Unusual new cars join the CSCC ranks at Donington Park

There were two intriguing new machines that joined the Classic Sports Car Club’s ranks for its event at Donington Park last weekend.

One car that seemed to attract attention all throughout the meeting was Tom Robinson’s and Andrew Maynard’s Jaguar XFR. It was originally campaigned in 2012 by Carvell Motorsport, which conducted most of the development on the car after Jaguar’s SVO operation completed the initial build. After winning its class in the Nurburgring 24 Hours in 2012, the car was raced sporadically for several years before being put into storage.

“The car’s new to us but it was originally built by SVO in 2010,” said Robinson. “It was then raced with a three-litre diesel but now has a five-litre supercharged V8.”

The car certainly looks the part. The XF features a full roll cage with a seam welded shell, diffuser and splitter packages developed by Carvell as well as completely custom suspension.

However, Robinson explained they did encounter problems during the car’s first weekend back competing: “We just shook it down prior to this race and did the fluids and basic set-up. The car has understeer but we changed the ride-height and camber to see if we can improve that.

“The gearing is definitely too long, I find myself in between gears. Mechanically brilliant, though – it also has very good initial turn-in, I find myself constantly turning too early because of how good it is!”

After qualifying mid-grid, the big Jag had an eventful first race. Having survived a misunderstanding with a Ginetta at the Melbourne Hairpin that resulted in heavy panel damage on the Jaguar’s right-hand side, the Big Cat suffered clutch failure. With the car stuck in third gear, the Swallows Racing team decided to stop after 12 laps of the Slicks Series contest.

Another car that attracted plenty of camera flashes was Martin Reynolds’ Ford Capri. Racing in the Special Saloons category, the 300bhp Capri was sourced from Austria last October and is a replica of the Group 2 racers from Ford’s Cologne competition department from the mid-1970s, complete with Zakspeed colours. Having been dormant since 2016, the car made its race return at Donington after noise and brake problems curtailed a previous Snetterton test session.

“The car’s all over the place,” admitted Ford specialist Reynolds. “We got the wrong springs with us, got the wrong spring rates on it. There are bad brakes on the front, there are big vibrations, the diff’s too tight – the list goes on and on! As we do this more, it’ll get better. Now, when we go back to the workshop, we know what we need to do.”

When questioned what his plans are for the season, Reynolds isn’t yet certain where the V6 Capri is going to be raced.

“I don’t know what I’m going to do with it this year,” he said. “I just brought it to Specials because I thought it suited the series! I’m still going to be out in my Anglia and my Escort later this year though. This is really just a maiden run to see what we have to do to it, and we have lots to do to make it competitive.”

The car had a difficult debut, still struggling with set-up, and finished 16th in race one before Reynolds called it a day and didn’t start race two.