The Briggs Cunningham Connection
It isn't so much the shape as the rear suspension which sets out the Cunningham car as the E-type's immediate ancestor, for in place of the rigid rear axle which had dogged the
D-types on anything but ultra-fast circuits later in their careers, the Cunningham car had independently coil-sprung rear wheels and inboard disc brakes. Lord Montagu in Jaguar had pointed out that this arrangement wasn't quite so new to
Jaguar as it appeared, the factory having tried independent coil-spring rear suspension on the V A (with rear-mounted JAP engine) and Ford 10-engined VB experimental light vehicles designed for the War Office in 1944. Whatever, the Cunningham's rear suspension with twin coil-spring damper struts each side certainly worked, providing far better traction and wheel control in circumstances where the
D-type's live axle had been a liability.
It got Lyons' and Heynes' seal of approval and the E-type thus gained what proved to be in its early years one of the best compromises between good handling, road-holding and ride. From this developed the rear suspension which has been used on all Jaguars introduced subsequent to the Mk. 2 and Mk. IX. At the front the Cunningham car retained the familiar Jaguar torsion-bar suspension, pretty well to
D-type specification, and this too was passed on to the E-type.
Malcolm Sayer And The Beautiful Aerodynamic Shape
No tribute to the E-type would be complete without an additional tribute to the late Malcolm Sayer, the brilliant designer and
aerodynamicist who was responsible for the classic shapes of the C-type, the
D-type, the Cunningham car, the E-type and the racing XJ 13. Even today, many still agree that Sayer's work will never be surpassed. Those early 3.8 E-types were not without their faults however, the Moss gearboxes were abysmal, the seats uncomfortable, the dynamo-inspired electrics unreliable and insufficiently powerful, as were the headlights and the braking system was suspect. But with their cowled-in headlights and small rear lights (inherited by the early Series 1 4.2-litre version) they looked beautiful and had performance to match: The gradual addition of better seats, trim and sound deadening, the heavier all-synchromesh gear-box added with the advent of the 4.2-litre car, pushed up the weight considerably and the performance dropped in proportion.
Only the 3.8's were capable of 150 m.p.h. and those fantastic acceleration times, which is presumably why, in spite of all their other drawbacks, good examples of those early models are so highly prized today. The 3.8 fixed-head weighed 24.1 cwt. compared with well over 30 cwt. for the V12 coupe, so that in spite of its 5.3-litre engine even the powerful last of the model couldn't hold the first in a straight line. The 2 plus 2 4.2-litre (upon whose wheelbase the V12 was based), introduced in
1966, was roughly 1 cwt. heavier than its two-seater brothers, and slightly slower into the bargain.
Jaguar V12 - "Not just a case of Ballyhoo and Big-o for its own sake..." |
From Beginning To End Of The Straight-Six
E-types in 3.8 and 4.2 litre forms had power outtput quoted at 265 b.h.p. gross, a figure which in itself is suspect and which must have caused some embarrassment to Jaguar when, bowing to the Trades Description Act and other factors, they were obliged to quote the DIN figure of 266 b.h.p. for the V12. Even so, the last V12s had quietly been drained of some power by the tightening up of emission regulations, even the camshafts being changed.
Though Jaguar had withdrawn from motor racing officially in
1956, they were more than slightly involved with many of the successes E-types were to achieve in competition. In the E-type's first two seasons of competition, Jaguar were largely responsible for the famous John Coombs racing E-type, BUY 1.
When this and other quick E-types began to be uncompetitive against the new Ferrari 250 GTOs in
1962, Jaguar were concerned enough to design an E-type specially for racing, and in
1963 the lightweight E-type was born and then homologated for GT racing. Only 12 full lightweights were built, all hard-top roadsters with alloy monocoques and body panels instead of steel, special aluminium engine blocks crowned with wide-angle
D-type cylinder heads and
Lucas fuel injection.
Some 300 b.h.p. was the norm for the engine, though 344 b.h.p. gross, possibly the highest power output ever achieved from the XK engine, was squeezed out of the Peter Lindnerl Peter Nocker lightweight E-type which ran at
Le Mans in 1964. Early lightweight E-Types used the four-speed, close-ratio Jaguar gearbox, later ones the five-speed ZF. Though they were never to achieve the successes of the C and
D-Types they were successful in upholding the Jaguar name in International motor racing. It remained a force to be reckoned with in historic racing for many years.
Jaguar Series 3 V12
Jaguar offered the V12 as an optional item in the extensively revised Series 3 E-Type models; a two-seat roadster and a 2+2 coupe. The main changes were to be found on the roadster, which was based on the nine-inch longer coupe platform chassis. This allowed the use of larger doors and more luggage space in the cockpit. Both models inherited some features from the fantastically successful XJ6 saloons, including anti-dive front suspension geometry and 6JK wide-rimmed road wheels shod with Dunlop SP Sport radial tyres. Externally, the Series 3s were distinguishable by their revised radiator grilles, and flared wheel arches to accommodate a 3%-inch increase in track.
