Building the Legend

Starting to come together .... :)

So how do I go about making one? It seemed to me the best starting point would be to see if I could get my hands on an original. After a bit of research I found that, besides the bellhousing currently installed in Jaguar's rebuilt "original", only two others are known to have survived. One ended up ... [More]

I recently had to modify a pair of Jaguar rear driveshafts to suit my transaxle output shafts and thought I would post a video showing how I did so in the hope it may be of help to anyone else travelling down the same path. I spent a long time researching how others had achieved the same thing and w... [More]

I was recently sent a video of the 1:18 scale model of my 1966 Jaguar XJ13 recreation being printed. I personally find the whole process of Rapid-Prototyping fascinating so I posted the following video for those who may be interested in seeing the 3D-printing process in action: What is Rapid-P... [More]

As stated earlier in this blog, my intention is to create a facsimile of Jaguar's unique XJ13 - as it was in 1966/67 and before it was rebuilt in 1972/73. It had to be rebuilt after it was badly damaged on the eve of its first public appearance in 1971. My aim is to recreate the car as faithfully as... [More]

Whilst researching people, places and events surrounding the XJ13 I came across references to the West Yorkshire Foundry. Who are they ... do I hear you ask? For the best part of 100 years the Foundry was responsible for the casting of cylinder heads and blocks for the British automotive indust... [More]

It never ceases to amaze me just how many original parts and original unpublished accounts/documents still turn up for the XJ13/quad-cam engines after so many years. Recent discoveries have included a complete set of UNUSED inlet valves for the quad-cam heads as well as previously undiscovered photo... [More]

  Click HERE to download this post for your Amazon Kindle and read at your leisure. As the build of the "trial" all-steel monocoque/chassis progresses, I wanted to consider the materials that should be used for construction of the component parts of my final version. Jaguar th... [More]

The time has come to consider the specification for the rebuild of the quad-cam V12 engine. The first important thing to consider was the means of driving the four camshafts. As stated previously on this blog, the intention is to recreate an EXACT copy of the XJ13 as it was in its heyday in 1966/67 ... [More]

In January of 2011, on a very cold January morning, the restoration of my quad-cam V12 began in earnest with a total stripdown and detailed examination. The task of rebuilding this important engine has been entrusted to David Butcher. David can draw on his vast experience gained from many years of r... [More]