Jaguar revisits Jabbeke

Classic cats commemorate the 60th anniversary of Jaguar's remarkable production car speed record

Jaguar has long been synonymous with high-speed motorway tests. Both the XK120 and E-Type were, legend has it, in part responsible for the introduction of new speed limits on Britain’s motorways back in 1965. But perhaps Jaguar’s most remarkable feat of speed on the road came in 1953, when they took the record for the top speed achieved by a production car back from Pegaso.

Jaguar had initially taken the production car speed honours back in 1949, when Ron ‘Soapy’ Sutton edged a factory-standard XK120 up to 132.6mph on a flying mile, on a closed road near Jabbeke, in Belgium. Successive attempts with Jaguar test driver Norman Dewis at the wheel raised that record bit by bit. But Jaguar’s nose was soon to be bloodied. In 1953, Pegaso, seeing the chance to steal a march on one of the biggest names in racing, headed over to Jabbeke, and used a Z-102 to take the record at a speed of 155mph.

F-Type with XK120, the car that started it all

Not to be outdone, Sir William Lyons called Dewis up, and asked what he was going to do about it. Dewis was doubtful there was much more to be had from the XK, but he and his team headed back to Jabbeke in October. This time, the car was equipped with a streamlined bubble canopy and under-body shielding (which, conveniently, became available on the XK120’s options list just beforehand), as well as slick tyres with just 2mm of rubber left on them, blown up to 50psi. It was a real tale of derring-do, this. Dewis helmed the XK without a seat – otherwise he wouldn’t have fit beneath the tight canopy – instead using a thin piece of foam as his only support. Above him, the canopy was bolted down, sealing him in – had something gone badly wrong, the 120 would almost certainly have become his coffin.

Fortunately, it didn’t. In fact, Dewis smashed the record with a top speed of 172.4mph, bringing the laurels back to Jaguar – as its full-page advert in the next week’s Autocar Magazine attested. The XK120 was – once again – the fastest car in the world.

Grandparents came along to spectate

Today, the XK120’s spiritual successor, the F-Type, isn’t the fastest car in the world. But that hasn’t stopped Jaguar from returning to Jabbeke to relive its old glories. The plan? With the help of the local authorities, close a stretch of road and, quite simply, see what an F-Type V8S can do. Along for the ride – though not taking part in the speed run, it has to be said – is what Jaguar likes to refer to as the F-Type’s ‘bloodline’: immaculate examples of an XK120, a C-Type, a D-Type, and an E-Type. Dewis is here, too, to cast the eye of experience over proceedings.

It’s a freezing day as we line up at the side of the road to spectate. Half the town has turned up, too, and the marshals are having the devil’s own job making sure everyone stays far enough back to avoid being creamed by the F-Type. The car is completely standard, with the exception of a few strands of duct tape – de rigeur, of course, for a high-speed run. It’s being driven by none other than Andy Wallace, one of Jaguar’s 1988 Le Mans-winning drivers, and as we arrive the GPS data logging equipment is already being calibrated. The F-Type rockets past, seemingly already on a flyer – but in fact, this is just Andy having some fun as the instruments are set up.

Dewis & Wallace: Jabbeke veterans old & new

Eventually, though, the word is given. In the distance, a pair of twinkling Xenons start to move, and the helicopter Jaguar’s hired to record overhead video tilts into the sky and peels off to give chase. As it approaches, the tyre roar increases, and then the F-Type flashes out from behind the hedge in the central reservation, whipping past in an instant, and it’s gone. But the noise – oh crikey, the noise is just fabulous. Let’s leave the arguments about where the F-Type fits into today’s sports car market or whether it’s going to be worth the money Jaguar will be asking, and just revel for a moment in what a superb exhaust note it has – a guttural throb at low revs which rises to an angry ululation, overlaid with crackles and rasps on the over-run. You won’t need to buy one to enjoy this – just stand outside a Jag dealer in a few months’ time and wait for someone to take one out on a test drive. Take a Thermos and a fold-up chair, and make a day of it. It’ll be worth it – it’s that good.

After three more similarly scorching runs, Andy comes in and says he reckons that’s about the best he can do. It seems he started the last run with the rear wheels up on the roundabout island at the end of the straight, and then came to a halt, hard on the brakes, with the bumper just inches away from the crash buffers at the other end. That’s all she’ll do on this stretch of tarmac, then – so what’s the result?

Here's hoping F-Type lives up to the hype

179mph, is what. It’s still a smidge off Jaguar’s claimed max of 186mph – but then, Andy points out that the car was still accelerating when he threw out the anchor. Seems legit, in that case – and on the way there, the car hit 62mph in 4.2 seconds, besting Jaguar’s claimed time of 4.3.

So, the F-Type does what Jaguar says it does. Was that the point of this whole exercise? Erm... well, partly, say the men from JLR. But, as they put it, what they really wanted to do was to ‘tell the story’ of the F-Type’s heritage. Or, in other words, to re-state their claim that the F-Type of today is just as special as the Jaguars of old. Is it? Well, we wouldn't like to say just yet. But we’ll leave you with one significant detail. As the parade of crackling, wailing, popping classics rolled through Jabbeke before the event, followed by the the three burbling F-Types, just as many cameras were pointed at the new cars as were pointed at the old. In other words, if this car drives as well as it looks and sounds, it’ll fit the brief.

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Gorilla Boy

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