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About ten years ago, the Jaguar-Daimler Heritage Trust turned down a £7,000,000 offer for the unique prototype of Jaguar's first V12-powered car, the original XJ13 designed as a LeMans entry to challenge Ford's GT40. While its racing pedigree was never allowed to take off, the significance of this very special car ranks high in the annals of British supercars let alone the history of post-war prototypes on the grand circuit. Having had the unique opportunity to inspect the sole example of XJ13 myself while touring the British Motor Heritage Trust, this author completely understands and applauds the efforts of the dedicated enthusiast that built and cares for the example on offer here.
As a replica of XJ13, the "Green Machine" is a representative of the original car, yet certain liberties have been taken in the basic structure, powertrain and ancillary equipment to make the vehicle not only more civilized for street use but also more potent and enjoyable for the end user. Where the original vehicle was an all aluminum monocoque structure, the Green Machine utilizes a modern space frame with FRP and aluminum body panels affixed to it. Naturally, the original car was also a strictly racing machine with no thought given to the usual creature comforts of street legal vehicles nor was any effort considered to comply with the legal requirements of public road usage. These items have been addressed in this car, from its conversion to left-hand drive to the removable top clearly not fitted to the original.
The original XJ13 was powered be an experimental 5 liter V12 engine that predated the production 5.3 found in late E-Types and as such would be an engine that would be extremely costly to reproduce. As a result, a more practical powerplant was built based on the relatively-common and available Jaguar V12 engine. Bored and stroked to 7 liters from the original production displacement – incidentally, within a couple cubic inches from the displacement of the GT40 that put the XJ13 out of contention before it even emerged – the engine was heavily tuned with extensive port work performed to the cylinder heads and a custom set of camshafts from solid blanks were fabricated. New enlarged throttle bodies were then produced and fitted to the similarly port-matched Jaguar intake manifolds and cool ambient air is fed via rear fender scoops to a large low restriction air filter system. On the exhaust side the engine is fitted with free flowing stainless steel headers and low-restriction silencers. Advanced engine management is by a TECH 2 fully programmable electronic system with the added control parameters utilizing two systems which control each bank as separate 6 cylinder engines. Where the original engine developed 502 horsepower and 386 lb/ft of torque, the 'Green Machine's mill puts out a much easier 500bhp and an amazing 518 foot-pounds of grunt. Relative to its kerb weight of just 2460 pounds it is anticipated that performance of the Green Machine will be quite spirited indeed. Like the original, the transaxle is a ZF 5 speed with a Centerforce single plate dual friction clutch bolted to a lightweight flywheel. Adding additional braking surfaces, the Green Machine utilizes 17" wheels wrapped in Pirelli P-Zero tires (up from XJ13's 15" magnesium rims) which permits ventilated and cross-drilled disc brake rotor diameters of 13" with 4-piston staggered bore calipers.
For further inquiries about this automobile click here
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As a replica of XJ13, the "Green Machine" is a representative of the original car, yet certain liberties have been taken in the basic structure, powertrain and ancillary equipment to make the vehicle not only more civilized for street use but also more potent and enjoyable for the end user. Where the original vehicle was an all aluminum monocoque structure, the Green Machine utilizes a modern space frame with FRP and aluminum body panels affixed to it. Naturally, the original car was also a strictly racing machine with no thought given to the usual creature comforts of street legal vehicles nor was any effort considered to comply with the legal requirements of public road usage. These items have been addressed in this car, from its conversion to left-hand drive to the removable top clearly not fitted to the original.
The original XJ13 was powered be an experimental 5 liter V12 engine that predated the production 5.3 found in late E-Types and as such would be an engine that would be extremely costly to reproduce. As a result, a more practical powerplant was built based on the relatively-common and available Jaguar V12 engine. Bored and stroked to 7 liters from the original production displacement – incidentally, within a couple cubic inches from the displacement of the GT40 that put the XJ13 out of contention before it even emerged – the engine was heavily tuned with extensive port work performed to the cylinder heads and a custom set of camshafts from solid blanks were fabricated. New enlarged throttle bodies were then produced and fitted to the similarly port-matched Jaguar intake manifolds and cool ambient air is fed via rear fender scoops to a large low restriction air filter system. On the exhaust side the engine is fitted with free flowing stainless steel headers and low-restriction silencers. Advanced engine management is by a TECH 2 fully programmable electronic system with the added control parameters utilizing two systems which control each bank as separate 6 cylinder engines. Where the original engine developed 502 horsepower and 386 lb/ft of torque, the 'Green Machine's mill puts out a much easier 500bhp and an amazing 518 foot-pounds of grunt. Relative to its kerb weight of just 2460 pounds it is anticipated that performance of the Green Machine will be quite spirited indeed. Like the original, the transaxle is a ZF 5 speed with a Centerforce single plate dual friction clutch bolted to a lightweight flywheel. Adding additional braking surfaces, the Green Machine utilizes 17" wheels wrapped in Pirelli P-Zero tires (up from XJ13's 15" magnesium rims) which permits ventilated and cross-drilled disc brake rotor diameters of 13" with 4-piston staggered bore calipers.
For further inquiries about this automobile click here
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