Jonathan Gitlin
LOS ANGELES—Car companies like Jaguar go racing for a couple of reasons. One is to prove their engineering in as fierce a crucible as possible, something the English company did to good effect with technologies like disc brakes and monocoque chassis construction in the 1950s. The other reason may be less high-minded, but no less important—races sell cars. Call it “speed by association.” That’s particularly true of racing programs that use street cars as their starting point, which goes some way to explain the Jaguar I-Pace eTrophy, a one-make race series using electric vehicles that will travel and race with the Formula E circus next season.
Jaguar was one of the first OEMs to take the idea of electric racing seriously, and it has had a team competing in Formula E for a while now. That’s useful for developing its engineering know-how, but a Formula E race car—with its open wheels and a single seat—looks nothing like an EV you or I could buy. What better way, then, for Jaguar to let people know that its new I-Pace EV—which hits the showrooms in 2018—can handle it than by having a pack of 20 of them race each other as a support series? And since all the cars will be identical I-Paces, a Jaguar is guaranteed to win every race.
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