E-Type Jaguar 1961
241,893.7 Miles
20120516 (Date of purchase)
The very Blackest of Black Oil.
Sherwood Green Paint (Original)
Wire spoked wheels (Retained - of course!)
No chassis revamp (Didn't find out how much this or an engine overhaul would cost.)
238bhp/32 Eurotorques/1219kg -->425PP
I altered the Brakes to 3/2BB
Fitted Comfort Medium Tyres (Comes with Sports Hards as standard)
After I fitted the tyres the BHP went up to 239 for some reason...
I set up the race, Practice mode - Spec race. 3 laps. Proper Damage, real low track edge grip, no driver aids real tyre wear and fuel burning. Tyres and Fuel are not a factor in my race.
The AI come with Sports Hard tyres, I ran with Comfort Mediums. Which looking back may have been a smidge too good for the AI cars once I found the sweet spot of the car.
I raced with a 7am start. No rain - However I would recommend an Earlier Start or a start near to dusk or even at night.
The Car
Has a 3.8 litre straight six Engine - as English as bad teeth and unhealthy food. Even with a car that had enough milage to have driven the Ring at pace for 116 days. It gave out about 240bhp which is a bit peaky at 5500 rpm. The torque band is wide and forgiving - which is good as the gearbox is a worry.
a 4 speed box, 1st will take you about at town 2nd will get you to 60mph before you the Jaguar wants to upchange... but you can go into the red to about 70. 3rd is a gear you will be in most of the time, and I only dropepd into 2nd when I was crawling through a very slow corner - but I am sure you would be better served staying in a higher gear (3rd) for the few slow corners that you may wish to try 2nd in once you find the balance of the car at the top end of 3rd gear you will want to upchange at 90-105mph. 90 is what the Jaguar Owners handbook requests, 105 is what The Minister of speed
His Holiness Rev. Limiter.
Top gear is 4th, and it takes over at speeds over 100mh The red line suggests 116mh is all you can have. But if you delve deep into the red you will get up to 140mph before the engine cries, 'enough!', at 6500rpm.
Tyres - Comfort Mediums
Probably closer to an early sixties crossply tyre than and semi slick Sports tyre... infact maybe Comfort Hards would be closer. These tyres limit cornering ability and corner exit speed... BUT the long fast bits are plenty long enough for the car to hit the rev limiter in 4th gear in a few places. Swedish Cross, Foxhole and Dottinger Hohe. - A custom Gearbox could fix things - but I didn't try.
I had trouble getting the power down off the line, wheelspin - cold tyres and I lost a place. Better to give up a place than to hit another car and bend a steering arm or foul a rear wheel or other mechanical damage result. I then had to discover just how much grip I had, and the balance of the car. If you push too hard the big cat will hiss and mewl at you, but it can dig its claws into the tarmac and save a potential crash - I'd describe it as predictable handling, But it is a bit soft and a real balancing act in corners... too much brakes and the fronts lock and you understeer through the apex, too much throttle and the back will break traction - it also has the oldfashioned issue of the inside rear wheel spooling up if you demand too much from the rear axel on the exit of a corner. (A LSD would fix that easily - but I ran stock.)
Laps,
9m14 - (Steady pace, turned the taps on after Aremburg.)
9m04 - (Chasing down a target car - maybe some slipstreaming...)
9m08 - (Alone in First, no mistakes, but les sof a need to push hard.)
No offs, I was in 5th for some of Lap 1 dropped back to about 6 seconds off the leader - but I could see them ahead. Then I reeled the leaders in, made a few passes - some under heavy brakes in complex areas (Adenaur Forst and Teirgarten and the Shikane that they put in 1967 just prior to the pit lane entry.)
You can also pass under power with a good exit and a long bit of road. (Swedish Cross and the exit of Galgenkoph)
I think most of the woes of the car was due to the sheer age of the car and the tyres. But once you got dialled in (Not too much of an ask.) it is intuitive enough to thread about the track - but Slow in and Fast out is the way to drive it, go in too late and get frantic in the corners and the tyres will let go and overheat and leave you bleeding lap times in plumes of tyre smoke.
But why race at Night?
Sparks!
The car grounds out in several places, creating a shower of glowing sparks.
Enzo said the E-Type is the prettiest car in the world... I suppose in the 60's it was a ground breaker - But so is a Pick Axe. To me the proportions are off, the screen too steep, the nose too long, the car looks and drives like it is very narrow and thin and this made my driving a bit laboured as I had to preemp a corner well in advance, to get a fast line. Not my prefered style. But again the tyres probably magnified this issue more than it really is.
3 lap race, 27m27 beating the AI by one and a half of your English Seconds.
Huzzar and lashings of Ginger Beer, What what!
more on that later.
) otherwise stock.
).
