These Girls wern't the only attraction at the 1984 Le Mans, Jaguar had their own sexy models to show off!
tony drove this Jaguar XJR5 in the 1984 Le Mans 24 Hours for Bob Tullius, who gave him his professional start back in 1966
Convinced to get back in Le Mans, Jaguar would serve up the XJR5, a sleek machine with 12 ponies under the hood ready to scream a crowd-pleasing 222 miles on backstretches. Not as light as the group C vehicles, it was still the right amount of 'wow' to entertain the masses, even sitting still. Yes, after 20 years of sitting in the stands of Le Mans, Jaguar threw its hat back into the ring in style.
Co-drivers were John Watson, Formula 1 racer for McLaren; and Claude Bella Lena, a successful French driver.
They qualified 19th of 53 cars, and had worked up to eighth place by about 6 am. By that time, all three team cars were reporting gearbox shifting problems. After a pit stop & fresh tires, I took my turn in the machine. Tony a2z had fresh tires, so proceeded to warm them up and break them in. As he entered the fast right-hand turn before the Mulsanne straight, the car suddenly started to understeer badly and crashed into the barrier.
The car was bruised and beaten. Tony Adamowicz noticed the oil pressure was low and figured some damage had happened to the oil system. He radioed in, but he couldn't get through. After he gingerly brought the XJR5 to the crew, they informed him that the engine was fine but the oil system had been damaged, but it could be fixed. Even so, the Jaguar officials thought the car should be put on ice, so as to not risk the V12 failing in the public eye.
What had caused the car's handling to suddenly change and crash into a barrier? After inspecting the tire, Goodyear discovered that the tire had been losing air, which resulted in understeer. Normally, understeer is the result of a lack of downforce on the front wheels, however, in this case, the low tire changed the dynamics of the XJR5 enough to make the steering tight.
For the other Jags, the race wound down on them too. Turns out, the Hewland gearboxes we not set up for endurance racing. Where, before, they had performed fine in the other races, a 24-hour run requires more. Had filters been installed in the gearboxes, debris from the strains of shifting could've been kept from mucking up the works. Eventually, the cars couldn't hold their gears due to shot bearings and ground gears. The lighter Lancias had the same problem. Experience won out in this gruelling event, with Porsche taking the victory. Back in Jag-town, the top-shots were fine with a bad gearbox. What they didn't want was engines going up in smoke on the track.
Nowadays, Tony Adamowicz offers the masses of racing buffs the chance to connect with auto racing history through his apparel company, a2z Racer Gear a2zracergear.com whichhas become known for its line of wonderful vintage racing apparel.
You can find other racing stories at www.a2zracer.com
Timmy , Many thanks for the walk down LeMans memory lane. 1984 was my last LeMans race and many memories, good and bad exist today. Unfortunately the fresh tires installed for my early morning stint on the Group 44 GTP Jag resulted in left front tire failure while entering the fast right hand turn on to the Mulsanne straight. Quite a bit of hidden damage to the Jag incurred, however I was able to bring the Cat around to the pits in 1st gear, while checking its vitals, oil pressure, temp etc. Once in the pits it was determined to retire the car for fear there was more internal damage to the V12 engine. The other two Jags retired later with gear box failures, we all were experiencing difficulty shifting gears and keeping them in gear. The Hewland Dog-Rings were giving up as the race progressed. This is the same problem that plagued the Martini Lancia's, ultimately side lining them as well. On the Brights side was the pre race celebrations and of course the Beauty of the Hawaiian Tropic Girls adorned track. Jaguar had not been back to LeMans for 20 years , it was a momentous time for them in racing. Cheers ! Tony a2z
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Posted by: Tony Adamowicz | 06/27/2010 at 05:14 PM