M&C Wilkinson Ltd » Recent Projects

Lightweight E-Type Recreation

The latest Race prepared Jaguar E-type to leave the premise this year was built for Chris Scragg and you can follow his progress with is new acquisition by visiting his website www.chrisscragg.com

Chris who is no stranger to racing being a powerboat champion has decided to enter the world of Historic racing. He has been very successful with Aston Martins and after being invited by Mike to have a drive in his E-type Chris had a burning desire to own his own Jaguar resulting in him purchasing the beautiful E-type pictured below.

Building the E-Type dream

The legendary Phil Scragg once campaigned a Lightweight E-Type, 3.8 litre which is now owned by Adrian Newey of Formula 1’s Red Bull racing team. This was one of the twelve original lightweights produced known as the “Dashing Dozen”. The FIA appendix “K” period specification included an aluminium body, engine and differential casing.

Mike used the “Scragg E-Type” as a benchmark for developing his own range of lightweight E-Type recreations. This meaning the car is built to the original sixties specification using all of today’s FIA safety modifications required.

To start with, the first, most important aspect is the bodywork. Being produced entirely from aluminium to the highest quality and standard imaginable. Next the engine has to be a 3.8 litre using an aluminium cylinder block. Unlike its counterpart production model, modern day technology means a wet sump is more than up to the job with no loss of power and great weight saving made.

Mike has designed and commissioned for such a project an aluminium radiator with integrated oil cooler again for extra weight savings.

The car is fitted with a standard “beefed up” Jaguar all synchro mesh gearbox to aid reliability with a alloy sump and competition clutch. All the suspension is as per a lightweight E-Type with uprated brakes again meeting FIA regulations. As solid discs and calipers must be used in order to keep the brakes cool Mike has designed cooling ducts due to the massive amount of heat generated under competitive driving. With the rear brakes in close proximity to the differential an oil cooler is fitted to the latter with a small race cooling fan for protection.

The car is fitted with magnesium wheels and for safety a modern foam filled separate fuel cell has to be accommodated in the boot with integrated fuel pumps.

Even the differential is a special all alloy unit weighing in at approximately 30 kilos which is about a third of the weight of a conventional diff.

The car now with all weight saving measures is so light it has to carry ballast to keep within the regulations!

Moving on

Phil Scragg also campaigned an XK120 a car originally by one Roy Holdroyd. This car was regularly seen competing against the likes of Ian Appleyard. Now Chris wants to recreate an XK on the same basis. Work is now well underway with the car nearly complete alongside a full FIA appendix “K” 3.8litre Mark 2 that John Coombs has been very helpful in supplying information.

Geoff Davidson from the North East of England is a keen Jaguar enthusiast and has owned an E-type Series 3 roadster since before they really became fashionable – 18 years in fact, in those days using the E-type as an everyday car. Due to work commitments abroad, it had, however, been laid up in storage for many years, that was, until a couple of years ago.

Spurred on with enthusiasm again to get the E-type running he entrusted the car to Mike Wilkinson of M & C Wilkinson Jaguar Spares on the Lincolnshire/South Yorkshire border with the initial thoughts of a service and re-commissioning of the car. As is often the case, one thing lead to another and before long both Geoff and Mike came to the conclusion that the best thing would be to refurbish the whole car and, at the same time, carry out some interesting and significant modifications to make it a very practical and quick, safe sports car for todays motoring conditions. Geoff himself takes up the story from here.

“When I first bought the V12 some 18 years ago the 15” 205 x 70 wheels and tyres looked enormous compared to any other car on the road at that time and gave the car a muscular powerful look and indeed with it’s 275bhp in it’s day, the E-type was king of the road. However as time went on larger and wider wheels appeared on modern cars and the V12 wheels suddenly looked skinny compared to its modern counterparts and the average GT boy racer was running rings around me, I was no longer king of the road and my street credibility had gone. Something had to be done!

