JAGUAR RACING CARS A MONTHLY SERIES
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JAGUAR RACING CARS
A MONTHLY SERIES - Part 6
By Neville Barlow
Jaguar Mark 2
The Mark II arrived in 1959 and it was very obvious from the Mark I. It had a wider rear
window and more glass all around because of the slimmer door pillars. The rear track
was widened by 3.5 inches,
which gave the car more all-
round stability. There were
three new engine op$ons. The
2.4 litre was increased in power
to 120bhp, the 3.4 litre to
210bhp and the 3.8 litre had
220bhp.
The Mark II saloon was
received with rapturous
support because it eliminated
many of the minor
shortcomings of the earlier
models. Many road tests were 1959 Mk 11 2.4
undertaken by Motoring
publica$ons. The AUTOCAR led the way with an introduc$on test in February 1960, by
saying “Very few cars indeed set out to offer so much as the 3.8 litre Mark II Jaguar and
none can match it in terms of value for money. In one compact car, an owner has Gran
Turismo performance, town carriage manners and luxurious family appointments. The
changes made for 1960, without doubt, represent the greatest improvements so far
achieved between a Jaguar model and its predecessor, short of a whole new design”.
Top speed 125 mph and 0-
60 mph in 8.5 seconds with
16 second standing
quarter mile. They were a
li6le disappointed in the
fuel consump$on of 17
miles per gallon but
conceded that if you could
afford to buy one of these
vehicles it would be of
li6le importance.
26
However, these figures
were considerably
enhanced by the many
organiza$ons that decided
to go racing with the Mark
II
As soon as the Right-Hand
Drive Mark II became
available, Lo=y England,
General Manager of Jaguar
Motors, allocated many of
them to well-known teams
and drivers including
Coombs, Bruce McLaren, Tommy Sopwith and Peter Barry Racing, who employed
drivers Jack Sears, Graham Hill, S$rling Moss and Roy Salvadori.
John Coombs made a name for himself racing MK I’s and MK II’s. He offered a range of
op$ons adapted from his own racing
modifica$ons and carried that on with all his
MK II’s. The successes on the track were
considerable and Jaguars Engineering
Department was heavily involved with making
the Coombs cars generally acknowledged as the
fastest on any circuit in Britain.
There were two famous MK II Coombs cars.
Both were factory built. The first was usually
driven by Graham Hill with the registra$on of
BUY 1 and the second registered BUY 12. Some
records say that Coombs converted 19 cars but
it is thought there was many more, most of
which were not raced.
In 1962 MK II’s began their run of 20 Graham Hill at the wheel
consecu$ve victories. The Equipe Endeavour
team won class D for the second $me with Jack Sears and Tommy Sopwith driving MK
II’s. The MK II’s were so dominant that the result of the 12th Silverstone Interna$onal
trophy in 1960 clearly shows they were ahead of the field. From 19 starters;
1st Roy Salvadori Jaguar MK II 3.8
2nd S$rling Moss Jaguar MK II 3.8
3rd Graham Hill Jaguar MK II 3.8
4th Gwaine Bailie Jaguar MK II 3.8
Winning average speed 140kph
29
John Coombs Racing entered 41 races and won 12. Jack sears won the Bri$sh Saloon
Car Championship in 1959 and 1963 in a Jaguar and had 12 wins all told. Mike Parkes
and Jimmy Blumer won in 1962 The Motor 6 hour Interna$onal Saloon Car Race, in a
MK II. Peter Nocker won the 1963 European Touring Car Challenge and Roy Salvadori
with Denny Hulme won the 1963 Brands Hatch 6 hours all of course in Jaguar MK II’s,
with Peter Linder and Peter Nocker 2nd in a similar car.
Also in 1963 Peter Lunsden, Peter Sargent, John Bekaert, Geoff Duke and Andrew
Hedges using a standard MK II 3.8 litre broke 4 Interna$onal records by driving 16,093
kilometres (10,000 miles) and averaged 170.6 kph (106 mph).
