The “ridiculous” Group C Jaguar that roared briefly however loudly

Martin Brundle wasn’t blessed with the best Components 1 equipment for his 159 world championship begins. The Benetton B192, which supplied 5 of his 9 grand prix podiums, was in all probability the very best however it doesn’t take the accolade of his favorite race automotive.

PLUS: Rating the highest 10 Benetton F1 drivers

Ross Brawn’s Jaguar XJR-14 moved the goalposts in world sportscar racing in 1991 and Brundle was Tom Walkinshaw’s part-timer early within the season, in between his Brabham F1 commitments.

The three.5-litre naturally aspirated XJR-14 took pole by 2.5 seconds on the Suzuka opener, solely to be let down within the race by starter motor failure. However Jaguar bounced again at Monza. This time the hole to the remaining was 4s and Brundle completed each first and second, sharing the successful automotive with Derek Warwick and the runner-up with Teo Fabi.

“The automotive was so quick,” says Brundle. “It was an unbelievable automotive, much like F1 speeds. And sizzling inside.

“The entire automotive was a venturi from behind the motive force and it wasn’t overpowered with the Ford HB engine. You can simply do ridiculous issues with it. I bear in mind at Monza on a saturated moist monitor being on slicks, watching the rooster tail out the again, and the automotive was simply caught to the street. A rare automotive.”

Brundle charges his Silverstone efficiency within the BRDC Empire Trophy as his best. A damaged throttle cable price him simply over 9 minutes, or six laps. He then drove the #3 XJR-14 solo, smashing the lap report on the reconfigured circuit.

Throughout his cost, Brundle set a quickest lap of 1m29.372s, 0.7s faster than anybody else and – maybe much more remarkably – 1.6s sooner than he would handle in his Brabham BT60Y in the course of the British GP two months later. Certainly, it took till lap 5 of that GP for runaway winner Nigel Mansell’s Williams FW14 to surpass Brundle’s mark on the new-for-1991 structure. “That reveals how good that automotive was,” says Brundle.

Brundle completed third, 4 laps down on the successful sister automotive of Warwick/Fabi and three laps behind the second-paced Mercedes of Karl Wendlinger and Michael Schumacher, having repeatedly overtaken the sector.

“Sportscars appeared to swimsuit my driving type,” says Brundle, who places his 1992 Benetton drive all the way down to his Silverstone effort. “I all the time felt invincible in them, whereas I didn’t in a components automotive, for some motive.

“I don’t suppose I’ve ever skilled a automotive, aside from the 1991 Jaguar, that mentioned, ‘Come on, let’s go, throw all the things at me as a result of I can deal with it’”
Martin Brundle

“I feel they tended to have a contact extra understeer and you actually needed to boss them. I all the time had confidence in them. While you really feel assured in a automotive that’s received a number of downforce you will get some unimaginable pace going.”

Away from his personal racing profession, Brundle has now pushed many machines by his tv work. Dan Gurney’s Eagle-Weslake, the ex-Ayrton Senna Lotus 98T and Lewis Hamilton’s 2018 Mercedes W09 – “simply so superbly sorted” – however they don’t fairly get Brundle’s remaining vote.

“I’ve pushed 70 F1 automobiles now and the one which stands out is the 2008 McLaren, Lewis’s automotive,” says the 65-year-old of the MP4-23. “It’s an enormous aerodynamic machine. I don’t suppose I’ve ever skilled a automotive, aside from the 1991 Jaguar, that mentioned, ‘Come on, let’s go, throw all the things at me as a result of I can deal with it’.

Brawn devised the XJR-14 wherein Fabi (left) gained the 1991 title and Brundle starred when F1 commitments allowed

Picture by: Andre Vor / Sutton Photographs

“Take a look at supervisor Indy Lall mentioned, ‘Pit now’ – I used to be on fairly previous Bridgestones and we have been doing a TV piece – and I didn’t wish to. I’ve by no means recognized a automotive that invitations you to go flat-out like that automotive did.

“Of the automobiles I raced, it’s received to be the Jaguar and of the automobiles I’ve pushed it’s the 2008 McLaren.”

So, is there something left on the want listing? “The Williams FW14B, the one which thrashed us in 1992, spoiled our yr as a result of it was so dominant,” Brundle instantly shoots again. “That’s prime of my listing.”

The Williams FW14B stays prime of the bucket listing for Brundle, who spent a lot of 1992 chasing it in his Benetton

Picture by: Motorsport Photographs