XJ13 is the obvious one that should have been built as no one actually has an old one.
Hi, Are you aware of this effort? Building the Legend | A quest to build and race an exact replica of the 1966 Jaguar XJ13. He's just an enthusiast, who was able to buy a genuine factory 4-cam V12 prototype engine (from German e-bay, believe it or not!) and decided to make a recreation of the car how it was back in 1966. (the factory developed it further, changed to wider wheels, added the flares etc and after the 1971 accident the original one was rebuilt by the factory anyways and it did not appear the same as it had before). And AFAIK he is building a few "customer cars" with a 2-cam FI V12 based on the Jaguar production engines. No affiliations, he's just a really nice bloke and I just have loved to have been able to follow this project at various stages. The good news is he wants to race it when it's done and I think he told me it's most likely going to happen in the US, as in Europe it's a bit difficult as the car never went into production, was never entered in a race, so it does not have any classification for any FIA and historic events over here. I think if it ran next to a 250 LM or 330 P3 they would make each other look even better. A battle that never took place. Cheers, Pekka T. Fin.
Yes there is some great youtube candy of them getting the motor started. Part of the issue with a XJ13 recreation racing in Europe is it never happened in period. Now HSR/svra may let it run in the USA, but if you want to see it running against a 250 Lm or 330p3 those will have to be recreations too. Since we dont want to see pastiche silouhette kit cars running, we need standards as to what recreations are period correct enough to be able to run. I propose starting the continuation standards org. or CTO.
Hi, Yes, I know, I was there (and already a day before . I agree, that makes it tough, as so many replicas are indeed horrible kit cars. But having seen how accurately this one has been made (almost every rivet and screw should be where they were on the prototype in 1966) I think it would really deserve a "what if" run with some contemporary rivals. Jaguar became a part of BMH (BMC, Pressed Steel and Jaguar Cars) in late 1966 and two years later was swallowed by the BLMC so racing was not on the agenda anymore. AFAIK after 1966 it was obvious they would use the XJ13 only as a testbed for the new V12 and even so most of the "mules" were MK X's and later XJ's. So it was only folks like Bob Tullius and Tom Walkinshaw who managed to keep the spirit alive and in the end build the race cars that were successful. Jaguar did not think so much of the XJ13, which is a shame, as IMO it is as beautiful as every car Malcolm Sayer penned out with his hand and slide ruler.
From what I have read, by the time the XJ13 was ready to run Jaguar also concluded that it would not be competitve against what Porche ferrari and ford were fielding. The technology had moved faster than the car was developed. In particular from what we hear aerodynamics were a generation behind and it was relativley heavy, add to that the cost of developing reliable power for racing from the engine. We can add to that the economics of racing given jaguars position. Its one thing taking your existing componants and building a c-type, it was already a big leap to the D-tytpe and exponential what was required a decade later. Still like all older jaguars, the most beautiful car of its type, and would surely be great fun on track, or in a historic race today. Its also interesting that the cars which won in period are not necessarily the front runners in historic racing today. To the extent historic racing is now a"business" that attracts significant crowds and income streams its just a matter of time before tool room copies, recreations and licensed copies are all running. We see it at goodwood already with the Gt40's so its really now a matter of grid management, and an ability for crowds to think its authentic. Against which we have a few owners who want their precious "period" built metal to ever escalate. Whats inetresting is how recreations can escalate values of period built cars by widening appreciation and stimulating desire. To me its simply a function of an organization rating recreations, in that the FIA has led the way.
Here is why recreations make sense. Look at the car-nage. Assuming these are really the origonal cars. From the pics, I would say there was not much, if any period metal to begin with (thats another issue) and what there was surely was trashed.. http://blackflag.jalopnik.com/the-worlds-last-great-vintage-race-should-never-change-1768027374