There was many Privateers winning various classes, Hill climbs and sprint races.
In Australia, Bob Jane dominated saloon car racing with his much-altered MK II 3.8.
Even though he was told
by Jaguar in England
that he would destroy
his engine if he bored it
out to 4.1 litres. Not
only did he increase the
size of the engine but he
won the top Australian
Touring Car Classic in
1962, 1963 and 1964.
He then sold the car to
Hugh Bryson who
con$nued to race
successfully. This car
was officially $med at
Bathurst at 151mph Bob Janes Jaguar Mk 11
(242kph) a record that
stood for over 10 years. His Mark II was regarded as the fastest MK II in the world.
This car recorded 70 wins and set lap records at every circuit it competed at.
In 1984, S$rling Moss drove his MK II in an appendix J historic class. He es$mated that
he spent over $100,000 on modifica$ons and repairs for his car and thought it would be
one of the fastest around even though it was registered and was a sedate road car.
Between 1958 and 1965 MK I’s and MK II’s in Australia entered 190 races. They were
1st 108 $mes, 2nd 39 $mes and 3rd 31 $mes with only 12 DNFs.
Racing in New Zealand
Ray Archibald, o=en referred to as Gentleman Ray and was the most prominent of
those that flew the flag for Jaguar in New Zealand. His feats in his XK 120 are legendary
however, it was not un$l 1957 when he raced the first of the Archibald Jaguar saloons
that he stood out. It was with a 3.4 litre MK I with Disc brakes and wire wheels that he
won the Saloon car race at the 1959 Grand Prix.
31
He also won a Handicap
race at Wigram and he had
a 4th at Waimate. Because
of increasing compe$$on
this car became out dated.
Many years later it was
found in a poor condi$on.
It has survived and has
been restored by the
Christchurch Jaguar
enthusiast Roy Larsen.
A new MK II arrived in
1962. This was the car in
which he became a Ray Archibald’s 3.8 Jaguar Mk 11
“legend”. It was a 3.8
litre factory prepared car in 1961, one of only 8 built. The motor was fi6ed with a gas
flowed head, 9.1 pistons, twin 2 inch SU carbure6ors, a special cranksha= and bearings,
a compe$$on exhaust system, a close ra$o gear box, high ra$o steering, s$ffened
suspension, compe$$on shock absorbers and racing seats With this car Ray won the
New Zealand Saloon Car Championship in 1962 and 1963. He also won the Wills 6
hour race at Pukekohe in 1962 and 1963 with Tony Shelly. He won again in 1966. In
1959 at the Grand Prix day Ray won the Ardmore Saloon car race with Gavin Quirk in
second place also in a Jaguar. Gavin in February 1959 won the Saloon car race at
Ohakea and in March, the Saloon car race at Levin. So Ray did not have it his way all of
the $me.
Ray had many duels with Ernie Sprague in his Zephyr, usually winning but in the late
1960’s Ernie acquired a Jaguar 3.8 litre and they had many $tanic struggles on tracks
around New Zealand.
Ray’s love of speed culminated at a 1981 Air show at Wigram air force base. Driving
his 3.8 litre Jaguar he beat an air force Harvard plane in a lap of the air field.
Ross Jenson in his first drive of his 3.8 litre MK II, at Ardmore in 1991 won handsomely,
with S Taylor also in a 3.8 in 3rd place. In the same year Ross won at Levin with Taylor
again 3rd. At both Wigram and Dunedin Ross was again successful. Teretonga brought
only a 2nd however, at Waimate he won again, therefore winning the 1961 New Zealand
Saloon car Championship.
