DON LAW RACING

Once the XJ220 was released and the dust had settled, Jaguar progressed its business to once again become competitive with the likes of Mercedes-benz and BMW. This meant there was little time or inclination internally to look after the XJ220 on an ongoing basis, given the complexity of the car and the time that would have to be spent on ongoing maintenance. Word was spreading about a small race shop, run by Don Law and his son, Justin. First came basic servicing on an XJ220, then in 1996, Don Law Racing was thrown the keys to two more XJ220S by their owners and asked to turn them into racing cars, powered by what might’ve been — a 7.0-litre V12 engine. Not long afterwards, Jaguar was also in touch to see whether the Laws might be interested in taking over the servicing of the entire fleet of XJ220S. Of course, Don Law saw the opportunity and jumped on it. Over the years, Don Law Racing has become not just the XJ220 specialist, but the only team to work on the car. Effectively it was given the keys to the kingdom by Jaguar, and took over the entire project, buying all the original engines, gearboxes and panels that Jaguar had left over from the XJ220 build, as well as the original schematics, renderings and clay models that were used for aerodynamic testing. Don Law even ended up working with Bridgestone on the development and manufacture of new fit-for-purpose tyres. Owners of XJ220S ship their vehicles from around the world to the Old Cheese Factory in which the Laws operate. They’re not ones to rest on their laurels, the Laws now have some racing provenance — Justin took out the Le Mans Classic twice, and holds three of the top 10 spots on the Goodwood Hillclimb leaderboard, both achieved in one of their own XJR-9 race cars.