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The 1993 Jaguar XJ220 made it's American television debut that summer in a made-for-television race series called "Fast Masters", which was lovingly dubbed "Crash Masters" by appalled sportscar lovers. The overweight and overpowered supercars were no match for the track's slippery short oval at Indianapolis Raceway Park and the "past masters" who were racing them. The XJ220 was designed to run on the autobahn or a fast race track. The confines of a tight, short and slow oval was no match for the car's 542 horsepower, 475 lb-ft of torque, or top speed of over 200mph. Capable of 0 to 100mph in just 7.3 sceonds, these $700,000+ supercars were destined to get dings in them when 10 were set loose in the hands of former, yet older, past racing greats on a tight circuit like that at IRP. Equipped with a 3-1/2L twin turbo V6, taken from the TWR Jaguar XJR-10 IMSA sprint-race prototype race car, these cars were legitimate 210mph cars in the hands of professionals. One endurance race-prepared XJ220 won it's class at the 24 Hours of LeMans before a technical disqualification took away their hard-fought win. The drivers of the Fast Masters series were former North American racing greats from all walks of racing life. Why Jaguar would run a promotional stunt like this in a country where the amazing cars were not available for sale is beyond me. A lot of things about the Fast Masters series was a mystery to sportscar fans that watched the beautiful cars get spun and wrecked on a weekly basis on national prime-time television. |