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Jaguar Returns to the 6 Hour Race (2004)
After an absence of thirty years, Jaguar was back at the start of the annual 6 hour endurance race which harks back to the early days of Pukekohe. In fact this event hosted the last victory of a Mk 2 in a main stream race when in 1965 Ray Archibald and Tony Shelley concluded a string of wins driving the 3.8.
Member Eddie York was determined to bring Jaguar back to this historic race and entered his well developed XJ6 race car (Christine) and together with co-driver Rob Moston (also an XJ6 racer) surprised a lot of people with a great result.
Mind you scrutineering proved a little daunting for the oldest car in the field seeing what competition lay ahead with V8 Touring cars, Nissan Skyline GTRs, Porsches, et al and top notch drivers including Andy Booth and Shane Drake, they were now in the big league!
As the race starts at 2 pm it means that some time is run under lights which adds to the spectacle and required all drivers to undertake a Friday night practice, unfortunately this was done in pouring rain making the experience all the more memorable. Luckily the race held on Saturday was dry apart from a few light showers and the very last laps when rain again started to fall.
The XJ lined up in the large field of 46 down in 36th place and started to lap at its predetermined pace, a win was not on but a finish was the aim. A great invention these days is direct lap timing achieved with transponders fixed to each car, these were then broadcast on a dedicated TV channel which allowed everyone to keep track of all the cars, giving an instant update of their positions and lap times and the TV in the Jaguar pit was popular with nearby entrants who hadn’t brought their own.
The race organisers, obviously used to modern cars with large windscreens, had produced a sponsors sticker for the top of the 'screen which was huge and had to be trimmed right down to enable our guys to see. It didn't matter though as within a couple of laps it had blown off, such was the pace of the XJ! A pity that the photos aren't in colour, they do not show the lurid flouro green on the headlights, which made spotting our car very easy, of course the lack of sponsor decals made that easy too.
The first pit stop did catch the pit crew a little unawares as Eddie was expected to do around an hour before requiring more fuel but he came in ten minutes early as his fuel warning light had come on, this proved to be a bit pessimistic as only 40 litres were required in the 60 litre tank, but quick work saw the car refuelled and Rob took the Jaguar away for the next stint. Rob didn’t come in early, in fact he stayed out quite a bit longer and had the pit crew ready and waiting, thinking that he was bound to come in next time around but Rob was just proving how fugal the Jaguar was.
Changeovers then became routine and more slick, with cheery waves from the crew as the car departed, this developed into waving at the car each time it passed as the laps ticked by such was the euphoria caused by the car’s great performance. Then Rob was given a drive-through penalty for crossing the yellow line when leaving the pits ( if a Schumacher can do it ...) and promptly did it again (!) well it was dark by this stage. It was Rob again who was driving the last hour and the crew were concerned as to whether he could last the distance without a ‘splash and dash’ to the finish but that concern turned out to be redundant.
With just 20 minutes to go and all the Jaguar supporters getting excited that the team was really going to achieve the memorable feat of lasting the 6 hours, the car was hit from behind and spun off the track into the armco, badly damaging the rear and ending the run for the XJ. Fortunately Rob was not injured thanks to the well designed roll cage but the boot of the XJ was no more. Huge disappointment was felt by all involved, they had nearly done the improbable, the car was running strongly and would have certainly lasted to the end. However, with the Jag in such a good position so close to the end it was officially classified as finishing in 26th place!
A tremendous result for Eddie, Rob and their team, they deserve much praise for the effort they put in, they demonstrated that even a twenty year old Jaguar can still be an effective race car with the right preparation and personal behind it. Who were the winners on the day? The Jaguar team, who gained a lot of admiration from those present. Many many congratulations to all concerned.
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Flash – An extreme makeover
Stephen Ward
Flash started out as an XJ6 racecar, or at least a slightly modified road car that would take to the track from time to time in the Auckland JDC’s newly formed XJ6 race category for Series 1 and 2. Series 2 SWB XJs are the ones to get, because of the better brakes over the Series 1 and SWB for less weight, however as they were only produced for two years starting in 1973 they are not exactly thick on the ground.
A piece of cardboard with “1974 XJ6 $500” on a stall at a local swap meet caught my eye and further inquiries got me the owners phone number, a friend of the stall holder. The car was indeed a SWB but had been laid up because of a blown head gasket, never mind, at least it was stored in a garage and for $500 it was worth a punt. I duly bought the car and towed it home, together with a file of work done over the years, constant repairs had soured relations between car and owner, the head gasket failure being the final straw.
An engine swap was naturally called for and a rusty Series 2 with reported good engine was purchased, stripped, and its engine transferred. Another change was for a manual gearbox with an all syncro MOD unit and all the ancillaries obtained from a wrecker. The budget (what budget?) still had room for some larger wheels and another swap meet revealed four 16x8 Chev mags which fitted nicely. Having done the mechanical upgrades the body was next but because of said budget no longer in existence, the poor paint was camouflaged somewhat with a stripe or two courtesy of all the gold paint spray cans in stock at the local hardware shop.
Flash Golden had arrived.
