Jaguar has unveiled a GT4-spec version of its F-Type sports car that will be raced by a team of wounded veterans this year.
The F-Type GT4 was commissioned by Superdry co-founder James Holder, who raced in the British GT series in the GT4 class for the first time in 2016. It was during his first full season of racing that he saw Prince Harry’s Invictus Games, an Olympic-style event for wounded servicemen and women. This inspired him to start Invictus Games Racing, which will enter British GT this year with two F-Type GT4s and two wounded former soliders as drivers.
The F-Type GT4 is based on the SVR version of the two-door. Unlike the road-going SVR, the racecar is rear-wheel drive only, as per GT4 class rules. The 5.0-liter supercharged V8 has been optimized for competition use, while motorsport-specification brakes, wheels, suspension and transmission components were also fitted. Jag says the car has been in development over at its Special Vehicle Operations center for over a year.
Driving the F-Type GT4s will be Basil Rawlinson and Ben Norfolk, who will share car #22, along with Steve McCulley and Paul Vice in car #44. Professional driver Jason Wolfe will mentor Norfolk and Rawlinson throughout the racing season this year, while fellow racer Matthew George will do the same for McCulley and Vice.
SEE ALSO: Invictus Games Driving Challenge an Escape for Injured Vets
After touring Afghanistan in 2010 and 2011, Basil Rawlinson suffers from PTSD and has several degenerative discs in his back. His teammate Ben Norfolk, a former Royal Airforce Sargeant, suffers from PTSD, anxiety and depression after assisting with a multi-casualty recovery mission in Afghanistan in 2008. Steve McCulley was nearly killed by an IED in 2011, which put him in a coma for three weeks. He will share his car with Paul Vice, whose leg was amputated from below the knee after he stepped on an IED in Afghanistan during his fourth tour in 2011.
The 2018 British GT season will kick off with the first round at Oulton Park on March 31st.
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