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81-398: The Jaguar XJ13 is a prototype racing car that was developed by Jaguar Engineering Director William Heynes to compete at Le Mans in the mid 1960s. It never raced, and only one was produced. The car has not been officially valued, but a £7 million bid for it was declined by the owners in 1996. It was more than three times the price of a Ferrari 250 GTO at the time. Jaguar had considered

162-650: A 3-day test session at the Austrian Österreichring course. The Porsche technical team turned out ready to do some serious panel work on the coupé and in order to make a comparison, brought along the Can-Am 917PA Spyder. The drivers present instantly preferred the PA and together, the JW Automotive and Porsche engineers came up with the idea of a more upswept tail (as on the 917PA). The JW team had had similar high speed handling problems with

243-500: A 5-litre V12 in order to compete with the Porsche 917: the Ferrari 512 would be introduced for the 1970 season. At that time, the 917 already had several races under its belt, yet no success. The first win came in the last race of the championship season, the 1000 km Zeltweg . Jo Siffert and Kurt Ahrens succeeded in the privately entered Porsche 917 of German Freiherr von Wendt. At that time,

324-469: A 917 was displayed at the Geneva Motor Show, painted white with a green nose and a black No. 917. Brief literature on the car detailed a cash price of DM 140,000, approximately £16,000 at period exchange rates, or the price of about ten Porsche 911s . This price did not cover the costs of development. On April 20 Porsche's head of motorsports Ferdinand Piëch displayed 25 917s parked in front of

405-449: A car such as the XJ13 needed an experienced race driver to help develop it. Jack Brabham was approached in this regard, but the challenge was eventually taken up by ex-Jaguar Apprentice David Hobbs , who was recruited as the XJ13's main test driver. In 1969, Hobbs was included in a FIA list of 27 drivers who were rated the best in the world. Hobbs achieved an unofficial UK closed lap record with

486-432: A joint test at the Österreichring by the factory engineers and their new race team partners JW Automotive . After exhaustive experimentation by both groups, a shorter, more upswept tail was found to give the car more aerodynamic stability at speed. The changes were quickly adopted into the 917K for Kurzheck , or "short-tail". In 1971, a variant of the 917K appeared with a less upswept tail and vertical fins, and featured

567-499: A maximum of 630 bhp. The 917K models were generally used for the shorter road courses such as Sebring, Brands Hatch, Monza and Spa-Francorchamps. The big prize for Porsche however, was Le Mans. For the French circuit's long, high speed straights, the factory developed special long tail bodywork that was designed for minimum drag and thus highest maximum speed. On the car's debut in 1969, the 917L proved to be nearly uncontrollable as there

648-414: A new low drag version of the 917 was developed for Le Mans with support from the external consultant Robert Choulet . The 917LH (Langheck) featured a spectacular new long tail body which had very low drag, yet more rear downforce than the 1969 long tail. A 4.9-litre engine, introduced at 1000km Monza , was available but these proved to be unreliable for longer distance races. The 917 did not compete at all

729-612: A redesigned front section. Two were run by JW Automotive and one by the Martini International team. Although Jackie Oliver qualified one of the JW 917LHs on pole position, none of the three cars finished the race. 1971 917 Interserie Spyder: Three Porsche 917 Spyders were built for use in the German Interserie championship, rebuilt from 917s that had been crashed or otherwise written off. These cars were very successful, winning

810-436: A sole Ferrari 312P , failed. At the 1969 24 Hours of Le Mans , the 917s were quickest in practice. Soon after the start the poor handling of the 917 and the inexperience of one of the drivers resulted in drama: British gentleman-driver John Woolfe crashed his Porsche 917 at Maison Blanche on lap 1, dying as a result. Woolfe was the first privateer to race a 917. The works #14 917 led early, but succumbed to an oil leak, while

