Book of the month
JaguarSport XJR-15
PETER STEVENS, Porter Press International, £149, ISBN 978 1 913089 66 5
Yes, it’s about the XJR-15, the JaguarSport road-racer of which just 52 examples were made, but essentially this is a story about two people: the designer (and author of this book) Peter Stevens, and TWR boss Tom Walkinshaw. It’s the former’s interactions with the notoriously mercurial racer and businessman that are its most compelling feature.
Stevens is very much one of us, a total petrolhead, and the first chapter opens with a full-page 1965 image of him unashamedly posing with the 1942 Jeep that he’s just driven to Egypt; shortly afterwards there’s another full-page pic of him and his mates delving under the bonnet of the knackered 1929 MG M-type that he’d secretly bought at the age of 16.
Walkinshaw, on the other hand, while a skilled driver and team leader, was just as interested in making money, the
