Click here for a very cool E-Type film collection from the Jaguar factory archives. Includes the prototype, crash testing, European delivery and the final win at Road Atlanta with Bob Tullius and Group 44. Enjoy!
Click here for a very cool E-Type film collection from the Jaguar factory archives. Includes the prototype, crash testing, European delivery and the final win at Road Atlanta with Bob Tullius and Group 44. Enjoy!
Here are some comments comparing the XK-E with the early 911:
Jenks used a 4.2L E-type as his regular car, and the 911 fell short in many ways. He “felt the 911 lacked absolute power for its size” although it “would pull 6,200 rpm very easily” in 5th gear. If “you rowed it along with the shift lever, it could be made to go, but the effortless performance of 4.2 litres of Jaguar E-type had spoilt” him for other cars. At least until he got his hands on a Carrera RS in 1973.
Jenks had been “happily corrupted by the absolute power of the E-type – not only by its horsepower, but by the enormous torque it developed.” Starting from a “leisurely gait for an E-type” – a cruise speed of 100 mph – and then getting on the throttle, the “long nose rose as the tail squatted down under acceleration, and the surge forward to 110, 120, 125 mph was one of the most satisfying things in motoring.” “On the 911 this was missing, for all it did was to make more noise with no noticeable surge forwards.” That “instant surge forwards” from 100 mph was essential to his personal well-being. He used it to avoid trouble up ahead on the road. Instead of braking, which Jenks avoided “unless absolutely necessary,” one could accelerate and overtake something that was going to impede your path.
Such smooth acceleration was impossible in the 911 – “to get that surge of acceleration would have meant snicking down into 4th gear, and by that time it could be too late. Even if it wasn’t, the change down and then back up again would upset the rhythm of the journey.” This was true even though the Porsche gearbox was just about the best ever made.” p. 152-153
The 911 was “the ultimate car” for mountain travel however. If one were living in Switzerland and crossing Calabria to get to the south of Italy he would have preferred it to anything else. Jenks rated the two year old 911 “very highly.”
But he apparently did not fall under the siren song of the motor. “On tick-over the flat-6 rattled and clanked like a bucket full of nails being shaken about, even though “it went smooth and quiet at a touch of the accelerator.” This meant it “was a bit anti-social when maneuvering about in a confined space at night.” Here, “the E-type was elegance personified. You could leave it at 600 rpm on tick-over with not a sound coming from the engine or the exhaust, and shuffle to and fro without touching the accelerator pedal, easing the great car about like a large boat in a harbour. The 911 had to be revved above tick-over before the clutch bit, and the clanking and whirring seemed loud enough to wake the whole neighborhood.”
“But then the 911 was not really intended for that sort of thing: it was built for motoring and motoring hard, and when used as intended it really came into its own. The harder you drove it the happier it seemed, and it always seemed to stay with you no matter how much you provoked it.” p. 153
You are right that he eventually "got" the 911 with the Carrera RS model in early 1973...here are some prescient words from D.S.J. in his British magazine road test of a first 500 series RHD Carrera RS M472 in February of 1973 (with several asides about some other contemporary cars)Originally Posted by 37yrold911
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Consistent with the previous post, his test review starts with his somewhat less positive views on the 911 model ...
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Personally I am not a fan of the E-Type.
Steve
Last edited by 911MRP; 04-17-2016 at 02:25 PM.
Came across some other pieces by "Jenks" in the same publication where he was writing the road test of British importer's Carrera RS press demonstrator. This was published when the very first of the initial series RS were being delivered to customers here the UK.
This snippet describing Porsche racing plans for the coming racing season was written for the February edition of a British motoring magazine but penned in late Jan 1973 (since it refered to the coming Speedweeks)
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Interesting given how the imminent race in Florida turned out for Porsche and the new RS/R that the article immediately following it was coincidentally about the 24 hours of Daytona.
With hindsight we know the story of what happened back then, but I found interesting to read of the Porsche racing plans in article penned just as those events were shaping-up and starting to unfold. The private customer point, the comment about Matra etc.
Incidentally, fun to see on the same page the mention of Frank reframing his nascent F1 efforts with a "new deal" some years ahead of forming Williams GPE which would go on to become the second-most successful F1 Constructors' World Championships winners, after the much longer established Scuderia Ferrari.
On the day that these three short pieces were written in late January of 73, could anyone have realistically foreseen the RS/R 24h Daytona overall win ahead of the much more specialist prototype machinery and its other future successes ...let alone Frank's F1 achievements from that "new deal" toe-hold?
Last edited by 911MRP; 04-19-2016 at 06:09 AM.
Well, they do have their uses. here is a guy who has made good use of the XKE for its hatchback design:
Think you misunderstood. I said: "I'm not a fan of the E-type" ...not ... "E-type, no fan"
I the was unfortunate owner of a 66 4.2 version. Apart from its beauty and incredible attraction for the opposite sex, it had glaring design defects.
Consistent overheating in our american clime, electrical gremlins as all British cars blessed with Lucas components, and a terrifying lightness of the front end at speed. The brakes were nothing to write home about either.
David
'73 S Targa #0830 2.7 MFI rebuilt to RS specs
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