Start with what the Jaguar XJR-9 is: a 2-door Coupé with 6.0 L 60 degree Jaguar V12, built from 1988 to 1989, in the age of turbocharging and the first electronic engine management. What it meant takes a little longer. The shape is credited to Tony Southgate for TWR.
How it came about
The Jaguar XJR-9 is a sports-prototype race car built by Jaguar for both FIA Group C and IMSA Camel GTP racing. In 1988, Jaguar's XJR-9 won the 24 Hours of Le Mans, after debuting that year at the 24 Hours of Daytona.
The hardware
The engine is 6.0 L 60 degree Jaguar V12; other versions carried different engines, listed in the specification table below. On the scales it comes to 880 kg. Drive goes through a 5-speed manual. The layout matters: the engine sits behind the driver and ahead of the rear axle, which puts the mass in the middle of the car and is why mid-engined cars change direction the way they do. The wheelbase is 2780 mm. These are manufacturer figures carried by Wikipedia and Wikidata, not road-test measurements.
Family and rivals
In the Jaguar line-up the Jaguar XJR-9 has a clear place: it replaced the Jaguar XJR-8; it handed the line to the Jaguar XJR-10 / Jaguar XJR-10 / Jaguar XJR-11; the factory was Kidlington, Oxfordshire, United Kingdom. The cars a buyer would have weighed it against include the Mazda MX-5, the Subaru Legacy, the Ferrari F40. Its Jaguar stablemates include the F-Type and the Vanden Plas.
Owning one today
EPA combined economy is 21 mpg, about $4,450 a year in fuel at the EPA's assumptions. Condition, mileage and specification move any single car a long way from a headline figure.