In 1962 Alistair McBeth arrived on the scene and soon became known as “Mr Quickly”
He won or was placed in most of his races. In 1963 at Pukekohe at the Grand Prix
mee$ng, he won the Saloon car race, driving his 3.8 jaguar, interes$ngly bea$ng Bruce
McLaren. At Wigram he was 2nd behind Ray Archibald while Ian Dow was 3rd, all of
them in MK 11 3.8s! It is interes$ng to note that the 1962 New Zealand Saloon Car
Championship, while being won by Ray Archibald, McBeth was 2nd and Ian Dow 4th, an
almost clean sweep for the Jaguars.
33
Police Cars
While Jaguar had
become renowned
for supplying
various Bri$sh
Police forces with
vehicles from the
1930s, these cars Archibald and Sprague racing
were standard and
only fi6ed with
uprated ba6eries for their radio equipment. It was not un$l the introduc$on of the MK
II in 1959 that a Police
Specifica$on model
became available.
They featured a number
of modifica$ons to make
them as prac$cal as
possible for Police work.
The back seat was
removed to
accommodate warning
signs, lights and so on.
The carpets were
replaced with non- slip
maRng. The
Dashboards had provision
for radio equipment, plus calibrated speed meters, warning lights, a loud hailer and
sirens. They were not ‘souped up’, finding the 3.4 litre engine had sufficient enough
power. Some had close ra$o gear boxes and uprated springs to take all the weight of
the equipment they
carried.
Popular believe was
that the best getaway
car for bank robbers of
the day was the MK II.
This was very much the
opinion of Bruce
Reynolds, the main
ins$gator of the 1964
Great Train Robbery.
Jaguar 3.4 Police Cars
34He escaped capture and was on the run for 5 years but eventually was captured and
sentenced to 25 years behind bars. Upon release a=er 10 years, he wrote his book
en$tled, The Autobiography of a Thief. In it he features the Jaguar MK II. He said “The
3.4 arrived in 1957. It was the best car ever. Fast with vicious accelera$on to match.
It was an instant hit with anyone who could afford one, or those who stole one. In the
never ending war with the cops and robbers the, ’ opposi$on’, caught up with us by
changing from their Wolseleys 6/90 to the Jags. However, Jaguar brought out the 3.8
and that gave us a temporary supremacy, but they soon caught up with their own new
Jaguars. The ironic postscript , to my criminal career saw my arrest for complicity in
the Great Train Robbery ending in my last, almost, drive to Aylesbury in a MK II 3.4 for
my trial”
Mike Hawthorn, as has been reported many $mes was a Jaguar fana$c. He and
Duncan Hamilton got the idea that Jaguar should produce an Estate car. They
suggested to Sir William Lyons their thoughts but he was not interested, so they
decided to pursue the idea themselves. The Coach Builders Jones was asked to build
one using a MK II 3.4 chassis. It was to be called a County. With Mikes un$mely death
the project lost momentum and only one example was made. Ironically enough, the
Jaguar Transport Department acquired and used it as a work horse for many years.
I recently read an ar$cle in a 1997 English magazine, about a group of Jaguar
enthusiasts who visited a company in Sweden called Jagsport. It was owned by a
gentleman called Ber$l Backstrom who specialized in re-powering Jaguar cars. The car
these people had come to see was a 3.4 MK II in to which Ber$l had installed a 5.3 litre
V 12 Jaguar engine. Imagine over 500 horses stuffed into a so called compact car!
Crazy?
In 1967 the 3.8 was discon$nued and the 2.4 and 3.4 were rebadged as 240 and 340.
These cars were simplified and sold at a somewhat reduced price. The reason being,
that the new XJ 6 was due in 1969. So to fill the gap and use up all MK II parts, these
models were produced. A special 380 was produced for those wishing to go racing.
Only 18 were ever made.
Total Produc$on of MK IIs
2.4 26,322
3.4 29,531
3.8 27, 848
240 4430
Contact Gavin for a special price on a ba+ery for your Jaguar
340 2840
Neville
Jaguar Mk 11 County
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