891-415: A surprising and expensive effort to take advantage of this rule. As they were rebuilding race cars with new chassis every race or two anyway, selling the used cars to customers, they decided to conceive, design and build 25 versions of a whole new car with 4.5-litre for the sport category with one underlying goal: to win its first overall victory in the 24 Hours of Le Mans on June 14, 1970. In only ten months

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972-635: Is now displayed at the British Motor Museum at Gaydon, UK. The only known replica of the original, pre MIRA crash, car powered by original prototype engine: Created following extensive research, including at the Jaguar Heritage Trust, under the guidance of surviving XJ13 Team members and making use of original data. Research was conducted by Neville Swales, owner of Building the Legend Ltd. Generally accepted as being an authentic re-creation of

1053-641: The Commission Sportive Internationale (then the independent competition arm of the FIA ) announced that the International Championship of Makes would be run for three-litre Group 6 prototypes for four years from 1968 through 1971. This capacity reduction would also serve to entice manufacturers who were already building three-litre Formula One engines to adapt them for endurance racing. Well aware that few manufacturers were ready to take up

1134-504: The Ferrari 512S in 1970, of which not all 25 were raced or sold. Source: In 1971 the Series 3 E-type was about to be launched with Jaguar's first production V12 engine . The publicity team wanted a shot of the XJ13 at speed for the opening sequence of the film launching the V12 E-Type. On 21 January 1971, the XJ13 was taken to MIRA for the filming with Jaguar test driver Norman Dewis at

1215-510: The Langheck and the stability of the Kurz , and was also a test-bed for future Can-Am parts and aerodynamic low-drag concepts. It was only raced once, at the 1971 24 Hours of Le Mans where it was entered by the Martini International team and driven by Reinhold Joest and Willi Kauhsen . Known as the " Pink Pig " for its broad proportions, it was given a pink livery with names of meat cuts running over

1296-590: The World Sportscar Championship ) was reduced from 50 to 25, starting in 1969 through the planned end of the rules in 1971. With Ferrari absent in 1968, mainly Porsche 908s and Ford P68s were entered there, with the Ford being a total failure. As a result, old 2.2-litre Porsche 907s often won that category, with John Wyer's 4.7-litre Ford GT40 Mk.I taking wins at faster tracks. Starting in July 1968, Porsche made

1377-426: The #12 dropped out of the lead and the race in the 21st hour with a broken gearbox, despite leading by nearly 50 miles. At the end, Hans Herrmann's 908 remained as the only Porsche that could challenge for the win, but Jacky Ickx 's more powerful Ford won once again, by a mere 120 metres (390 ft). In June 1969, Enzo Ferrari sold half of his stock to FIAT , and used some of that money to build 25 cars powered by

1458-406: The 1971 Interserie championship. 1971 917/10: The 917/10 was built for Can-Am racing, with a 5 litre engine, new bodywork and weight pared to a minimum. It was run in the latter part of the 1971 Can-Am season by Jo Siffert , with moderately successful results. 1971 917/20: The 917/20 was a one-off experimental R&D car. It was made as an intermediate car to combine the low drag of

1539-554: The 917K and the Ferrari 512Ss. Two were entered in the 1970 Le Mans race, one by Porsche Salzburg and the other by Martini Racing. The Porsche Salzburg 917L was qualified in pole position by Elford, but retired with engine failure after 18 hours and the Martini 917L finished 2nd, five laps behind the winning Salzburg 917K of Hans Herrmann and Richard Attwood . 1971 917 16 Cylinder: In an effort to keep up with other more powerful cars in

1620-421: The 917K at Ferdinand Piëch 's request. The 917K won 7 out of 10 races; all the races it competed in. Later on in the 1970 season, the 4.5 litre flat-12 was bored out to 4.9 litres, then 5 litres. 1970 917L: This long tail, low drag version of the 1969 917L was purpose-built for the 1970 24 Hours of Le Mans . Le Mans in 1970 was almost entirely made up of long straights and this version was designed to maximise

