“Cadillac was committed to racing, winning IMSA titles in 2017-18 and ’21”
DOUG NYE
Only recently have I realised that marketing folk and the enthusiast-journo in me will never quite understand each other. In 2000, I remember Melbourne Airport festooned with posters bawling ‘The Cat is Back!’ in celebration of Jaguar Racing’s imminent Formula 1 debut in the Australian Grand Prix.
This must have seemed a happy phrase to celebrate Jaguar’s return to frontline road racing after its endurance titles of 1987-88 and ’91. But what ground my gears was the memory of Jaguar founder Sir William Lyons having considered World Championship GP racing in the early 1950s – but deciding against: “Grand Prix racing does not relate to our customers. Winning Le Mans does”. Five Le Mans wins later, his point made – Jaguar’s marketing people lived on those laurels for decades.