The V12 E-type came in two forms - the two-seater roadster on the 2+2 coupe. A hardtop was available for the roadster version, as an option. Both six-cylinder 4.2-litre and V12 5.3-litre engines were available in these models, and Adwest power-assisted steering was standard on the bigger-engined versions. Manual or automatic transmission could be specified, and further Series 3 improvements included through-flow ventilation in the coupe and hardtop roadster variants. The Jaguar E-Type range had proved one of Britain's most successful export products since their introduction in 1961. Initial production quotas for the Series 3s reflect this success, with 78 percent bound for the United States, 11 percent for Europe and 11 percent retained for the home market.
A new engine from Jaguar has been rumoured and prophesied ever since the late 'fifties, and their famous engineering team of William Haynes and Cecil Baily began kicking Vee-ideas around in 1957, soon after the D-Type's last Le Mans 24-Hours victory. Progress seems to have been slow on this low-priority project, and not until sometime in the early 'sixties did the prototype of this new competition engine appear. It was a 5-litre V12 with double overhead camshafts per bank, hemispherical combustion chambers and fuel injection, and even in early bench tests it was churning out 500 bhp at 8,000 rpm.
Then came the final decision not to re-enter competition, and this fearsome-sounding mill was shelved. Meantime two more renowned "engine men" had joined the Jaguar strength - Walter Hassan and Harry Mundy. Walter had worked with Bentley,
ERA and Coventry-Climax, and had a long association with Harry, who had been with him at
ERA and Climax, and who had also worked on the 1.5-litre V16 blown
BRM engine. Under "Bill" Heynes' leadership this team set about the task of producing a new V12 for volume production. The brief called for greater smoothness, silence and flexibility than current engines, allied to power outputs comparable with the best figures obtained from an XK "six".
When the XK engine had been introduced in 1948, its basic output approximated to the best ever achieved from a tuned version of the existing pushrod unit. Similarly, the VI2 had to Achieve in standard trim the output of a competition-tuned XK. The result was a beautifully clean-looking 60-degree V12 aluminium engine, with a capacity of 5343 cc (326 cu in.). Bore and stroke were 90 mm x 70 mm (3.54 in. x 2.76 in.), and power output was quoted as 314 bhp gross at 6200 rpm, or 272 bhp DIN at 5850 rpm. Maximum torque is 304 lbs/ft DIN at 3600 rpm. Since the retirement of Heynes and.Baily, Hassan and Mundy have seen the engine through to the production line. A big departure from previous Jaguar practice was the use of an aluminium block. This saved 116 lbs weight in comparison to the same block cast in iron, but there was some concern about higher noise level in an alloy unit.
It seems the designers were most surprised to find no detectable level difference once the engines were installed in a car, but some iron components such as bearing caps and fully-machined cast wet liners were retained. A number of single-cylinder test engines were built to prove various head designs and the very over-square bore/stroke ratio. A flat-head design was eventually chosen, with combustion chambers in the piston crown giving excellent burning and going a long way towards satisfying anti-pollution requirements. Production cost and simplicity requirements persuaded the design team to use just one camshaft per bank, overhead mounted and driven by a simple chain-drive. These also allowed a low bonnet line in the car, more room for mounting ancillaries and a weight saving of 22 lbs per head assembly over a dohc layout!
A pump fed air into the
exhaust tract above the valve and prolongs burning time, removing most of the nasties before the charge is exhausted into the atmosphere. Great attention was paid to making the lubrication as efficient yet compact as possible, and the crescent-type gear pump was tucked away under the nose of the engine. A unique type of coil oil cooler was situated in the front of the sump, and this lead the oil around a gilled heat exchanger through which the cooling water flowed for the normal engine system. This oil-to-water system produced a drop of 22 deg C in oil temperature for a rise of 1 deg C in water temperature, and had the added advantage of needing no external piping or extra radiator, and keeps the engine cool in hot weather and warm in cold!
British-made Vee engines could be counted on the fingers of one hand, and V12s tended to be rarer. Daimler built their double-six pre-war, while Bentley designed the Lagonda V12 and Rolls-Royce's Phantom III was another "twelve". Atlanta and Allard both used V12s at some time, but these were Lincoln Zephyrs imported from the States, so Jaguar's V12 offering was in reality number four in the home-grown ratings.
The Most Beautiful Car Ever Made
While there is always conjecture as to what constitutes beauty, few in our office dispute the E-type is the most beautiful monocoque car ever produced, a tribute to British design and engineering, which set new standards in performance motoring. To the designers, the cars, their previous owners and current custodians, we salute you.