“The Jaguar Competition Department’s true character simply shines”

Real history is staggeringly complex. Therefore simplified history sells any subject short. Conclusions drawn from it alone will surely mislead. This is why there may always be room for a fresh researcher, or author, to improve on any preceding work. It’s enduring proof that the deeper one digs, the more one finds. In terms of books and magazine features devoted totally to the brand, Jaguar Cars has surely been one of the best served.

Yet if we thought perhaps that the works of Andrew Whyte, Philip Porter, Paul Skilleter and more must surely have told it all, I wholeheartedly recommend a look at one of this year’s RAC Books of the Year, Peter D. Wilson’s new 420-page tome Strictly No Admittance!. Very well produced by Paul Skilleter’s PJ Publishing, its title derives from the notice on the door to Jaguar’s Competition Department at the Browns Lane factory, which was author Peter’s workplace during the era of the Lightweight E-types, whose detailed story he relates.

This is the beautifully crafted synthesis of some 30 years of thought and analysis and trawling through the magnificent factory archive, all layered onto the author’s personal recollection of what happened, the when, the why and above all the who.

Peter’s pen portraiture of his largely uncelebrated workmates is an object lesson to all who aspire to present such a superbly fine-detailed racing history. In many ways it’s true that front-of-house big name racing drivers are not always the most competitive members of their team. Time after time I have enjoyed listening to even the most junior of race mechanics absolutely fulminating over rivals who have just thwarted their hopes. Often a seasoned driver could comment philosophically, while his squad of mechs would be boiling with rage because as far as they were concerned he was just being excessively diplomatic. I know. Racing driver? Diplomatic? Difficult to visualise.

Throughout the pages of Strictly No Admittance! the Jaguar Competition Department’s true character simply shines, really brought to life by the author’s supremely engaging, frequently most entertaining, text.

Above all, Peter Wilson presents dozens of hitherto unpublished documents, notes and reports from Jaguar’s detailed archives. To be honest a minority are reproduced so small as to be near unreadable, a real shame, but most are simply riveting. There is just so much detail presented on the dozen cars produced, from a total of 18 monocoques – and on the 17 very special lightweight engines which powered them – that this really must be close to providing the last word on the subject, despite the umpteen Jaguar histories that precede it.

When it comes to fine detail, I love in-house race reports, and many are included. The GT event at the June 1962 Mallory Park international is hardly remembered today, but Jaguar’s own review brings it to life. The initial seven-lap Heat saw Graham Hill finish second in the John Coombs entered ‘4 WPD’, splitting the Ferrari 250 GTOs of Michael Parkes and John Surtees. The report records how he was “…leading on acceleration from start by ½ car’s length to the first corner, where Parkes overtook during braking. Hill’s rear tyre wear over 8 laps – 8.7mm at NSR” (near-side rear).

“Personality and detail just bubble out of every page of this record”

For the 25-lap Final “New 7.00 x 16 RS D9 tyres fitted at rear 55psi. Hill came 2nd to Parkes, after again leading on acceleration from the start. Surtees was a similar distance behind Hill. After the race Hill made the following comments regarding handling and roadholding:

“The car still required much stiffer road springs, anti-roll bars, and damper settings (the car appeared to observers to roll more than the Ferraris).

“The seat did not locate his shoulders laterally during cornering, and he had to push hard on the steering wheel to hold himself in position. This led to imprecise steering, particularly on ’S’ bends. Also the lower portion of the seat was too wide to hold his hips properly.

“The cornering ability of the rear suspension should be increased slightly to allow more power to be transmitted to the road wheels while cornering – ie either more negative camber at the rear or more front roll stiffness.

“The inside rear wheel appeared to be lifting off the ground on both LH and RH corners… The E-type appeared to be able to gain on Parkes’s Ferrari coming out of the hairpin (2nd gear) and during the long right hand corner.

“Generally handling has been considerably improved since Silverstone race”.

And generally an entire trailer-truck load of such insight, and personality and fine detail – both technical and relating to a driver’s personal preferences – just bubble out of every page of this wonderful record. It just proves that while we hacks can get so far in presenting ‘the blokes who did’, there’s no substitute for one of ‘the blokes who did’ – like Peter Wilson here – so capably writing the tale himself… I promise you, for anyone in the least bit interested in Jaguar’s finest 1960s GT car project, this wonderful work is a must. Colour me absolutely green.

Doug Nye is the UK’s leading motor racing historian and has been writing authoritatively about the sport since the 1960s