1701-404: The 917PA's gently upswept tail was one of the contributors to the search for better handling of the 917 coupés, resulting in the 917K variant. 1970 917K: The 917K was an evolution of the original 1969 car. After the first 917s were run in 1969, it was clear the car's aerodynamics made it nearly undriveable at higher speeds. After the 1969 championship season had finished, John Wyer requested

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1782-425: The Can-Am championship, a 6.6 litre, 750PS (551 kW, 739 bhp) flat-16 engined prototype was developed. It was tested in the original 917PA chassis, with the wheelbase extended by 270mm to take the longer engine. Although more powerful than the flat-12, it was also 80 kg heavier. Porsche decided that turbocharging the flat-12 would be more profitable, and the flat-16 was shelved. 1971 917K: The 917K

1863-605: The Jaguar C-type and D-type . He used his Bristol Aeroplane Company background to build it using techniques borrowed from the aircraft industry. The task of building the car was entrusted by Heynes to Engineer Derick White, Ted Brookes, Mike Kimberley, and Bob Blake in the Browns Lane experimental department's "competition shop"—Blake described by his contemporaries as "An Artist in Metal". William Heynes recognised as early as 1964 that

1944-571: The Mk 10 saloon October 1961, which incorporated new front suspension in conjunction with a new independent rear suspension also designed for the E Type introduced earlier in 1961. Introducing two new models in the same year determines his great engineering and design strength from a small talented engineering team. Heynes with Sir William Lyons designed and engineered the XJ6 saloon, launched in September 1968. The model

2025-583: The Nürburgring 1000 km and the Targa Florio. This car was raced at every event by JW Automotive and Porsche Salzburg in the 1970 season except the Targa Florio and the Nürburgring 1000 km. The smaller, more nimble and generally better suited 908/03s were used for those races, but privateers used the 917K at the Nürburgring 1000 km, and Vic Elford drove a lap of the 44-mile Targa Florio course in

2106-412: The PA designation), and driven by Jo Siffert . Compared to the dominant McLarens , the car was underpowered and overweight. Siffert's best result was 3rd at Bridgehampton , and he finished 4th in the championship. For 1971 the car was obtained by Vasek Polak who ran it for the next three years with the car gaining ever more aerodynamic aids, until by 1973 it resembled the 917/10 variant. The design of

2187-553: The Porsche 917 was developed, based on the Porsche 908 . When Porsche was first visited by the CSI inspectors only three cars were completed, while 18 were being assembled and seven additional sets of parts were present. Porsche argued that if they assembled the cars they would then have to take them apart again to prepare the cars for racing. The inspectors refused the homologation and asked to see 25 assembled and working cars. On March 12, 1969,

2268-411: The Porsche factory to the CSI inspectors. Piëch even offered the opportunity to drive any of the cars, which was declined. The car's chassis was designed by Helmuth Bott and the engine was designed by Hans Mezger, both under the leadership of Ferdinand Piëch . The car was built around a very light spaceframe chassis (42 kg (93 lb)) which was permanently pressurised with gas to detect cracks in

2349-600: The Standard 6-cylinder engine. One of the first cars to ever have it installed was the SS Jaguar 100 . Following World War II, SS Cars was renamed Jaguar . Heynes, who was appointed to the main Board of Director as Technical Director and Chief Engineer (1946), had earlier persuaded the chairman William Lyons that the company should make its own range of engines. During late war time the XK engine

2430-561: The XJ13 was considered obsolete by the time the prototype was complete. In addition, Ford upgraded the chassis to the modern Mk.IV, winner of 1967 Le Mans. Together with the 4.0 litre V12 Ferrari P these sleek cars were so fast that from 1968 onwards the engines of prototypes were limited to 3.0 litre, like in Formula One since 1966. The XJ13 prototype was tested at MIRA and at Silverstone, which confirmed that it would have required considerable development to make it competitive. The prototype

2511-412: The XJ13 which stood for 32 years. For the XJ13's final test at full racing speed, Hobbs was joined at Silverstone by another racing driver (and ex-Jaguar apprentice) Richard Attwood . The XJ13 had a mid-engine format, with the 5.0 litre V12 engine designed by Heynes and Claude Bailey. It produces 502 horsepower at 7600 rpm, mounted behind the driver, used as a stressed chassis member together with

