Category: Cars

I am a “car guy”… I love old cars.

E-type 2+2 roofline lowering examples.

The Series 1 Jaguar E-type 2+2

On the Jag-Lover’s lists/forums a discussion arises often about the odd car out of the E-type sphere, namely the 2+2. Introduced in 1966, it offered a back seat to a previously 2-seat-only car. The wheelbase was lengthened and the coupe’s top was sort of bowed upward and extended rearward. This enabled the option of an automatic transmission in the long wheelbase cars. Initially everything else remained the same; bumpers, windscreen, etc. A bit over a year later, Jaguar changed the windshield with a more raked back angle, and eventually with the Series 3 V-12 cars made it wider as well. The convertible V-12s were all based on this longer wheelbase, and wider 2+2 basic design. The 2+2 was actually a huge sales success for Jaguar and sold in better numbers in its day, but today is considered by the market to be of lesser value than the OTS & FHC. Given this position in the market the 2+2 has become sort of the canvas by which people play “what if”… many have been converted to convertibles for example. The other variation often thought of is a “chopped” roof. Many believe the bulbous roofline combined with the steep Series 1 windscreen makes for a funny beluga whale profile and wonder if Jaguar would have been better off with a lower roofline.

I grabbed a photo of an early (1966) 2+2 and ran it through Photoshop, bending and warping pixels in two ways to create a “what if” study for a few guys in the Jag-Lovers “pub” who wanted to see what it might look like. The low angle of the photo makes for subtlety that is hard to grasp, but it is a start. I may try it again with a different photo, but lets have a look…

First I just lowered the roof across the board:

Lowered

Assuming that task might be too hard to actually achieve in sheet metal, I tried a sort of cut-n-shut method where the front was lowered more than the back, with a “pivot point” fairly low on the back deck to accommodate the glass and hatch:

pivoted

Whaddya think guys?

(Honestly as I have no skin in this game beyond the pixels above I have no opinion either way.)

Two more!

For this one, I basically flattened the back-seat’s “hump” in the roof, trying to replicate the lines of the FHC:

FHC-like

The guys on the J-L pub have been comparing the process to chopping a Mercury, so I had to go that way… really LOW:

Ferrari Daytona?

…and it sort of looks like a Ferrari Daytona to me!

Gearhead Flix: “Truth in 24”

Truth in 24

I just finished watching Truth in 24, and if you are a geadhead I have to say you owe it to yourself to watch. The 24 Hours of Le Mans is for me the only truly compelling event in motorsports. F1 just seems way too technical, delicate, and overdone. NASCAR reminds me of driving down the freeway, only with just left turns and more noise. Indy seems like an anachronism, or open wheel NASCAR. Le Mans however is completely different. It has deep history, combined with all the technicality and strategy you could imagine. They race, balls-out, rain or shine, in daylight and darkness, at speeds that boggle the mind, on a course made partially from public roads. The cars are all radically different, with four completely different classes on course simultaneously. The machines have to have seriously high top-end speed, while still being able to brake and turn at very low speeds. Best of all, the race is not a fixed distance, but merely hours on a clock. Endurance. The car has to be built to last, and the crews have to be able to keep it running, or rebuild it on the fly. Teamwork is vital. Engineering is critical. Driving skill is tested. Survival is as important as speed.

One item on my “bucket list” is to attend the event, by DRIVING there, ideally in the 65E. Meanwhile I have Steve McQueen’s iconic and epic Le Mans, and this wonderful documentary, Truth in 24. While nowhere near as compelling as McQueen’s classic, it has perhaps even better photography, which is saying a lot. It follows the 2008 Le Mans event from the perspective of Audi’s R10 teams. Despite having dominated Le Mans with their R8 and R10 cars over the past decade, Audi was viewed as the underdog last year as Peugeot had their Diesel-powered 908 HDI prototypes. The Peugeots were 3.5 seconds faster per lap around Circuit de la Sarthe. While that may not sound like much, over 24 hours that adds up to a daunting lead. How the Audi team pulls off a win is documented in this film. The difference at the end comes down to one decision, by one very tired engineer, who is being second-guessed by everyone at the moment, but he sticks to his guns. To show how truly grueling this event is, he savors his victory by walking to a quiet place and sitting down to rest, outside the whirlwind of everyone else spraying champagne.

My only complaints about this film is the obvious hand of Audi’s marketing department, and the trademark ‘NFL Films’ style and soundtrack, but if you can do your best to ignore those and soak in the excellent photography and the raw, “unedited for cleanliness” character of the people, the cars, and the emotions you really get a sense of the endurance part of endurance racing. It impossible to watch all of the event, but this film comes very close to doing so, albeit from the perspective of just one team.

