Tom Walkinshaw Racing began its association with Jaguar in 1982, preparing the Jaguar XJS for the European Touring Car Championship. The move into prototype racing came in 1985, when TWR entered the XJR-6 into the World Sportscar Championship, with Jaguar keen to restore its international prestige following privatisation in 1984. Silk Cut, a brand of the tobacco company Gallaher Group, became the primary commercial sponsor of the programme, lending its name and pale blue colour palette to the team's entries.
The TWR Silk Cut Jaguar cars competed in the WSCC across three distinct prototype generations. The XJR-6, designed by Tony Southgate with a carbon-fibre chassis and Jaguar V12 engine, entered in 1985 and 1986. Its successor, the XJR-8, took the WSCC Teams' Championship in 1987, with Raul Boesel winning the Drivers' Championship. The following XJR-9 retained the Teams' title in 1988 while Martin Brundle claimed the Drivers' title.
The programme also ran parallel IMSA GT Championship entries in North America, initially sharing the Jaguar contract with Group 44 before TWR secured sole responsibility for both WSCC and IMSA from 1988 onwards. The 24 Hours of Daytona fell to TWR-Jaguar in 1988.
The centrepiece of the Silk Cut Jaguar programme was its record at the 24 Hours of Le Mans. TWR broke Jaguar's 31-year absence from victory at the Circuit de la Sarthe in 1988, when Andy Wallace, Johnny Dumfries, and Jan Lammers drove the XJR-9 to outright victory. The win carried enormous commercial significance for both Jaguar and its new partner Ford, which had acquired Jaguar in 1989. A second Le Mans victory came in 1990 with the XJR-12, shared by Martin Brundle, John Nielsen, and Price Cobb.
TWR developed the XJR-14 for the 1991 WSCC season — the first Jaguar prototype designed entirely by Ross Brawn. The car dominated the final WSCC season, winning both the Drivers' title (Teo Fabi) and the Teams' Championship. However, Jaguar and the other major manufacturers withdrew from the series over rule changes they considered unfair, bringing the Silk Cut Jaguar era to a close.
In IMSA, TWR continued through 1992 with the XJR-14 in North American configuration, but the car's performance was not replicated on tighter American circuits, and Jaguar ended its sports car programme after that season.
The Silk Cut Jaguar livery endures as a cultural touchstone of Group C racing. The combination of the pale blue-purple palette derived from the Silk Cut brand identity and the lean, aerodynamic forms of the XJR cars produced images that have remained prominent in motorsport photography and memorabilia. The programme demonstrated that a privateer team, working closely with a manufacturer, could build and operate championship-winning prototypes over multiple seasons. TWR's engineering infrastructure — particularly the contributions of Tony Southgate and Ross Brawn — laid groundwork that influenced endurance racing car design into the 1990s.