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2592-449: The bodywork. Although it qualified seventh and ran as high as third, it retired from the race after an accident caused by brake failure at Arnage while Joest was driving. 1972 917/10: The revised 917/10 was Porsche's first full-scale attempt at Can-Am for 1972. This car ran the 5.0 litre flat-12 and was modified to accommodate additional compression; two turbochargers were added to give the car tremendous horsepower. George Follmer won

2673-510: The car's problems. 1969 917PA: The 917PA was an open-topped and short-tailed version of the original 917 and was built to compete in Can-Am racing. Only two cars were built by Porsche. The first never raced, and later became a test mule for an experimental flat-16 engine. The second car was entered in the 1969 Can-Am season by Porsche Audi, the North American distributors for Porsche (hence

2754-413: The car, and the car still performed like it did before. The Österreichring was the circuit where the car had won its only race at that time, Wyer's chief engineer John Horsman noticed that the bodywork had a pattern of dead gnats dashed against it, revealing the airflow. The tail was clean—the lack of dead gnats indicated that the air was not flowing over the tail. A modification to the tail was cobbled-up on

2835-460: The car. The car was rebuilt, to a specification similar to the original, using some of the body jigs made for its original construction and at a cost of £1,000 to Jaguar. In Jaguar's own words, "The car that can be seen today is not an exact reproduction of the original." The XJ13 made its public debut in July 1973 when 'Lofty' drove it around Silverstone at the British Grand Prix meeting. It

2916-486: The central body tub together with a single fabricated transverse lower link. The development of the XJ13, although treated seriously by the designers, was never a priority for company management (despite assistant MD Lofty England's Le Mans success in the 1950s) and became less so following the 1966 merger with BMC . By that time, Ford had developed the GT40 into the 7.0 litre Mk.II prototype that won Le Mans in 1966, and so

2997-433: The challenge immediately, the CSI also allowed the participation of five-litre Group 4 sports cars , of which a minimum of 50 units had to be manufactured. This targeted existing cars like the aging Ford GT40 Mk.I and the newer Lola T70 coupé. In April 1968, facing few entrants in races, the CSI announced that the minimum production figure to compete in the sport category of the International Championship of Makes (later

3078-453: The championship in the Roger Penske car. 1973 917/30: The 917/30, the final official iteration of the 917, is one of the most powerful sports racing cars to have ever existed. The car had all new bodywork, and the twin turbocharged engine was bored out to 5.4 litres giving it 1100–1580 horsepower, depending on the state of tune. These cars dominated Can-Am racing to such an extent that

3159-413: The company's board as part of their promotion. Porsche 917 Le mans The Porsche 917 is a sports prototype race car developed by German manufacturer Porsche to exploit the regulations regarding the construction of 5-litre sports cars. Powered by a Type 912 flat-12 engine which was progressively enlarged from 4.5 to 5.0 litres, the 917 was introduced in 1969 and initially proved unwieldy on

3240-524: The concave rear deck that had proved so effective on the 1970 version of the 917L. The fins kept the clean downforce-inducing air on the top of the tail and allowed the angle of the deck to be reduced, reducing the drag in direct proportion. The result was a more attractive looking car that maintained down force for less drag and higher top speed. By this time the original 4.5-litre engine, which had produced around 520 bhp in 1969, had been enlarged through 4.9-litres (600 bhp) to 5-litres and produced

3321-434: The early Ford GT40 models. With gaffer tape and aluminium sheet, a completely new short tail was evolved at the racetrack. This was quickly converted into a 'production' design back at Porsche and the 917K (Kurzheck) made its public debut at the season opening 1970 24 Hours of Daytona . Such was the improvement in the stability of the car at high speed, the 917K became the standard configuration for all races except Le Mans,

