I'll second Brett's thoughts here — this is exactly how I like to see classic Jags driven! Look at her go!

 

That is cool. I love seeing cars driven hard. It does seem a little weird to me that off the line on a straight line the car gets squirrely and he has to correct it?

 

Not enough weight in the back and no limited slip differential _ assuming it still has the solid rear axle, which it probably does.
That and accompanied with too wide of a tire possibly, if wasn't so light in the rear...

I think another problem is the MkI's rear end was more narrow then at the front, it made for better cornering under normal driving conditions, but when it's pushed it doesn't work too well.

 

Very cool footage - thanks for posting. It's amazing what modern tire technology has done for handling.
I had a coworker in London who vintage races a Mini Cooper S and a Coombs Mark 2. When I mentioned the extreme handling differences between the two he referred to the Mark as "the pig". "When you enter a corner you point the beast where you want to go, put your foot to the floor and hope for the best." Considering that live axle is dangling from the free end of a long leaf spring it's a wonder they do as well as they do.

 

Yeah, tires have gotten so much better. Light years. And I love this, ha ha! "put your foot to the floor and hope for the best." ha ha!

 

That makes sense but never realized it was that drastic as it looks like a handful to keep her straight. I am glad I have the 3.8s as I can launch the car hard off the line with no worries of the car losing control and with the wider tires I have the car tracks very well in the corners at high speeds.

 

actually watching that footage (does that term even apply anymore) I think they have locked the rear---plus that car is making a LOT more power than stock--a lot!

 

Both Doug and I have V8 Jaguar saloons and I am sure we have a LOT more power than that car as I do not think that straight 6 will put down 400 in Doug's case or 450+ HP in my Jaguar 3.8s. Now I see the value of the independent rear suspension and limited slip in my 3.8s

 

Primaz current development of the XK engine for hill climbs and racing might amaze you. The Factory got 390 out of one prepped for racing on a test bed. My point was toward the comments of the car in question drifting so much and esp on take off. I was mostly thinking they had the rear gears locked. Depending on the depth of the inspections and the rules for the sanctioning body lots of mods are accepted. Bill Terry can get 400+ HP from the XK engine (Terry Tough). My observation is the engine in this car has been prepared in a similar manner.

 

BUY 1 is the ex Salvadori Coombs Mk1, achieves a little over 300 BHP according to write ups, Tony Williams raced it and now his son Grant is following suit, Grant has driven it like that for many years, if you do a search, you will find plenty of older video footage of the same driving style.
From what I have read, I think Grant does it more for fun than necessity, it's a crowd pleaser and mostly because he can than because the car handles that way IMO.

 

Tilly well aware of the car and the write ups. All have it over 300 BHP which is 100 or more BHP over stock. Some "write ups" state the HP well over 300 which seems likely. That said I still suspect the rear is locked and not LS. And yes he likes to do donuts but this was a timed run.

 

What rear axle would he be running George ? A locked diff is no damn use at all around a corner, you would get massive understeer.

There are axles out there that can be locked and unlocked electronically, but I doubt he has one like that on the Coombs Mk1.

Primaz, watch the video on slow mo and tell me he ain't doing that for fun. Looks to me like a crowd pleasing display, get's noticed and is fun, surely that's what the festival is all about, anyone know what the prize money is ?

 

No with a locked rear you get exactly what you see. I ran a 140 in Vintage for years with a locked rear. All it takes is a bit of welding! But I am sorry and forgot you need to be right so---Tilly you are right!

 

George, of course you have done it before ! I can't see how a permanently locked diff would help with an overall race with corners etc.not generally known to be efficient on hard surfaces.

I may not be right, I have just given my view, I don't have to be rude to give my opinion.

 

I do think it is cool that with the right customization that the Jag 6 can get decent power and I love any brand car be pushed to race levels. To me I do not think he is purposely letting the backend brake loose on purpose. I think that the way he has set up the suspension that the car gets loose when more power is applied quickly; when he accelerates from a stand still it brakes loose dangerously and in the next few turns once the car is up to speed it still brakes loose to me more than it should. I love it when cars drift but to me the suspension setup does not seem that great as the car really is not going that fast around the track to get that loose more abruptly as it really looks like the car gets out of control more than it should. He knows the car and is good to keep in control but I would think there are ways to improve the suspension so that the car track better. Still a great video seeing an old Jag be pushed so hard but I think he could be more competitive with more suspension work?

 

You could well be right Primaz, I would love to know how he has set it up, I am going past his place in the next week or so, I may pop in and ask if I have time.

As you say, great to see the old cars pushed to and almost past their limits, and an impressive display of control.

 

This will be interesting to see if the rear is locked or not.
We should have a pole, I'm going to say it's not locked.
This is based on the fact that he when he does slow down when he drives by the brick wall and hay bails, the car appears to handle OK.
If the rear was locked, I think there would be tire marks on the road due to the cars inability to corner properly if the rear end was indeed locked.

My Dad sold his 59 Chev truck for 50 bucks to a gear head, he locked the rear end and made the truck pretty much un-drivable, it jerked and chirped around every corner.

 

he drives it almost exactly like a 3 wheel Morgan racer. Makes sense as the rear track is narrower than the front. While it is possible he has added a LSD it is the most aggressive I have seen. We know the Diff was not stock as well as the body so lets see what it does have. A locked rear is almost not noticeable unless a hair pin turn. For the run on the tape (CD) it would be perfect.

 

Just been to the Goodwood Revival, fantastic day, had a chat with Grant's chief mechanic, BUY1 has an LSD, and the answer to the squirley rear end was "Grant is a showman", they call him "King of the drift".

Couple of pictures of BUY1 and the crew, John the owner on the left Chief mechanic obviously with his back to the camera.

He came 3rd in the race I watched, he got put off the track by an Austin A38 on the first corner, and then battled to get into second, spending a lot of time going outside traffic and never managed to get around no 2, great race and a really good day out.