A visit to Jaguar Classic
Discussion
Back in the lockdowns of 2020 I joined a very informal Gran Turismo online racing group, 27Racers. One member happens to also be Global PR Manager for Jaguar Land Rover SVO, and he had an idea.
August would have seen the 100th birthday of Norman Dewis, the legendary Jaguar test, development, racing, record-breaking and delivery driver who helped hone the cars which made the brand world-famous.
So he proposed a memorial race event, racing E-Types around the game’s Le Mans circuit for a total of 100 miles, with realistically low-grip tyres and ABS firmly off. The podium finishers would then get a chance to visit Jaguar and drive a real E-Type - a neat linking of virtual and real, proposed in a year when we all spent more time than we’d wish confined to the former.
In truth a little slippage occurred between competition and the prize outing yesterday; as some faster competitors couldn’t make it, I was offered the chance and gratefully accepted.
We kicked off with lunch at Gilk’s Garage Cafe; the first two cars are what you get when you invite Gran Turismo players to a day out, while the third is from Jag’s press fleet - ‘just missing the orange stripe’ as we joked.
Next was looking around the Jaguar Daimler Heritage Trust collection at the British Motor Museum. I imagine many of you will have visited this so I won’t post many pics, but it’s a real treasure trove including rare concepts and prototypes, many of which I recalled from scoop stories in Autocar back in the day.
We then drove on to the Fen End proving ground, where Jaguar Classic were holding an event with Bremont watches that was just ending.
“Pick an E-Type” we were told; I got this one, together with a very friendly and encouraging instructor
Some of you may recognise this as an early car, with the flat floor and external bonnet latches, 3.8 engine and notorious Moss gearbox. I’m told it was ordered new in 1961 by the Duke of Bedford, who clearly has great taste in cars and colours.
While I graunched a few changes, it felt like with familiarity it would be a learnable challenge, just a matter of getting the revs correct before slotting in the next gear, I’m sure with a few hundred miles I could get my 50% hit rate up. It wasn’t that hard to get in or out; the ergonomics weren't great, with the wheel at an angle, but was workable. The steering was less heavy than I'd expected, only had to get the car rolling to be able to turn fairly easily.
The engine is fab, incredibly tractable and torquey low-down - no wonder they put it into light tanks. Not scary-fast, but fast enough for the car I think; we got up to about 70, which seemed fast enough with the shallow screen. It was quite noisy tho, and only some of that was the gale blowing over the screen, the engine seemed like it would be a fairly constant companion at a motorway cruise. It felt fairly secure in the modest cornering I was able to attempt, not sure how it'd feel approaching the limit.
The Fen End track is three lanes wide but with zero run-off, just armco; so it really isn’t the place to push the limits of an unfamiliar car. On the other hand, without having to worry too much about traffic it was a great chance to concentrate on just the mechanical aspect of driving. It was great to have the chance to get behind the wheel, I’ve never driven a car older than me before, and there’s a real satisfaction in taking on the challenge and getting it right.
I think the modern context makes it hard to imagine the impact the E must have had in 1961 - the performance and to a slightly lesser extent the handling feel quite modern in some ways, must have been amazing back then.
I then had a passenger ride in the Continuation Lightweight. This is a very different E-Type, noisier and laugh-out-loud fast when the engine comes on cam at 4,000. They reckon it’s making 390 bhp on 105 octane leaded fuel, and is barely over a tonne wet with the alloy panels and engine block. Gripped well too, the cornering forces felt at least on a par with more modern sports cars on track. The factory driver gave it the beans, running up to 5k rpm in top on the straights, starting to move around under power at corner exit, and taking the racing line we were asked to forego in our drives.
The D-Type rides rightly went to those who actually topped the finishing order, but just hearing that car ripping around the track was a real treat
I’m someone who considers myself a car enthusiast rather than a brand enthusiast, yet as such I’ve long known and admired the world-leading artistic and technical achievements of Jaguar in the post-war, white heat of technology era, and their continuing elegance and excellence. I consider myself very lucky to have had this opportunity to experience these jewels of Jaguar’s heritage - at times, with all the 60s sports and racing Jags coming and going from the pits, one could imagine being back in the day, perhaps at a factory test session preparatory to another attempt on Le Mans. As such I thought I should share with fellow PH’ers.