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3402-444: The eleven WSC races. A version of this model with a lightweight magnesium chassis won the 1971 24 Hours of Le Mans . 1971 917LH: The 1971 model was a further development of the 1970 917L and was also made specifically to compete in only one race: the 1971 24 Hours of Le Mans . The car was also more stable than its 1970 predecessor because of a revised suspension set up and new bodywork with partially enclosed rear wheel covers and

3483-436: The factory had started to focus on development, leaving the time-consuming trips to races to customer teams. Disappointed by the poor results of the 917 in 1969, and facing new competition, Porsche concluded an agreement with John Wyer and his JWA Gulf Team, which became the official Porsche team, and also the official development partner. During tests at the Österreichring at Zeltweg , works drivers Redman and Ahrens tested

3564-542: The finest craftsmen in the industry. Visually identical to the actual 1973-built factory car. The car was officially launched at Retromobile 2024. William Heynes Heynes was educated at Warwick School from 1914 to 1921 before joining the Humber Car Company in Coventry in 1922 as a student where he worked in the drawing office before becoming head of the technical department in 1930. During this time he oversaw

3645-485: The first V12 engine prototypes were produced and developed and tested. A prototype race car was initiated for Le Mans . A single V12 car XJ13 was completed and tested in 1966 with competitive lap times at Silverstone prior to the project being cancelled. The V12 engine continued to be developed in line with emerging emission regulations for Series 3 E-Type and XJ12 / XJS. Heynes was Chief Engineer from 1935 until his retirement. As Chief Engineer and Technical Director he

3726-548: The five-speed manual ZF Transaxle driving the rear wheels. The front suspension wishbones were similar to that of the E-Type; however, where the E-Type used longitudinal torsion bars, the XJ13 had more conventional coil spring/damper units. At the rear, there again remained similarities with the E-Type—the use of driveshafts as upper transverse links. However, the rest was different, with two long radius arms per side angling back from

3807-489: The gear shift knob out of birch wood, some methods were not simple, such as using the tubular frame itself as oil piping to the front oil cooler (a design used successfully by Lotus beginning with Lotus 22 of 1962). There are at least eleven variants of the 917. The original version had a removable long tail/medium tail with active rear wing flaps, but had considerable handling problems at high speed because of significant rear lift. The handling problems were investigated at

3888-408: The inlet porting, valve angles and combustion chamber shape. The first engine ran in July 1964. The design structure of a mid-engined prototype was first mooted in 1960 by William Heynes, but it was not until 1965 that construction began, with the first car running by March 1966. The aluminium body exterior was designed by Malcolm Sayer , the aerodynamicist responsible for aerodynamic air flow work on

3969-653: The introduction of significant models including the Humber Snipe and the Humber Pullman . In April 1935, after the Rootes Group takeover, he was chosen by William Lyons to join SS Cars Ltd . Initially he worked on the chassis and suspension but was also responsible for increasing the power output of the modified Standard Motor Company engines then being used. He worked on development of an overhead-valve conversion for

4050-651: The lightweight and compact Porsche 908 /3 were developed for the slow and twisty tracks of the Nürburgring and the Sicilian mountain roads used in the Targa Florio , providing wins while the factory-backed 917 remained in the garages, as these cars were not suitable for these tracks. The 908/3 was built to the FIA's 3-litre Group 6 Prototype regulations whereas the 917 was now officially a Group 5 Sports Car following another FIA review of its racing classes, applicable from 1970. Wyer

4131-484: The manufacture of a Dual Overhead Camshaft (DOHC) V12 engine as far back as 1950, initially for racing purposes, and then developing a Single Overhead Camshaft (SOHC) road-going version, unlike the XK, which was designed as a production engine and later pressed into service for racing. The engine design was essentially two XK 6-cylinder engines on a common crankshaft with an aluminium cylinder block, although there were differences in