Bigger Wheels, Wider Body

From the beginning my intention was to have the car restored to original spec as new condition (a nut and bolt rebuild) with the performance and reliability of a new car of which I had now got accustomed to. I had lost complete interest in the oily rag! Mike was therefore instructed to rebuild the body with particular attention to even panel gaps and flushness to give the car a quality look, something Jaguar failed to achieve when the car was originally produced. If the car had stayed in production and evolved I have no doubt that some of the changes we decided upon would have been carried out including the fitting of larger diameter and wider wheels to give it a more purposeful look. My choice were 16”x 7” deep rim chrome wire wheels with 235 x 65 high performance Michelin tyres.

To accommodate the larger wheels the rear wheel arches were slightly modified to provide sufficient clearance without making any visible change to the shape of the rear wing. The modification is so subtle that it is unnoticeable to the naked eye. As for the front, no body modification were required, only a slight change to the castor angle to prevent any rubbing when driving in reverse on full lock.

Once the body was complete, it was time for paint. The colour and the quality of the paint finish was very important to me as it makes the car. In my opinion E-types always look best in red and it’s hard to beat Signal Red. The painting was entrusted to DMR Ltd in Doncaster to whom I have to give credit as they did a first class job; as you would expect for £8,000.

The Drive Train

Part of the original plan was to have the engine reconditioned but that all changed one day when Mike called me to say “hey, I’ve just got my hands on a brand-new factory 6.0 litre fuel injected XJS engine (last of the line) and would I be interested in fitting it into the car” What a great idea I thought, this would give me that reliability I was after and the extra bhp would also give me some of that street credibility back - once again I might feel king of the road!

The standard 6.0 litre V12 develops about 318 bhp which was sufficient but I then got carried away and decided to go a step further and increase the power and torque with the addition of a Plus Torque Kit from AJ6 Engineering which consists of a modified intake manifold with widened throttle body and enhanced ECU. This coupled with a tuned TT Extractor large bore stainless steel exhaust system develops an additional 50-75bhp with much increased torque making the car very responsive and lively to say the least. A new fuel rail, injectors and upgraded fuel pump were fitted creating a new tuned 6.0 litre V12 engine with somewhere in the region of 375-400bhp. The cooling system being the weak point on V12s was upgraded with twin Kenlowe fans and thermostat.

The suspension was totally rebuilt with upgraded brakes and adjustable shock absorbers to get the optimum ride and handling.

Finally the car was re-trimmed by an ex-Suffolk & Turley employee who now runs the Trim Centre in Nuneaton. I wanted the car to look as the original but upgrade the materials/fabrics for the hood and the carpets and also change the cheap looking non-colour coordinated beige boot trim to black carpet to give it a quality look, why Jaguar did not do that in the first place we will never know! A high performance Blaupunkt sound System was then installed with the latest CD and MP3 gismos and I must say it sounds very impressive but it has turned out to be a waste of money as I prefer to listen to that glorious 12 cylinder choir instead……..music to my ears!!”

The Driving Experience

The car looks absolutely stunning and all the hard work that went into the panel fit, paint finish and interior trim have really paid off and sets it apart from many other cars but what is it like to “live with”? Geoff continues the story:-

“The wider wheels and the twin-tuned exhaust pipes protruding out the back give a hint that the car is perhaps hiding some secret under the bonnet. The engine bay with the 6.0 litre V12 looks like it just came off the assembly line with no hint of anything home made; it all looks “factory”, something I insisted on when Mike fitted the engine, I am sure this is how the car would have evolved if it had been kept in production.

The car starts with ease and the exhaust note immediately tells you this is not a standard V12, it having a deeper, richer note and plenty of grunt. So far I have only covered about 300 miles in the car as I am still running it in. The performance increase is very noticeable compared to a standard V12 and quite frankly it scares the hell out of me. It seems to have an endless amount of torque and just keeps accelerating. The wider tyres make it more stable in straight lines so the light power steering is no longer a problem and the car feels more stable at high speed. In a word……..”Glorious”.”

Other recent projects
	This is a recent project done for the well-known artist “Damien Hirst”. The whole car was completely rebuilt in our workshop. The photo to the left shows the fully rebuilt 4.2litre engine.
	Pictured here is the E-Type Series 1 4.2 before delivery to the customer.
	This image shows the beautiful rear end of the car again restored to the highest quality.
	The entire interior was fully re-trimmed with new carpets, leather and vinyl as original using our handcrafted kits that we supply.