The motorsport programme that would take the Jaguar name back to the pinnacle of international sports-car racing during the 1980s was masterminded by Tom Walkinshaw.

His TWR outfit delivered Le Mans victories in 1988 and 1990, plus three Manufacturers’ World Championship titles, and the Silk Cut-liveried Jaguars would become iconic reminders of a golden period of motorsport history.

It was during 1988 that Walkinshaw hatched a plan to create a road car that would offer some of the sensations of his Group C racers.

Peter Stevens—later to design the McLaren F1—was brought in, and the small team also included Eddie Hinckley, Dave Fullerton, and Andy Morrison.

Initially working from the carbon fibre XJR-8 tub that had survived Win Percy’s accident at Le Mans in 1987, they set about developing a car that could meet roadgoing regulations, featured more interior room than the Group C racer, and could be built using a much simpler production process.

It retained much of that car’s ethos, ...