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4212-471: The pre-crash 1966 Jaguar XJ13. The first of this run of replicas was notable for being powered by the only surviving complete and original quad-cam prototype engine. Notable appearances: February 2016: London Classic Car show. First track appearance, in the company of surviving members of the original XJ13 project team, and members of William Heynes' and Malcolm Sayer's family, Jaguar VIPs and enthusiasts at Curborough Sprint Course near Lichfield. The car

4293-422: The problem. It was finally determined that the "long tail" body was generating significant lift on the straights, as the 917 was 30 km/h (19 mph) faster than anything previously built for Le Mans . As with former under-powered Porsches, the 917 aerodynamics had been optimized for low drag in order to do well on the fast straights of Le Mans, Spa, Monza and elsewhere. The significance of downforce for racing

4374-432: The race and set the fastest lap at 3:37.1. Gerhard Mitter / Udo Schütz actually started the race from 8th, but their already ailing engine failed after one lap. Three weeks later for the 1000km Nürburgring , all works drivers preferred the 908 over the 917 which was, despite some modifications, not suited for the twisty track. As it was necessary to promote the car in order to sell the surplus ones, Porsche asked BMW for

4455-486: The race track but continuous development improved the handling and it went on to dominate sports-car racing in 1970 and 1971. In 1970 it gave Porsche its first overall win at the 24 Hours of Le Mans , a feat it would repeat in 1971. It would be chiefly responsible for Porsche winning the International Championship for Makes in 1970 and 1971. Porsche went on to develop the 917 for Can-Am racing, culminating in

4536-424: The races of the season, however. Porsche's previous competition model, the 908, was redesigned with an all-new chassis and designated 908/03 so it would be used at the Targa Florio and Nurburgring 1000 km events- two twisty, narrow and slow tracks the 917 was not competitive at. Vic Elford drove a 917 during practice for the 1970 Targa Florio and it proved to be so physically demanding and difficult to drive around

4617-503: The series lost popularity in the United States. A total of six chassis were built. In testing, it soon appeared that the Porsche 917 did not work well on the race track. Porsche factory driver Brian Redman recalled that "it was incredibly unstable, using all the road at speed." Many thought that the 4.5-litre engine was too much for the frame. The suspension and the stability of the frame were suspected, but modifications did not improve

4698-406: The services of their factory drivers Hubert Hahne and Dieter Quester . They practised, but Munich declined permission to have them race, so Englishman David Piper and Australian Frank Gardner were hired on short terms. They drove the 917 to an eighth-place finish behind a Ford and an Alfa, while the factory's armada of six 908/02 spyders scored a 1-2-3-4-5 win after the only serious competition,

4779-411: The speed capability resulting from the increased power developed by the flat-12 engine over the previous Porsche types. The 1970 917L was largely based on the initial 1969 car. Nevertheless, factory driver Vic Elford had found the car's ultimate speed an advantage enough over its still questionable handling in the braking and cornering sections of Le Mans. It was 25 mph faster down the straights than

4860-418: The spot in the pits with aluminium sheets taped together. This new short tail gave the 917 much needed downforce. The plastic engine intake cover had already been removed. Redman and Ahrens were doing only one lap at a time before, they each did 10 laps and were satisfied with the improved performance. The new version was called 917K ( Kurzheck , or "short tail"). In addition to the heavier and powerful 917,

4941-580: The system on all Jaguar cars. The Mk 1 2.4 saloon 1954/55 with monocoque body construction followed the forward design thinking of Heynes and his engineers, post war. This was later in 1961 followed by a world leading independent rear suspension designed by Heynes and developed with R J Knight. This unit remained the standard rear suspension thirty years in E-Type , Mark X , S-Type , 420 , XJ6 and XJ12 Series 1, 2 and 3, and XJS . The Heynes design with Walter Hassan development of torsion bar front suspension

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5022-463: The turbocharged 917/10 and 917/30 CanAm Spyders. Porsche 917s also raced in the European Interseries in various configurations. In the 1973 Can-Am series, the turbocharged version Porsche 917/30 developed 1,100 bhp (820 kW). There were a number of versions of Porsche 917 made over the years; at least eleven different versions have existed. 1969 917: The original Porsche 917

