XJSes in the Cannonball Run

Happened to be reading up on this annual coast-to-coast “unsanctioned” race that took place back in 1975-1979. :racing_car: Was VERY pleasantly surprised to learn that the all-time speed record (which occurred in the last “unofficial” year of the race - 1979) was set by a pair of gents in an XJ-S. :trophy: There was also another XJ-S in the race that year, btw, which also finished pretty well. Those were apparently the only Jaguars that ever took part in the race, btw. This winning fact has made me re-appreciate the pre-face-lift XJ-S (i.e. with V-12 eng.) :open_mouth: I assume the record setter was a '78 car (?). Anyone know more about the particular car, how it fared during the race, or the two drivers?

That car was going to be junked and the owner found the plack that stated it was a Cannonball winner, and was going to restore it. He stated that it had an extra gas tank in the trunk and I think they were with some N.Y. dealer, maybe brothers.
Road and Track did a strory on the race and of course the Gov went nuts and made sure it would not happen again.

I happened upon this old old article recently and found it a great read: https://www.caranddriver.com/features/a15135751/the-last-cannonball-feature/

Yep, that’s where I found the info… But, could not find out anymore about the cars, drivers, or what the journey was like. Would think, being the winners and over-all time record holders, they would have spoken/written about it. :confused:

Thanks for the article, Douglas. :smile: Here’s the (only) mention of the winning XJ-S team in it:


The winning car sat right in front of the Portofino Inn–a shiny black Jaguar XJ-S with a victory wreath on the windshield. Dave Heinz and Dave Yarborough, a pair of seasoned racers and Jag dealers from Florida and South Carolina, respectively, had shattered the old record by making it cross-country in 32 hours, 51 minutes. That’s an average of 87 mph.


I didn’t know that so much planned-out, clever subterfuge was engaged in by the drivers, in order to avoid being stopped by the cops, btw. I think I need to watch the movie now! :movie_camera: Was interesting to read that the Mercedes was right on the tail of the XJ-S, coming in just 8 minutes behind them. :racing_car: The author opines that if the Mercedes team had paid for its fuel with cash instead of ccs. during the race (which took time to process back in '79), it might have actually won the race … :thinking:

Interesting that here in Texas, it has long been the law that an officer cannot arrest a motorist merely for speeding, only issue them a citation. I wonder if that law had anything to do with such races (?) :grin: