More than a decade after Jaguar pulled out of the gruelling 24 hour Le Mans racing, the company might return to it, according to Jaguar’s new owner Tata Motors Chairman, Mr. Ratan Tata.

Tata Motors bought the two iconic british brands, Jaguar and Land Rover earlier this year in $2.3 billion deal with Ford. Ford had pulled out Jaguar out of the Le Mans citing lack of funds.

“We want to hit the Le Mans race, for which we are already re-examining whether we can bring back the Jaguar brand to its earlier state,” Ratan Tata, chairman, Tata Motors, said at the company’s annual general meeting earlier this week.

Jaguar has a rich past when it comes to Le Mans. The brand was actually built upon its success in the Le Mans.

Jaguar won its last Le Mans race which started in 1923, in 1990 with Jaguar XJR 12 and was at its peak during 1950’s when it won five out of the seven races that held between 1951 to 1957.

“Jaguar had lost its sheen over the years and the brand had suffered. Despite this, it has a very loyal customer and dealer base spread across various countries. Both Jaguar and Land Rover have tremendous engineering capabilities and now it is upon us to keep it together,” Tata added.

Jaguar is currently in the process of evaluating launches in growing markets like Russia and China and will also come to India in due course of time.

Source: Business Standard