5103-466: The twin-turbocharged 917/30 which was even more dominant in the role. Porsche drivers would win the Can-Am championship in 1972 and 1973. 917 drivers also won the Interserie championship every year from 1969 to 1975. In an effort to reduce the speeds at Le Mans and other fast circuits of the unlimited capacity Group 6 prototypes (such as the seven-litre Ford GT40 Mk.IV and four-litre V12 Ferrari P )

5184-551: The welded structure. Power came from a new 4.5-litre air-cooled engine designed by Mezger. A completely new flat-12 block was designed without the cylinder offset needed by a boxer design to keep the engine compact. The 'Type 912' engine featured a 180° flat-12 cylinder layout with six crank throws (each conrod journal shared by opposing piston pair) as opposed to twelve on a boxer, twin overhead camshafts gear-driven from centrally mounted gears and twin spark plugs fed from two distributors . The large horizontally mounted cooling fan

5265-422: The wheel. The car was driven by Dewis at speed on a damaged tyre, against the instructions of Jaguar director England. The resultant crash heavily damaged and nearly destroyed the car, although Dewis was unharmed. The damaged car was put back into storage. Some years later, Edward Loades spotted the crashed XJ13 in storage at Jaguar and made the offer to 'Lofty' England that his company Abbey Panels should rebuild

5346-544: Was also driven from centrally mounted gears. The longitudinally mounted type 920 gearbox was designed to take a set of four or five gears. To keep the car compact despite the large engine, the driving position was so far forward that the feet of the driver were beyond the front wheel axle. The car had remarkable technology. It used many components made of titanium , magnesium and exotic alloys that had been developed for lightweight "Bergspyder" hill climb racers. Other methods of weight reduction were rather simple, such as making

5427-413: Was designed 1964 and tested until cancellation of this last Heynes engineered race car during the company merger with BMC in July 1966. Heynes designed the first British monocoque (unitary) saloon 2.4 and 3.4 models 1955, followed by Mk 2 models with 3.8 litre XK engine. The earlier Jaguar saloon cars from 1950 Mk7 Mk8 Mk9 continued in production with 3.4 3.8 engines until 1961. Heynes was responsible for

5508-521: Was designed and later developed with a launch in 1948 at the London Motor Show with the new XK120 sports car. The XK engine remained in production in 2.4, 2.8, 3.4, 3.8 and 4.2 models and was a significant design as the mainstay of the company for 35 years. With Dunlop he was responsible for the Disc Brake joint development in 1952 and later Heynes following racing experience pioneered and introduced

5589-574: Was first run at the Le Mans Test in March 1969 and right from the start showed considerable handling problems due to aerodynamic lift. The original specification of the car included a detachable long-tail (Langheck), that was designed using experience from the previous 907 long-tail coupés for minimum aerodynamic drag, with suspension controlled moving flaps on the tail. At Le Mans the CSI baulked at this, moving aerodynamic aids having been banned in motorsport. It

5670-559: Was followed by winning the Le Mans 24 hour race in 1952 1953 with the C Type and 1955 /56 /57 with his monocoque designed D type. Heynes continued to support private race entrants from the experimental competition section, including Briggs Cunningham in the USA with a single prototype E2A , the forerunner of the E Type, and Lister Jaguar in 1958/59 Le Mans and with the full race lightweight E Type 3.8 in 1962/63/64. A mid engined V12 race prototype XJ13

5751-403: Was further developed for the 1971 season, and the car had vertical fins and two airboxes on the tail section for better aerodynamics and cooling. The fins retained the airflow over the rear part of the bodywork, allowing the deck height to be reduced for a given level of downforce. As a result, the 'finned' 1971 917Ks were faster than the 1970 versions and proved just as successful, winning seven of