Racing was not a success as I won the ‘slowest in series’ award in the classic car group the Jags raced with at the time and it was politely suggested that I would be better suited in a slower division. I took the hint and joined the ‘Classic Trialists’ who nominate a lap time, the winner being the closest to this average after five laps. Still good fun as you could make the lap time on your limit but I was determined to regain some pride for Flash.
A few years later some spare funds from my mother’s estate (God bless her) gave me spare cash to throw down the bottomless pit called ‘classic cars’. I have always liked the look of the Series 2 XJ Coupes and the Broadspeed Coupes with their wide body flares that raced in the mid seventies were even better. John Steed had a street version in the New Avengers and that got me hooked – Purdie helped of course. So when I read that the company who made the Broadspeed body kit still had the moulds, a plan emerged. Coupes are even rarer than SWB Series 2 XJs and a lot more expensive but I had Flash Golden and being a SWB version it had the same dimensions as the Coupe. The body kit was sent for and it arrived a year later (!) four wheel arch extensions, two rear lower valances and the front air dam, unfortunately they couldn’t supply the rear wing (but I now know where one is after reading Jag Mag issue 126 and not a million miles from here).
I am not good with my hands regarding bodywork, but I know who is, Tony Katterns of Jaguar Restorations in Auckland, so he was approached to undertake the job, Denise calls it “an extreme makeover”. Tony hadn’t joined fibreglass panels to steel before but he accepted the challenge, I think he liked the idea as it was a little different from his usual fare of restoration where originality is everything. The rear flares are big and being suited to the Coupe would cover part of the rear door, I had seen pictures of XJ saloons in the UK with this kit fitted and they had cut back the flare and added the overlapping part to the door. Yes that works but the look wasn’t right and as I was going this far I might as well go the whole hog and have the rear doors welded up, making Flash into a coupè sort of.
Tony started stripping the body to accept the new panels and naturally some rust was found along the way which was attended to using his traditional skills. The joint between the metal panels and fibreglass flares received a lot of attention, not only to prevent future cracking but also to ensure a properly contoured transition. The front air dam being for the race car was too low for road use, luckily Eddie York, an XJ6 racer and fibreglass boat builder came to the rescue and cut it down to suit. A few other mods were carried out on the way, Ray Andrews of Jaguar Spares and Repairs in Wellington and a member of the Auckland JDC, runs a highly modified XJ6 S1 in classic racing and in the NZ Targa, with XJ40 running gear and also an XJ40 petrol tank over the rear axle for better weight distribution. I liked the petrol tank idea as it gives more capacity for street driving as opposed to the usual fuel cell in the spare wheelwell used by most other modified XJ6 racers here. A general lowering of the suspension also took place.
Tony wants the cars he works on to look the best they can and he didn’t appreciate the homemade bonnet louvres I had fitted and suggested that his newly acquired louvre cutter would do a far better job, also the rear wing using a modified RX7 unit was assigned to the scrap bin for a more professional one. The body work was done and the old paint removed but as Tony doesn’t paint cars Flash went to one of the paint shops he recommends. The idea was to follow on from the original colour scheme of turquoise with gold stripes with perhaps a change to more of a green. I like the new bright green ‘hero’ colours from OZ but Denise thought that would be too much and I realised that it would mean that Flash was carrying the Australian colours. :-)
Something completely different was required and on the subject of national colours, black came to mind, with just a big central gold stripe. Car Heaven in Henderson undertook the job and a great job they did, including all shut faces and pillars. One Oz feature I couldn’t get out of was the wheels, I talked to Peter Sloss of Just Jags, the owner of the only Broadspeed Coupe outside the UK and he told me the size of his wheels, 19x13 at the front and 19x15 at the rear, a bit large for my requirements and anyway Peter told me that tyres are no longer available in these sizes! After that I went to Simmons, as they can make up big wheels, in the right colour (gold to match the stripe – actually it was gold stripe to match the wheels) and their wheels look superb. I wanted the wheel to look big so had the largest offsets I could get. Anthony of BG Marketing, the Simmons agent here, did a great job sizing the wheels for me, 18x9 fronts and 18x11 rears, and he also tracked down tyres to suit.
With the outside looking so good, the inside had to be tided up. Luckily I already had a pair of black racing seats which fitted nicely into the new interior colour of ... black. The Terracotta coloured vinyl trim was painted to match and new black carpets completed the transformation, except for the back. The rear seats had gone as access via the narrow front doors and the racing seats was impossible making them redundant and they were a bit shabby anyway, so I made up a luggage locker like the early rag top XJSs. I had worried that the side view with short front doors would look odd but the lack of rear doors doesn’t stand out like a sore thumb, to the uninitiated anyway.
The last additions were tinted glass and the name ‘Flash Black’, as he is now called, on the rear flanks.
I am really pleased with the outcome, due largely to Tony’s handiwork, and like nothing better than to parade Flash along with the imports and hot rods out for a Sunday cruise. Unfortunately Flash looks so good now that I am loathed to take him back on the race track.
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Steve's XJ6
Larry's Mk2
