DAYTONA 1988

WHEN JAGUAR FEVER CROSSED THE ATLANTIC

Jaguar, Porsche and one of the great periods of sports car racing. Jaguar and Porsche – Daytona 24 Hours 1988Jaguar and Porsche together on the banking at Daytona in 1988 — the two marques that had completely captured my imagination.

Looking back, I realise why I knew so much about the 1988 Daytona 24 Hours.

IT WAS BECAUSE OF JAGUAR

I was 22 at the time and already completely immersed in cars. I owned a sports car garage specialising in Datsun 240Zs, and motor racing wasn't simply something I occasionally watched — it was part of my life.

Jaguar had captured my imagination.

After the near misses at Le Mans there seemed to be an extraordinary wave of enthusiasm building around the marque. I followed everything I could find about the team and those wonderful sports racing cars.

At 22 I didn't really appreciate the distinction between the Group C Jaguars I associated with Le Mans and the cars competing under IMSA regulations in America. Frankly, I didn't care. They were Jaguars, they had those magnificent V12 engines, and they were taking the fight to Porsche.

Daytona was still one of the world's great endurance classics and, in my mind, winning there would be another step towards what I really wanted to see — Jaguar winning Le Mans. Jaguar XJR-9 – Daytona 1988The Castrol Jaguar XJR-9 in the pits at Daytona in 1988 — one of the cars that had completely captured my imagination.

When Jaguar won Daytona in January 1988 I read everything I could find about it — every word in Autosport, Motor Sport and, in those days, Grand Prix International.

PRIDE OF PLACE ON THE GARAGE WALL

I owned a sports car garage specialising in Datsun 240Zs, and pride of place on the wall was this Autosport poster of the winning Jaguar in its fabulous green and white Castrol colours, high on the banking at Daytona.

I must have looked at it thousands of times. Jaguar XJR-9The Autosport Jaguar XJR-9 poster that had pride of place on the wall of my Datsun 240Z garage in 1988.

It seems slightly ironic now that I was surrounded by Japanese sports cars, was a lifelong Porsche fan, yet had this great Jaguar on the garage wall. But perhaps that sums up my enthusiasm for sports car racing at the time — I didn't feel the need to choose sides. I loved all of it.

A LIFELONG PORSCHE FAN

There was a slight complication to all this Jaguar enthusiasm — I was, and still am, a lifelong Porsche fan.

The Porsche 956 and 962 were extraordinary cars. They were so different from the Jaguars, with their turbocharged engines and sleek, purposeful shapes, compared with the Jaguars and their incredible naturally aspirated V12s and unmistakable sound.

Derek Bell was a driver I greatly admired, and seeing him competing in a Porsche only added to my fascination with the race.

It wasn't simply Jaguar against Porsche for me. It was the atmosphere, the variety of cars, the great teams and drivers, and the feeling that sports car racing was enjoying a golden era.

I was a 22-year-old sports car enthusiast, running a garage full of Datsun 240Zs and watching one of the great periods of sports car racing unfold in front of me.

Jaguar. Porsche. Daytona. Le Mans. Derek Bell. Those V12s.

It was all happening at once, and I absolutely loved it.

NEARLY 40 YEARS LATER...

All these years later, Motoring-Man now has an extensive collection of original photographs from that very race.

The archive includes race cars, teams, pits and paddock scenes, together with detailed photographs of bodywork, cockpits, liveries and mechanical components — the sort of details that are particularly fascinating today for enthusiasts, historians and scale modellers.

Looking through these photographs nearly forty years later takes me straight back to that period and reminds me just how exciting sports car racing was.

Whether you're a motorsport enthusiast, historian or scale modeller, I hope you enjoy exploring them as much as I have enjoyed rediscovering them.

EXPLORE THE COMPLETE DAYTONA 24 HOURS 1988 PHOTOGRAPHIC ARCHIVE →

Run by Enthusiasts, for Enthusiasts.