Hi all,
I had the pleasure last Monday of taking part in a GT40 documentary for the Discovery Channel.
The filming took place at Dunsfold on the Top Gear track, where I was able to pit my CAV against chassis 1071. The original car was fitted with a 289 in a farly high state of tune and the CAV has a "cooking" 302.
To cut a long story short, the CAV was faster on the straight, but 1071 was awesome on the twisties and eventually won the day. I would like to point out that this was surely due in no small part to my huge limitations as a racing driver rather than any intrinsic problems with the setting up of the CAV!
The car is owned by a really nice guy called Aubrey Finburgh who specialises in historic Jaguars, in Hertfordshire. It is currently in White with red and blue stripes (which I believe is the French racing colours) The car has a rebuilt shell after an appalling start line shunt at Silverstone some years ago and is in really nice useable condition. It has the Mk1 body (as has the CAV) and it was great to see the cars side by side. The most noticeable difference was the ride height - I think 1071 is about 2 inches lower than the CAV and the rear tyre was well inside the wheel arch.
Aubrey took me for a drive at speed afterwards (which is my first outing in an original car) and it was an awesome experience. I also took the opportunity to plug our website, although there is no telling what will remain on the cutting room floor!
Discovery World Wide have promised to send some stills which I will post when I have them. The programme should be screened around October. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cool.gif
Cheers,
Rick /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cool.gif
I had the pleasure last Monday of taking part in a GT40 documentary for the Discovery Channel.
The filming took place at Dunsfold on the Top Gear track, where I was able to pit my CAV against chassis 1071. The original car was fitted with a 289 in a farly high state of tune and the CAV has a "cooking" 302.
To cut a long story short, the CAV was faster on the straight, but 1071 was awesome on the twisties and eventually won the day. I would like to point out that this was surely due in no small part to my huge limitations as a racing driver rather than any intrinsic problems with the setting up of the CAV!
The car is owned by a really nice guy called Aubrey Finburgh who specialises in historic Jaguars, in Hertfordshire. It is currently in White with red and blue stripes (which I believe is the French racing colours) The car has a rebuilt shell after an appalling start line shunt at Silverstone some years ago and is in really nice useable condition. It has the Mk1 body (as has the CAV) and it was great to see the cars side by side. The most noticeable difference was the ride height - I think 1071 is about 2 inches lower than the CAV and the rear tyre was well inside the wheel arch.
Aubrey took me for a drive at speed afterwards (which is my first outing in an original car) and it was an awesome experience. I also took the opportunity to plug our website, although there is no telling what will remain on the cutting room floor!
Discovery World Wide have promised to send some stills which I will post when I have them. The programme should be screened around October. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cool.gif
Cheers,
Rick /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cool.gif