August would have seen the 100th birthday of Norman Dewis, the legendary Jaguar test, development, racing, record-breaking and delivery driver who helped hone the cars which made the brand world-famous.
So he proposed a memorial race event, racing E-Types around the game’s Le Mans circuit for a total of 100 miles, with realistically low-grip tyres and ABS firmly off. The podium finishers would then get a chance to visit Jaguar and drive a real E-Type - a neat linking of virtual and real, proposed in a year when we all spent more time than we’d wish confined to the former.
In truth a little slippage occurred between competition and the prize outing yesterday; as some faster competitors couldn’t make it, I was offered the chance and gratefully accepted.
We kicked off with lunch at Gilk’s Garage Cafe; the first two cars are what you get when you invite Gran Turismo players to a day out, while the third is from Jag’s press fleet - ‘just missing the orange stripe’ as we joked.
Next was looking around the Jaguar Daimler Heritage Trust collection at the British Motor Museum. I imagine many of you will have visited this so I won’t post many pics, but it’s a real treasure trove including rare concepts and prototypes, many of which I recalled from scoop stories in Autocar back in the day.
We then drove on to the Fen End proving ground, where Jaguar Classic were holding an event with Bremont watches that was just ending.
“Pick an E-Type” we were told; I got this one, together with a very friendly and encouraging instructor
Some of you may recognise this as an early car, with the flat floor and external bonnet latches, 3.8 engine and notorious Moss gearbox. I’m told it was ordered new in 1961 by the Duke of Bedford, who clearly has great taste in cars and colours.
While I graunched a few changes, it felt like with familiarity it would be a learnable challenge, just a matter of getting the revs correct before slotting in the next gear, I’m sure with a few hundred miles I could get my 50% hit rate up. It wasn’t that hard to get in or out; the ergonomics weren't great, with the wheel at an angle, but was workable. The steering was less heavy than I'd expected, only had to get the car rolling to be able to turn fairly easily.
The engine is fab, incredibly tractable and torquey low-down - no wonder they put it into light tanks. Not scary-fast, but fast enough for the car I think; we got up to about 70, which seemed fast enough with the shallow screen. It was quite noisy tho, and only some of that was the gale blowing over the screen, the engine seemed like it would be a fairly constant companion at a motorway cruise. It felt fairly secure in the modest cornering I was able to attempt, not sure how it'd feel approaching the limit.
The Fen End track is three lanes wide but with zero run-off, just armco; so it really isn’t the place to push the limits of an unfamiliar car. On the other hand, without having to worry too much about traffic it was a great chance to concentrate on just the mechanical aspect of driving. It was great to have the chance to get behind the wheel, I’ve never driven a car older than me before, and there’s a real satisfaction in taking on the challenge and getting it right.
I think the modern context makes it hard to imagine the impact the E must have had in 1961 - the performance and to a slightly lesser extent the handling feel quite modern in some ways, must have been amazing back then.
I then had a passenger ride in the Continuation Lightweight. This is a very different E-Type, noisier and laugh-out-loud fast when the engine comes on cam at 4,000. They reckon it’s making 390 bhp on 105 octane leaded fuel, and is barely over a tonne wet with the alloy panels and engine block. Gripped well too, the cornering forces felt at least on a par with more modern sports cars on track. The factory driver gave it the beans, running up to 5k rpm in top on the straights, starting to move around under power at corner exit, and taking the racing line we were asked to forego in our drives.
The D-Type rides rightly went to those who actually topped the finishing order, but just hearing that car ripping around the track was a real treat
I’m someone who considers myself a car enthusiast rather than a brand enthusiast, yet as such I’ve long known and admired the world-leading artistic and technical achievements of Jaguar in the post-war, white heat of technology era, and their continuing elegance and excellence. I consider myself very lucky to have had this opportunity to experience these jewels of Jaguar’s heritage - at times, with all the 60s sports and racing Jags coming and going from the pits, one could imagine being back in the day, perhaps at a factory test session preparatory to another attempt on Le Mans. As such I thought I should share with fellow PH’ers.
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