After seven years study and work.........

[lowdrag]

.....we are finally getting there. She'll be ready for Silverstone in July I hope.

http://i169.photobucket.com/albums/u216/lynxd67/C%20type%20build%20photos/CKL24thApril.jpg

http://i169.photobucket.com/albums/u216/lynxd67/C%20type%20build%20photos/Nigels2.jpg

[Wouter Melissen]

That looks very nice. It's a shame it never worked very well.

[lowdrag]

Don't be too quick to criticise! It didn't work well because they didn't test it enough. Two tiny modifications and it did 6 hours at MIRA testing ground without a problem after the race. This car requires 3/4 of the BHP of a standard C type to maintain 100mph. It is very slippery.

[Wouter Melissen]

Don't be too quick to criticise! It didn't work well because they didn't test it enough. Two tiny modifications and it did 6 hours at MIRA testing ground without a problem after the race. This car requires 3/4 of the BHP of a standard C type to maintain 100mph. It is very slippery.

Ah ok. History has not judged it well then. Is this a restoration of one of the Le Mans cars?

[Rasmus]

I would give my left kidney and quite possibly part of my liver to work on that car :o

[lowdrag]

I spent five years garnering information on the car because none have existed since 1952. Jaguar cut up the bodies and threw them away. Because the car existed but for one race photos are few and between (I have found but 20) and a day at the Jaguar museum garnered but two photos and no plans so we had to work it out for ourselves. Then I had the car built from scratch. The chassis was copied from an original C type, the rest we have found here and there. The fuel tank, the spare wheel retaining strap and other bits are original but the rest is new and the body made by hand in aluminium. Shell soon be painted BRG and the idea is to square the circle by racing her next year at the Le Mans Classic. This is no mundane replica, but a complete copy of the original down to the seats which are not even in leather, plus many other details which are different on this car. She will have the necessary FIA papers. Three raced at Le Mans, each body being slightly different. This will the #19 car raced by Ian Stewart, who has helped me enormously with information on the car.

[henk4]

Congrats, always good to see of work of this magnitude about to be completed. When will your first test drive be taken place?

[faksta]

Wish you further luck with the car. But what is a single seater on a first photograph? Is it one of your projects too?

[f6fhellcat13]

Congrats, sir. That is truly beautiful.
I hope you have many a successful race in it.

[Rockefella]

Congrats on nearing the end of such a long and tedious process from what I've gathered in this thread. Best of luck in Silverstone

[Soloracer]

Congrats and best of luck. What an amazing car.

[Ferrer]

Congratulations indeed. A piece of automotive history.

[lowdrag]

It has run but very briefly for one reason - no radiator. We couldn't work out the height of the radiator until the bonnet was made. We have an original C type radiator which we shall cut down to size now. The cooling system was taken from the BRM of the day and is unusually a sealed system; we have to make the header tank for that too. The engine is standard XK 3.4 but modified so has around 240 bhp - real ones. I could have gone further like the D type (which has 325) but decided on a tractable engine. It runs on twin sand cast SU 2 inch carbs whereas the D type is on three 45DCOE Webers so can never have the same power anyway. I shall be rallying this car too which isn't about power but tractability. And Wouter, the history of this car is there to read in Jaguar books and all the history of how they cured the problems. It is just that people hear things and take them as gospel and then they become perceived wisdom. Basically, the car was sound. It was just two silly mechanical things that caused the problems.

[Auxin]

Nice rear end, I have to be honest, I've never personally taken an interest in old Jaguars, but I might make an exception here.

[MMC12]

WooW, Great! Well done! A very good work ;)

[clutch-monkey]

hoo that looks like a huge undertaking
good to hear the end is in sight!

[willysjeep]

WooW, Great! Well done! A very good work ;)
YES, YES i agree, Fantastic work done here Lowdrag. Congrats and many enjoyable miles. Good to see old styling in the round again. :p;):D

[Wenkel]

Congratulations! It's always sattisfying to see that your tenacity and courage has paid off. I wish the best of lucks for your project.
I have onkly one word for the car: SPLENDID!

[lowdrag]

I forgot to mention. The other car in the picture looks a single seater but it is the angle the photo was taken at. It is a Fraser Nash Le Mans Replica - the "chain gang" cars.