5832-399: Was introduced on Mark V 1947 and XK120 1948 and was used on all XK sports cars and Mark VII , VIII and IX saloon cars. A similar design was introduced on all E-Types from 1961 to 1975. His team of engineers including Harry Weslake (consultant), Walter Hassan and Claude Baily designed the 6-cylinder XK engine, that proved to be the biggest and longest lived success of Jaguar. In 1964

5913-650: Was nominated as a finalist in the International Historic Motoring Awards 2016 in the category Car of the Year and was displayed outside the awards event at The Guildhall in London that same year. 22 January 2024: The car was featured and reviewed on an episode of Jay Leno's Garage . Known replicas of the rebuilt, post MIRA crash, car: The only car ever built from a physical scan of the 'factory' Jaguar XJ13. A very special one-off build - handmade by some of

5994-424: Was not yet fully realised although Can-Am and F1 cars were using wings by that time. Before its competition debut on 11 May 1969 in the 1000km Spa , the weather conditions prevented further improvements in tests. The Jo Siffert / Brian Redman car managed to clock an unofficial lap time of 3:41.9 which would have beaten the pole of 3:42.5 set by a Lola, but they chose to use the 908LH long tail with which they won

6075-468: Was only when Rolf Stommelen demonstrated how undriveable the car was without the moving flaps that they relented and allowed them for Le Mans only. Throughout 1969 the car's speed was countered by the handling problems and it won only one race, the Zeltweg 1000 km. Following that event, JW Automotive, who would be acting as a semi-works team in 1970, requested a test session with Porsche to try and sort out

6156-568: Was put into storage and no further examples were made - one reason may have been that there was a literal flood of dozens of V12 race cars available on the market. Both Porsche and Ferrari brought 5.0 litre V12 engine to sports car racing as this size was allowed when at least 25 identical "sports cars" had been produced up front, even though when they were de facto prototypes built to win Le Mans. After Porsche made this expensive gamble in 1969, building 25 Porsche 917 (and later many more), Ferrari sold half of its company to FIAT in order to answer with

6237-592: Was reported that he intended to "devote enthusiasm to his farm whilst maintaining strong motor industry links and advising and assisting his close factory relationship with William Lyons and the Jaguar directors, F.R.W "Lofty" England and Bob Knight." Shortly before his retirement he was honoured with a CBE for his services to exports and vehicle design. His responsibilities were taken over by R. J. ("Bob") Knight (Chief Vehicle Engineer) and W.T.F. ("Wally") Hassan (Chief Engineer, Power Units), both of whom were appointed to

6318-528: Was responsible for all Jaguar design / engineering from 1935 up to and including XJS. Heynes designed the XK range of sports cars XK120 XK140 XK150, including full design of the C-Type 1951 followed by his monocoque body design of the D-Type 1954, followed by the E-Type 1961. Sir William Lyons was persuaded by William Heynes to enter motor racing in 1950 with XK120 works prepared, privately entered cars at Le Mans; this

6399-442: Was so little down force. In fact, they generated aerodynamic lift at the highest speeds. For 1970, an improved version was raced by the factory and for 1971, after very significant development in the wind tunnel , the definitive 917L was raced by both factory and JW. In 1969 Jo Siffert raced an open-top 917PA Spyder (normally aspirated) in the 1969 CanAm series. There is also the "Pink Pig" aerodynamic research version (917/20), and

6480-461: Was surprised to discover that another team was carefully preparing for the 1970 24 Hours of Le Mans with close support from Porsche. As in 1969, the Porsche Salzburg team was a de facto works team under control of members of the Porsche family. The Martini Racing team also gained support from Porsche AG; obviously Porsche made efforts to win the race by supporting more than one team. Also,

6561-496: Was voted best car of the year and laid the foundation for the next seventeen years. The XJ6 success was followed by XJS using similar chassis platform and V12 power units designed and initiated by Heynes before retirement. Heynes always acknowledged his engineering team which he had directed and built up from 1935 and their contribution to the success of Jaguar. At the end of 1969 he retired as Vice Chairman and Technical Director of Jaguar, after 35 years. Following his retirement it

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