At this weekend's Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion, Jaguar is the featured marque with celebrations focusing on the 60th anniversary of the company's first Le Mans win and 50 years of the E-Type. One of the honoured guests for these festivities is Bob Tullius, whose Group 44 team raced Jaguars in the United States with great success for many years and brought the marque back to Le Mans in the mid-1980s. Fittingly, no fewer than three Group 44 Jaguars have been entered in the popular IMSA GTP class, including this XJR-7. Built late in 1985, it was an evolution of the hugely successful XJR-5 raced in the previous seasons. Although making extensive use of composite materials, it was destined to fight an uphill battle against the much better funded rivals. The XJR-7 that will race at the Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca is the first one of five built and the last ever Group 44 car to compete in a race. It was also the last one to score a victory; the 1987 West Palm Beach 3 Hours in the hands of John Morton and Hurley Haywood. We already captured the car in action this weekend at the Pre-Reunion and at the 2009 Amelia Island Concours d'Elegance where Group 44 was one of the celebrated themes. The result is this 18-shot gallery.
This week Jaguar also released the first sketch of the C-X16 due to be launched at Frankfurt in a month's time. This 'production concept' should provide a first look at Jaguar's future design themes.
An even more historically significant car that already competed at the Pre-Reunion and will be back out for the Motorsports Reunion the next few days is the McLaren M6A. Chassis M6A/1 was the first one built and scored two wins in the 1967 Can-Am Challenge Cup in the hands of Bruce McLaren. In the remaining races he had amassed enough points to be crowned champion at the end of the year ahead of team-mate Denny Hulme, who had scored another three victories in the 'papaya-orange' liveried machine. This was the start of McLaren's domination of the series, often referred to as the 'Bruce and Denny Show'. Also on hand will be chassis M6A/3, which served as a spare tub in 1967 and was to Roger Penske for Mark Donohue to race in 1968. He took one Can-Am victory and successfully defended his USRRC championship. Both cars are pictured in this detailed 24-shot gallery.

Enjoy the links:

2011 Jaguar C-X16 Concept - Images, Specifications and Information

1985 - 1987 Jaguar XJR-7 - Images, Specifications and Information

1967 McLaren M6A Chevrolet - Images, Specifications and Information