Jonathan Gitlin

Jaguar

Jaguar

Jonathan Gitlin

Jaguar

LOS ANGELES—Car companies like Jaguar go racing for a couple of reasons. One is to prove their engineering in as fierce a crucible as possible, something the English company did to good effect with technologies like disc brakes and monocoque chassis construction in the 1950s. The other reason may be less high-minded, but no less important—races sell cars. Call it "speed by association." That's particularly true of racing programs that use street cars as their starting point, which goes some way to explain the Jaguar I-Pace eTrophy, a one-make race series using electric vehicles that will travel and race with the Formula E circus next season.

Jaguar was one of the first OEMs to take the idea of electric racing seriously, and it has had a team competing in Formula E for a while now. That's useful for developing its engineering know-how, but a Formula E race car—with its open wheels and a single seat—looks nothing like an EV you or I could buy. What better way, then, for Jaguar to let people know that its new I-Pace EV— which hits the showrooms in 2018 —can handle it than by having a pack of 20 of them race each other as a support series? And since all the cars will be identical I-Paces, a Jaguar is guaranteed to win every race.

"What I love about this kind of racing, especially in the sports car racing and this kind of, what we're talking here, about the eTrophy is, it's recognizable," said Bobby Rahal. The former Indy 500 winner and three-time champion runs a racing team that competes in IndyCar and IMSA's WeatherTech sports car series, and it's now signed up as the first eTrophy team. "It's something you see on the street; there's direct relevance to what we sell in the showroom, and I don't think you can overstate the value of that or the importance of that."

This isn't a novel idea; one-make series abound, from Spec Miata in the grassroots all the way to Porsche Supercup. Perhaps the most memorable was the BMW M1 Procar championship, which ran alongside Formula 1 in 1979 and 1980 and featured big-name drivers and hefty prize purses. Like Procar, the I-Pace race cars will be tightly controlled by regulations.

Rahal explained:

It really has to be for you to keep the costs in line 'cause otherwise, the freer it is, then the more people become involved. Then that nice, efficient, relatively inexpensive experience is no longer that. And then it just comes down to, how much money do you have?" The old Procars, you couldn't do much to those, either, so, again, a great comparison 'cause it's really pretty much the same. The cars are delivered for you to the circuit, they've been maintained, so here it is, go race. Now, I'm sure there'll be little things that can be done to try to tune the car for that particular circuit, but again, you're not changing springs, you're not changing roll bars. It'll be down to tire pressures, maybe cambers, castor, things like that, maybe. I'm not quite sure until we see the full rules package, but it's going to be pretty restrictive.

The I-Pace ought to make a pretty good race car, particularly on the temporary street circuits that comprise the Formula E calendar. The car is a rather compact crossover, so it should be quite nimble. It will have 298kW (400hp) and a 0-60mph time under four seconds, so it will be quick. And with such a low center of gravity—courtesy of a 90kWh battery pack—it should be a stable platform for the drivers to exploit.

Who those 20 drivers will be is as-yet unknown; the first race isn't for another year, and Rahal is the first team to commit to the series. Before next December, Jaguar Racing will need another nine organizations to sign on to the package, which includes full technical and logistics support. While I doubt Jaguar Racing needs any advice from me about the eTrophy, I can't help thinking what a great idea it would be to invite a journalist or two at each round. What could possibly go wrong?

Listing image by Jaguar