want to heavily modify it by installing the compulsory rollcage and other safety equipment required for the full competition cars. Another consideration was the $7,000 entry fee for the competition cars compared to $3,000 for the Tour! The only change I made to the XKR was installing a set of competition disc pads for the Brembos, which really improved the bite of the brakes and removed any sign of fade that I had previously experienced on hard track days. Regulations also required the carrying of 2 fire extinguishers, warning triangles, a first aid kit and a bag of “kitty litter” to mop up any oil spills.
Targa Tasmania was run over six days with day one being a Prologue in George Town to determine the starting order. Days 2, 3 and 4 were run in different areas centred around Launceston, day five was a run to Strahan with an overnight stop there and the last day was from Strahan to the finishing point in Hobart.
We may have entered the Targa Tasmania “Tour” section but believe me it was far from a leisurely run around the beautiful Tasmanian countryside with a picnic basket and bottle of bubbly carefully balanced on the back seat. We may not have been officially “racing”; however I have never driven so fast over such long distances on public roads! The XKR was in its element and either the accelerator or brake pedal were constantly being abused as we chased a number of other high performance and exotic cars in the Tour including a V10 powered BMW M6, BMW M3’s, hot Nissan Z cars and high performance Porsches on some very challenging closed public roads - often in wet and slippery conditions or in torrential rain.
The XKR performed faultlessly and you better believe that a BMW M6 or M3 is no match for an angry supercharged cat on full song! The XKR handled, braked and performed like a true supercar and we received many a compliment from impressed fellow competitors who were surprised how well it performed and sounded. I think we converted quite a few people into Jaguar believers.
Our thirty “Tour” cars were divided into “packets” of ten with a Tour Leader at the front of each. The Tour regulations prohibit passing but the cars were grouped together according to their potential performance and the desire of just how quick each driver wanted to go. Gradually, during the first day, positions on the road changed as the slower cars (and drivers) moved to the rear of the field. We then chased the Tour Leader over the closed road competition sections as he theoretically kept our speed to under the regulated 130 kph.
Most sections were so tight and twisty that no matter how hard we tried we struggled to maintain an average speed of 80kph, but on some straight sections I had the big cat’s supercharger whining away as we howled well into the illegal section of the speedo – what a buzz! As the roads were closed we could use both sides of the bitumen and push hard through blind corners that would normally have been impossible without great risk to us and other road users.
Each day the Tour car groups were the first away after each competition road section was closed by the Police and organisers. Once we cleared the section the competition cars were let loose as we proceeded at legal speeds over open public roads to the next closed road where it was pedal to the metal once again.
