RSR Jaguar XKR GT2 Unveiled (updated)

It’s been a while coming – and it will be a while longer before we see it running in anger – but this afternoon saw the RSR Jaguar XKR GT2 unveiled at Road Atlanta

The car though will not be racing this weekend, the driver line-up of Paul Gentilozzi, Scott Pruett and Marc Goossens will be spectators for Petit Le Mans as Gentilozzi revealed that the Jaguar is in need of testing and development mileage before being ready for the fray.

The team owner and Goossens though were announced as the driver squad  for the Jaguar’s racing debut at Laguna Seca’s final round of the 2009 ALMS.

RSR have announced that the Jaguar will mount a full (ALMS) championship effort in 2010 with Yokahama named as the tyre supplier for the XKR.

The distinctive bodywork of the GT2 car is “based on the Jaguar XKR and was completed in the Jaguar Advance Design Studio headed by chief designer Ian Callum.”

The body in its current form has also undergone intensive computational fluid dynamics work - known as CFD - by the Jaguar aerodynamics department.

Information from the CFD was then incorporated into the finished bodywork which was made in clay at the RSR facility. More than 1,100 man hours were spent during the clay process. The carbon fiber composite bodywork in this form conforms to the ACO guidelines.

“The end result is a GT2 car that contains the DNA and the spirit of the Jaguar Design Department and the production car,” commented Gentilozzi.  He did admit later though that the team had suffered something of a false start, the original race car design was rejected by the ACO, the team’s interpretation of the GT2 regulations not quite matching the letter of the law.

Gentilozzi also confirmed that he was keen to see a British driver number amongst the driver line-up for 2010, referring to Johnny Mowlem, present in the audience, as having had some contact with the team. Nigel Mansell too has conversed with Gentilozzi though it is understood that contact with Mansell senior has been informal thus far.

Finally Gentilozzi confirmed that the team would be seeking an entry for the 2010 Le Mans 24 Hours for the car – Will the ACO welcome back the racing cat for the first time since 1995?