Bridgestone has signed off the first brand-new tyre available for the mighty 1990s Jaguar XJ220 supercar in more than a decade. What’s more, none other than Jaguar XJ220 racing veteran Justin Law has given his approval for the new tyre.
It took four months and 17 different specs of rubber to get to the right one; all were honed over hundreds of laps in the 220mph supercar, with Don Law Racing masterminding the project in conjunction with Bridgestone engineers. Son Justin’s input was vital here: it’s believed nobody has driven more miles in the XJ220 than him.
“I’m one of the very few people that have been lucky enough to drive this car regularly during the last 23 years,” he said. “I’ve covered more than 100,000 miles.” As for the testing process, “it’s not just about knowing tyres, this is about knowing everything about the car and how it is supposed to handle”. As Bridgestone also recruited former XJ220 engineers and test drivers to have their say, “we were pretty much guaranteed to do the job right”.
This coming Friday, March 24th, Bridgestone will at last officially launch the new tyre, with the help of Justin and the Bridgestone engineers, plus former Jaguar XJR-9 Le Mans 24 Hours race-winner Andy Wallace, Jaguar XJR-12 Le Mans 24 Hours race-winner John Nielsen, the race engineer behind the wins Alastair Macqueen and Shinichi Watanabe.
Don Law has lent his original pre-production car, chassis number 004, for the roll-out. Join them from 11am CET to see how Bridgestone has transformed the Jaguar XJ220 from being retired to re-tyred.
Source: Bridgestone
Gallery: Jaguar XJ220
