{"id":494222,"date":"2015-01-01T15:00:45","date_gmt":"2015-01-01T23:00:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/demo.sportscardigest.com\/?p=4289"},"modified":"2024-05-18T16:06:19","modified_gmt":"2024-05-18T16:06:19","slug":"first-year-at-twr","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.supercars.net\/blog\/first-year-at-twr\/","title":{"rendered":"My First Year at\u2008TWR"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class='memberful-global-teaser-content'>\n<figure id=\"attachment_772822\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-772822\" style=\"width: 1080px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.supercars.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/LS-p1-1.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-772822 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.supercars.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/LS-p1-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1080\" height=\"721\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.supercars.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/LS-p1-1.jpg 1080w, https:\/\/www.supercars.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/LS-p1-1-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.supercars.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/LS-p1-1-1024x684.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.supercars.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/LS-p1-1-100x67.jpg 100w, https:\/\/www.supercars.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/LS-p1-1-770x514.jpg 770w, https:\/\/www.supercars.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/LS-p1-1-360x240.jpg 360w, https:\/\/www.supercars.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/LS-p1-1-370x247.jpg 370w, https:\/\/www.supercars.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/LS-p1-1-293x196.jpg 293w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1080px) 100vw, 1080px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-772822\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Southgate&#8217;s sleek Jagusr XJR-6 draws a crowd in the paddock at Brands Hatch for the World Endurance Championship round in September of 1985.<br \/>Photo: Pete Austin<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The first time I met Tom Walkinshaw was in 1984. I had been invited to meet him at Tom Walkinshaw Racing\u2019s (TWR) headquarters in Kidlington, Oxfordshire. Although I\u2019d never met him I knew he was a tough Scot and businessman. He\u2019d had a successful driving career and was now into team management with a significant record in motor sport behind him. When he spoke to sponsors they would listen and believe what he said, so he managed to get some of the best deals and budgets available. He was a tough character, built like a rugby player who wouldn\u2019t look out of place in a scrum. He always had his fingers on the pulse and was always in control. I got on very well with him, and I was pleased to work with him on his next project\u2014producing a Group C car for Jaguar.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Bob Tullius and his Group 44 organization had produced an IMSA GTP Jaguar XJR-5 car in the USA. This was the benchmark that Jaguar wanted Tom to use to produce a car suitable for European sportscar racing and ultimately win the\u00a0 24 Hours of Le Mans. As I\u2019ve said, Tom was a tough character and always firmly in control. It went against most things he stood for to use someone else\u2019s design. If Jaguar wanted success he would need to start from a blank sheet of paper. Personally, I thought the XJR-5 was a neatly packaged car, but not something that would take on the best Group C cars\u2014which at that time were Porsches.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<style>\n        .memberful-global-teaser-content p:last-child{\n            -webkit-mask-image: linear-gradient(180deg, #000 0%, transparent);\n            mask-image: linear-gradient(180deg, #000 0%, transparent);\n        }\n    <\/style>\n<div class='memberful-global-marketing-content'>\n<div class=\"a07online-global-marketing-content-wrapper\">\n<h2 class=\"a07online-global-marketing-title\">No Subscription? You&#8217;re missing out<\/h2>\n<p class=\"a07online-global-marketing-content\">Any Text Here<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"a07online-global-marketing-prompt\" href=\"https:\/\/supercars.memberful.com\/checkout?plan=86696\">Get Started<\/a><\/p>\n<div class=\"a07online-global-marketing-signin\">\n<h4 class=\"a07online-global-marketing-signin\">Already a Member? <a href=\"https:\/\/supercars.memberful.com\/account\">Sign in to your account here<\/a>.<\/h4>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Southgate&#8217;s sleek Jagusr XJR-6 draws a crowd in the paddock at Brands Hatch for the World Endurance Championship round in September of 1985.Photo: Pete Austin The first time I met Tom Walkinshaw was in 1984. I had been invited to meet him at Tom Walkinshaw Racing\u2019s (TWR) headquarters in Kidlington, Oxfordshire. Although I\u2019d never met him I knew he was a tough Scot and businessman. He\u2019d had a successful driving career and was now into team management with a significant [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":308,"featured_media":772821,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[263,11272,261,18207,20140],"tags":[17152,17140,17143,13112,17220],"class_list":["post-494222","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-car-culture","category-members-only","category-motorsport-racing","category-special-feature","category-twr","tag-car-culture","tag-members-only","tag-special-feature","tag-twr","tag-vrr-column-legends-speak"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>My First Year at TWR<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.supercars.net\/blog\/first-year-at-twr\/\" \/>\n<link rel=\"next\" href=\"https:\/\/www.supercars.net\/blog\/first-year-at-twr\/2\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"My First Year at TWR\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Southgate&#8217;s sleek Jagusr XJR-6 draws a crowd in the paddock at Brands Hatch for the World Endurance Championship round in September of 1985.Photo: Pete Austin The first time I met Tom Walkinshaw was in 1984. 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