One highlight that sticks in my mind, which oddly is not at all visual, but is just a straight sequence where driver Alan McNish takes us on a “guided tour” of the course, while sitting in a chair and watching a video taken from a car on-course. He relates the gear changes, the speeds, the line of the course, which apexes to hit, and which once to miss, where the car will fight you, and where you have to let it go. The video shown is taken at speed and the rate at which the course comes at you is mind-bending. He relates it all in real-time and is breathless by the end. Now imagine doing that for hours on end, through rain, darkness, harsh low-angle sunlight, and traffic.

Amazing.

Another highlight is a passage near the beginning where they briefly talk about the amazingly quiet TDI engine. The Diesel race cars are shockingly quiet. To anyone accustomed to the scream and roar of a typical race car going by the silent “whoosh” of the TDI is startling. More startling as “quiet” is not usually the first thing that comes to mind when you think of Diesel! Ulrich Baretzky, the head of the development of this engine says something very interesting in the film: “Noise is a form of energy, the less you hear the more you use in propulsion.”

This film is being shown on cable TV here in the USA, but best of all you can download it for FREE from Apple’s iTunes Store.

If you want a preview, head on over to the film’s official website: www.truthin24.com.

(Thanks go to reader Wil Langford for pointing me to this!)

Werke continueth on Ye Olde Jaguar.

What's wrong with this picture?

In an hour here, and an hour there I’ve snuck out to the barn to work and tinker a bit with the 65E. My primary job is to get the filthy thing cleaned up for Spring. Between fits of that job, I’m trying to start a few minor repairs. The most annoying issue for the past year has been a wobble in the steering column. It has gotten to the point where i can’t take another frikking minute of it and I have to get it fixed before I’ll drive the car again.

Before last night I figured I’d narrowed it down to bushing failure in the upper steering column. Last summer on the GTTSR I crawled under the dashboard at a rainy rest stop and confirmed that the u-joint and lower column were OK. Mark Collien my co-driver helpfully shot this photo of me in this ridiculous position:

ah... could you hand me a flashlight? ...Hello?...

I should have addressed this last winter but never got around to it. Last night I went at it. With the car on the lift it actually became an easy task, as the steering column is already above my head. A few minutes with a flashlight and a few ½” combination wrenches and presto! The steering wheel is out, and here is all I found left behind:

All that's left of something vitally important.

The above bits fell out onto the floorboard, or were fished out of the steering column bracket. Looking at my shop manual, also known as ‘The Bentley Big Book of Lies’ (pictured above holding up the bushing bits) it shows that the column is supposed to be held still by two clips, four rubber washers, and two felt bushings. “Except for later cars, where two rubber bushings are used.” Of course no indicator whatsoever as to how a “later car” might be defined. Given that the E-type was in production from 1961 through 1974 it is hard to pin down exactly when “later” could be. My ground up rubber leavings could be a bushing OR a washer. Who knows?

So I turned to the Learned Elders of the E-type forum/list onJag-Lovers.org. If anyone can help, they can.

They’ve helped beyond my wildest dreams.

They narrow down Mr. Bentley’s vague generalization to a specific time-frame, namely the Series 1 switch from 3.8 to 4.2 engines. This happened 715 cars before mine was built, specifically in late 1964. How three years after the beginning and ten years before the end is considered “late” by Bentley boggles my mind, but there you have it. The joys of classic car ownership.

But wait, there’s more! Not only did I find that I needed two rubber bushings (not the felt+rubber+clips) but that a guy on the list named Keith had a spare set and he’d send them to me for the cost of postage. So by the weekend I should have the steering column back together again, and wobble-free.

This proves once again that old cars are a great destroyer of social barriers. Having an old car is a ticket to a kinder, gentler era, where people are friendly and don’t hesitate to help you out when you are in need. Like Todd Sudick in Priest River, Idaho, who helped me when a bolt fell out of my brake caliper. Even when not on the road the community that surrounds old cars is always here to help. Wonderful.

Cleaning continues, with all the wheel wells done:

Squeaky clean and quietly lubricated

Along with scrubbing off lots of road grime, I also gave all the suspension bits and wheel bearings their yearly greasing. Next I raise the car up a bit more and clean off the visible parts of the underside: exhaust resonators, rocker panels, etc. Finally I’ll grease the splines, re-mount the wheels, put her on her feet again, polish up the cam covers, clean the glass, and the interior. And then…

…go get it dirty all over again!