Tom Walkinshaw, founder of TWR, passes away at 64

Tom Walkinshaw 1Former TWR owner Tom Walkinshaw died on Sunday from lung cancer. The 64-year-old Scotsman’s racing career began in the late 60s, where he raced in Formula Ford and Formula Three as well as Formula Two, and drove in various classes and events up to the late 80s.

In 1976, he established Tom Walkinshaw Racing, which designed and manufactured both road and racing cars, as well as running the latter in touring car programmes in the mid 1970s and early 1980s.

Most memorable, certainly for Jaguar fans, was the victory achieved by the Silk Cut Jaguar XJR-9LM built by TWR (and designed by Tony Southgate) in the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1988. The company would go on to build more winning Le Mans entries, notably the Joest Racing Porsche WSC-95, which won the event in 1996 and 1997.

silkcut jag

Walkinshaw also had an association with F1, as engineering director at Benetton, part owner of Ligier and owner of Arrows, though that last association cost him dearly – Arrows ran out of money in 2002, and in the process the TWR group went into liquidation.

Another famous Walkinshaw outing would be that in Australia with Holden Special Vehicles, which was set up in 1987 as a joint venture between Holden and TWR, as well as with the Holden Racing Team.

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Anthony Lim

Anthony Lim believes that nothing is better than a good smoke and a car with character, with good handling aspects being top of the prize heap. Having spent more than a decade and a half with an English tabloid daily never being able to grasp the meaning of brevity or being succinct, he wags his tail furiously at the idea of waffling - in greater detail - about cars and all their intrinsic peculiarities here.

 

Comments

  • 4G63tDSM on Dec 13, 2010 at 12:34 pm

    Sad day for Motorsports indeed.

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  • R.I.P. Tom Walkinshaw….

    Father of the best BTCC team ever…..Volvo TWR BTCC Racing Team!!

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  • Ferruccio on Dec 13, 2010 at 1:30 pm

    The passing of another motorsport icon.. condolences to the Walkinshaw family and friends

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  • squawk on Dec 13, 2010 at 2:52 pm

    RIP.

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  • pomen_gtr on Dec 13, 2010 at 2:56 pm

    rip tom…

    famous tuner in aussie….

    remember the holden special vehicle tuned by him…

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  • swifty on Dec 13, 2010 at 3:26 pm

    TWR reminds me of supercharger

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  • brianjgtc on Dec 13, 2010 at 7:48 pm

    The XJR-15 racer is a remarkable jag, with actual road car turn into racer….his creation…mourn on his death

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  • Fangalica on Dec 13, 2010 at 9:37 pm

    RIP

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  • rally_fan on Dec 14, 2010 at 12:56 am

    rest in piece Tom, you were a legend… a sad day for motorsports.

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  • teamsleepnine on Dec 14, 2010 at 3:29 am

    his compony al the one that responsible for the developement (and assemble) of the mid engine renault cleo v6(Phase 2)

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  • teamsleepnine on Dec 14, 2010 at 3:32 am

    he also responsible for the development (and assemble) of the mid engine renault cleo v6(Phase 2)

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  • SoMeOnE on Dec 14, 2010 at 1:05 pm

    lest we must not forget the freakin arrows chasis was one of the best of its eras and many teams including ferari and a certain schumacher heaped praise on it..if im not mistaken his good fren jos verstappen was driving for arrows at that time…even the latter years the minardi’s and the back teams based thier designs on it..i still remember good old murray walker wax lyrical about the arrows chassis..if onli it had a better engine who knows what would have happen..

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  • Easy E on Dec 14, 2010 at 1:39 pm

    A sad day indeed. I remember seeing his Jaguar XJR-6s race in Shah Alam Batu Tiga way back in 1985 when Batu Tiga hosted one round of the then World Endurance Championship. They came second to the Rothmans Porsche 962 but put up a great chase at the end.

    There was another works Porsche 962 that day in Batu Tiga driven by Hans Stuck and Derek Bell. It retired unfortunately whilst running the then experimental Porsche PDK box (yes the technology is that old!) The same Hans Stuck that drove the BMW Z4 at MME a couple of years back. But guess most people don’t even remember who he is including many so-called journalists who really ought to know better.

    Back to Tom Walkinshaw, I cheered when the Silk Cut Jaguar XJR-9 (the Silk Cats) won Le Man in ’88 after some heroic efforts from Jag and Porsche as well. Good times back in the day and he won a lot of fans for this effort.

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