Dave Silcock wrote:Now here is where we can see a whole lot of grief amongst you lot that think a car with "history' is more desirable than a new built old car. The ex Clive Gott car does not exsist, that was supposedly destroyed by Mike John, sent to the crusher I belive. The car he now insists is the ex Millen car does not exsist either, wrong wheels, no Mk1 escort flares, wrong color etc. The car I built and raced no longer exsist either,if you consider the car as I saw it at Highland Park at Easter. The wheels and body are the wrong color, it has a louvered bonnet, the front wheel arches are the wrong shape, the seats and steering wheel are incorrect and it has a roll cage in it. Not to mention the Japanese 5 speed gearbox and the Willwood brakes. Not a glimmer of nostalgia did I feel as I walked by it. So how is this going to fit into this new class? And this is only a car I know a bit about, what about all the other cars on the list?
Here is a history lesson about the MK2 Jaguar that Dave Silcock outlines earlier in this forum and sorry to George Sheweiry that his forum has been hijacked in this way.
The Jaguar was bought as a written off car and rebuilt into a race car by Silcock in the ‘70’s. It was then owned by Don McMillan of Metropolitan Cranes with Silcock and Peter Sundberg racing it.
It was subsequently sold to Steve Millen who after initially racing it as bought, modified it to be more competitive, changed the colour and was very successful with it, it really launched his racing career.
In 1973 Don Peddie bought the Jaguar, did little with it but Grant Aitken did have a race in it. In 1978 it was sold to Stephen Thomson, then in ’79 sold to Gwyn Edicot-Davies with Clive Gott then buying it from him where Gott substantially modified it and did run in Sports Sedans even once managing a win, this was around 1981 with a period article stating “He does not expect to be able to match the V8 engined Ford Capri of Wayne Huxford or 4.2 litre Toyota Starlet of Trevor Crowe” Of interest in the same article Gott said “He has extensively modified it by fitting a light fibreglass front end and cutting out the floor in the boot. He also welded up the rear doors and moved the motor back several centimetres to aid weight distribution” it was then sold to Bruce Orr in 1984 who sold it to Terry Paaske in 1986 whom I purchased it from in the late ‘80’s.
The way I preferred the look of the Jaguar was as originally built by Silcock and this is the way I decided to restore it and not that Silcock mentions it but we got him to rebuild all the mechanical and some fabrication work on the body!
For Silcock to carry out his work I had to purchase another MK2 shell as Gott had chopped so much out of the original and it had now succumbed to rust, all that could be saved was cut out of the little that was left of the ‘original’ shell which I made no secret of was then crushed. I kept the Fibre glass doors and boot, cut out a lot of the ‘original’ fabricating work that was left and kept all the mechanicals including suspension’ with later on Silcock selling the 4.2 engine from it. I run a period correct 3.8 originally built by Silcock then rebuilt by Dave Mills.
There was nothing forward of the front windscreen as that had been modified to a space frame set up. At this point I must say that I don’t blame Gott for doing all of this as it was his car and the work he did do was well done BUT did ruin a ‘classic’ race car.
So as you can see the Jaguar has gone through several ‘modifications over its life and whilst it can’t be said its original ( as that changed once the first modifications were done) the lineage is there and the car I have had for over 20 years, being the longest owner and I have raced it more than any of the previous owners is authentic if not original.
Some of the points that Silcock brings up “wrong wheels” not only are they the correct American racing wheels that came off a Mustang, this Jaguar uniquely has a Ford stud pattern (not ever modified in all it’s years of racing), what he means is I didn’t use the wider Millen wheels which would have meant fitting the Escort flares which at the time would have been frowned upon by the Classic race authorities. I did however keep a set of the period correct flares even though the rear ones had been further modified by Gott.
The colour is absolutely correct as Silcock knows as we had the original painter let us know what the Colour was off ( A Corvette) .
Silcock is again wrong “ The car I built no longer exists”. Through the history as explained above and especially as he rebuilt the Jaguar!
Silcock is correct that in the short period he raced the Jaguar it didn’t have a louvered bonnet but then I ‘m sure if he could have he would have as this alone went a long way to fixing the overheating the Jaguar had suffered in its early race history. And it adds to the beauty!
The front wheel arches are the correct shape as run early in it’s life.
As the Jaguar ran most of its life with a roll cage it has to have a roll cage, the seats also have to meet a standard, the originals didn’t ( I have kept what maybe the ‘originals’ ) and the steering wheel is a period Motolita donated to me by the late Geoff Manning and his lovely wife, Barbara.
The gearbox as modified by Silcock was a constant disaster, the one in it now has the same foward gears as available in it’s time but doesn’t break!! It’s Australian!
The Wilwood brakes as fitted by Silcock are noted in the Certificate of Description and are a cheaper, safer allowable option.
If anyone has bothered to get this far go and look up a court case in the UK in 1990 Hubbard Vs Middlebridge Scmitar Ltd
http://www.gomog.com/articles/N01 Judgement where you will read about Old Number One Bentley.
It’s not dissimilar to the Jaguar with stating “ "It is important to realize that racing cars are invariably changed during their careers, to incorporate improvements and modifications, and because of hard use and accidents” The Bentley even had a change of Chassis just like the Jaguar.
Summary
Thus, in summary, the expression Old Number One is the famous name in history of vintage Bentley racing car. It is justifiably applied to the car which in a succession of forms raced at Le Mans between 1929 and 1932 when it crashed. It is the "authentic" "Old Number One".
My Jaguar CP 9788 is THE Authentic car, original no but the lineage is there.
Silcock should be proud that a part of history that he initially made has been preserved, I wasn’t the one that hacked it about!
I am not going to debate with Silcock or anyone on this matter in this forum I just wanted to give a brief outline of the Jaguar’s history.
Regards
Mike John