They are for towing/lifting, forks from a forklift can lift the front of the car using them.

 

The scoops underneath are either for brake cooling or shoving air into the engine compartment / carbs.

I've done a lot of research on racing Mk1 and Mk2's and they all have scoops and air dams under the front. I've done similar things with my car as I'm doing a light vintage racing homage with my mk2.

An air scoop (Primaz inspired me to do this) plus a cold air ram have made massive differences in the running and cooling of my car.

 

I would love to hear about about modifications for vintage racing. Perhaps you could start a thread that we could all add to with ideas and pictures? I am trying to understand all the Combs modifications. The hood louvers and rear wheel arches are obvious mods, the others are a little more subtle.

I am aware of Primaz's air scoop and looking at doing something similar. Scoops for brake cooling would be interesting to see also.

 

Definitely not air intakes, well not the red ones anyhow, they are that colour to aid the marshals for quick recovery, towing point are indicated by red marking and there is a red marker on the bumper to indicate towing points, both front and rear.

 

I could be completely wrong here.

But I was just at Monterey historic racing and not a single car there had slots for a forklift. That does not make any sense to me. What forklift would be able to lift a 3000 lb car and without bending the frame? The fork arms would have to go all the way under the motor. The red arrow does point to tow hooks, usually a loop or a hook the tow truck grabs with a cable to pull the car. I could be wrong but there's likely a loop under the bumper next to those. If you google racing mk2 jaguar you'll see many of the cars have scoops under the front bumper.

 

Those box sections look like 3/16" or 1/4" steel - pretty certain they wouldn't add all that weight to a race car for ducting air.

 

Presumably if you stuck the forks through these they would then go in and under the bottom arms which should be more than strong enough to pick one of these up, after all these are where it sits normally.

 

They are not designed to lift the car completely as far as I am aware, but if stuck in a gravel trap, or front end shunt they can left the front and get it out of the way, that's as far as I understand, next time I see them I can ask again.

They have a cool air intake from inside the wheel arch using a modified air intake to take cooler air directly to triple 2" HD8 SU's with trumpet intakes which are below the cool air vent, but not connected to them. The brakes are upgraded with a twin pipe system and 2 resevoirs, I did not see any cooling for the brakes.

 

In my years of watching racing and actually a bit myself I have never seen a forklift out on the track doing anything. A hook is what is required in most all sanctioning bodies and yes clearly marked! Not sure why some think that is plate steel--looks like a well executed rolled metal duct! One on each side for the front brakes and I bet a crawl underneath would find some sort of venting system for the rear similar to the E Type.

the best is F1 where the car is the hook and the whole thing is lifted! If those are plate steel forklift points it explains the rear end being loose--all the weight is on the front!

 

Well technically it's a telescopic forklift or telehandler and they had one at Goodwood,

Here are a couple of other examples George

 

Tell me he's not doing this for fun !

 

I have to say they look like fabricated scoops in this pic. Who brought up the damn red things anyway?

 

CSBush's fault, (sorry Chuck just threw you under the bus ), the colour also indicates some sort of towing/recovery point as they have to be clearly marked in a bright colour.