grand Prix in 1999, Ford slapped Jaguar Racing with the task of going to battle in Formula One, although the programme would never challenge for victory in its four years of existence.

Tata Temptation

Ford grew tired of supporting their British firms, and when Tata Motors of India agreed to pay in excess of a £1 billion for their major British marques, the American firm took the money. Jaguar were partnered off with Land Rover to form Jaguar-Land Rover, with a total bill of £1.7 billion seeing numerous other names swap hands. The change in ownership once again saw the British firm hit profit once again, with the firm basing its main operations in Birmingham with Indian funding.

With profit once again in hand, and the F-Type going from strength to strength, Tata gave Jaguar permission to get into motorsport once again, and with numerous hybrid/electric concept cars in its museum, there would only be one realistic choice for the British firm's designers.

Formula E History

The announcement that Jaguar Cars, and their old Jaguar Racing effort would enter into the Formula E Championship came as a complete shock, just days after the Trulli Formula E Team and Motomatica had pulled out. Yet, on the 15th of December 2015 the British firm outlined their intention to enter the series, with Williams Advanced Engineering, who were already involved in FE, announced as their main technical partner. Their new car, christened the Jaguar I-Type I would pass the homologation process in February 2016, with the car beginning a gruelling test programme from March 2016 onward.

Interesting Times

The car itself would make its public debut at the 2016 Donington Test, with four different drivers asked to test the car, all hoping to get race seats. Ultimately, Adam Carroll and Mitch Evans would get the call, with both drivers able to put in respectable performances at the Donington Test without any major reliability issues. Jaguar Racing then made their official launch on the 8 September 2016, where they announced that Panasonic would be their title sponsor.

Products

Jaguar make powertrains for their own racing team, Jaguar Racing, with assistance from Williams Advanced Engineering. The marque had also produced 20 Jaguar I-Paces for the new-for-2018/19 Jaguar I-Pace eTrophy support series, although these are prepared by M-Sport.

Jaguar I-Type I

Main Article: Jaguar I-Type I.

The firm's first product would be the Jaguar I-Type I, which would feature Jaguar's first all-electric powertrain, with Williams focusing on energy recovery systems. Otherwise, the car would use the same basic Spark-Renault chassis as everyone else in the 2016/17 season, with the making its racing bow at the 2016 Hong Kong ePrix. A quiet debut saw the new Jaguar fail to score points, with a similar fate befalling the marque at the following two rounds.

Yet, the team would benefit hugely from a series of tests during the Christmas break, and duly secured their best result of the season at the following round in Mexico City, Mitch Evans claiming fourth while Adam Carroll secured eighth. Evans would go on to secure three more points finishes, including a maiden fastest lap at the 2017 Berlin ePrix I, while Carroll only threatened the points once more before the end of the campaign. Come the end of the season Jaguar were last in the Championship with 27 points to their name.

Jaguar I-Type II

Main Article: Jaguar I-Type II.

Jaguar's second FE creation, the I-Type II, would be a vast improvement on its predecessor, while the team also secured the signature of 2014/15 FE Champion Nelson Piquet Jr. to lead the squad. However, it was the retained Evans who instead showed the early potential of the new car, claiming Jaguar's maiden FE podium at the 2017/18 season opener in Hong Kong, while Piquet had claimed fourth the day before. Ultimately both Piquet and Evans would become regular point scorers when not befallen by mechanical fatigue or poor luck, with Jaguar recording points at every race in which one of their cars finished, bar the Paris E-Prix.

Indeed, Evans would also claim another milestone for the marque, sweeping to their first pole position at the 2018 Zürich E-Prix. Although Evans would subsequently slump to seventh in the race itself, Jaguar were satisfied enough to commit even more to their FE programme. Indeed, the marque had scored just shy of 100 points more than they had in 2016/17, and had just fallen shy of a spot in the top five.

Jaguar I-Type III

Main Article: Jaguar I-Type II.

2018/19 would see Jaguar once again submit Piquet and Evans as their drivers, equipping them with the new I-Type III powertrain, the marque's first to be installed in the Spark SRT05e.

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