Building the Legend

The quad-cam is pretty much complete! There are still details such as belts/pulleys/pipework to sort but these can wait until we are ready to fire up the engine for the first time. For now, the engine will be offered up to the monocoque so that engine mounting points and trailing arms etc can be fab... [More]

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]

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]

On Friday, 16th December 2011 a small group gathered around the XJ13 at Jaguar Heritage to mark the launch of Peter Wilson's book, "XJ13 - The definitive story of the Jaguar Le Mans car and the V12 engine that powered it". This was no ordinary gathering, as those present included many surviving memb... [More]

  Click HERE to download this post for your Amazon Kindle and read at your leisure. A question often asked of me is, "How many prototype V12 quad-cam engines were built by Jaguar and where are they now?" As I reported on this blog back in May 2010, the answer is SIX. Of this six, o... [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]

As part of my research into the background of my prototype V12 engine, and as its rebuild looms (details to follow ...), I came across the story of a key man involved in its design - Walter T.F.Hassan, O.B.E.,M.I.Mech.E. What follows is the story of one of this country's most gifted designers of hig... [More]

On the 3rd June 1965 an internal "Instruction to Proceed (XJ13 Car)" was issued by Jaguar’s Bob Knight – it started, “Build one prototype competiton car …”. Responsibilities for all aspects of the car’s design were allocated – the responsibility for the bod... [More]