chuck.goolsbee.org

I stumbled upon this car Friday night when I went to the Tukwila train station to pick up Christopher coming home for Spring Break. I have not seen one of these since the 80s, and even then they were a pretty rare sight here in the US. I was carrying on a SMS text conversation with Chris as he approached. I asked him what end of the train he was on, and when he replied “second car in the front” I knew to park at the north end of the station, as I pulled into the parking lot my eyes were drawn immediately to this car. I texted Chris back saying “I’m parked next to the yellow (car).” He replied, “Do they even sell those here?” 🙂

The two photos above show some distinguishing characteristics. The first is an odd bulge in the bonnet on the passenger side. The second shows the 3-lug wheels. The latter might be a dead giveaway… we’ll see.

Do you know what car this is?

The Series 3 E-type always looked like a bit of a mongrel to me, especially under the bonnet. The V-12 seemed shoe-horned into too small a space and the goofy dual-carb intake manifolds looked like a “reach” to me as they fed a bank of six cylinders from way down low on the side. The bonnet itself, seemed mis-applied to its contents. Unlike the straight-six XK engine before, where the bulge in the middle provided clearance for the cam covers and the louvers provided a place for hot air to escape, the Series 3 installed rain shields(!) to compensate for the louvers and nothing filled the middle bulge at all. Finally the engine itself is almost invisible in the Series 3, buried under manifolds, linkages, wires and whatnot.

This car managed to address some of the issues above with some simple modifications. It nearly pulls off a win from the jaws of defeat, with a bank of Webers down the middle (though obviously the front ones are rubbing!) and the heads of the V-12 are actually visible. No risk of fuel leaks on the exhaust manifolds either.

I spotted this car at last year’s Monte Shelton, but I don’t remember seeing it after the start, so I think it DNF’ed. Oh well.

The rally cars were all arrayed in front of the hotel building in Big Sky, Montana that evening on the 2006 GTTSR and the participants were all being arrayed above on a balcony. Some cars needed a bit of freshening up down below though, as can be seen in this bird’s eye view. Know the cars?