Racing Development..
Much of what we learn through our experience in racing goes into our performance parts and upgrades. AVO dampers, coilover packages, Tarox brakes, Yokohama tyres, our own stainless-steel exhausts and racing cats, air-filters, silicone hoses and Maxx ECU’s and bespoke maps. It all gets tried and tested on our cars during the racing season. I thought it was worth looking back at our 2024 season to see what we have learned and to share some of the highs and at times the lows.
After the long winter days preparing the cars and making alterations to meet any regulations changes, there is always a feeling of optimism and excitement for the new season when spring arrives. After Jack came so close to winning the 2023 championship, we were keen to give him every chance for 2024. Regulation changes meant the XK8 moving from class C to class B and competing with cars that have a better power to weight ratio. Although the XK8 had no issue with weight we had only run stock power in 2023, so Jack’s car was going to need more power. Our best opportunity with a naturally aspirated engine was to reprofile the cams and improve the flow on the cylinder head. Once this was done it was back on the ‘Dyno’ to map it to take advantage of the head work and get the peak power where we needed it. Although we were very pleased with the chassis dynamics and handling in 2023 we still felt there was further gains in this area to be made especially to get the most from the Yokohama A052 tyres. Through a combination of analysis, corner weighting and testing we found a sweet-spot for the set up.
A pre-season testing at Donington Park confirmed that we were heading in the right direction with the XK8. On the race day a combination of a red flag and then rain in qualifying denied Jack any chance of pole but he still did manage P4. Race one went well, very well in fact, with Jack second overall and first in class only beaten to the top step by Anderw Harper’s supercharged class A, S-Type R and a mere tenth of a second off fastest lap. It was in race two the first frustration of the season happened when just three laps short of the chequered flag the XK8 suffered an alternator failure. Since the car was built it has run the stock alternator, but the engine upgrade had given us more RPM which proved too much for the standard unit.
At Oulton Park in April, Jack proved the XK8 had the legs to outpace the S Type R when he claimed P2 in qualifying only beaten by the highly experienced Colin Philpott in his XJS. In race one Jack matched Philpott’s pace to finish in second overall and only two tenths behind the XJS. We were highly optimistic going into race two, but this was cut short with a brake binding issue on lap one, the route cause of this was hard to diagnose as it’s difficult to replicate race conditions in the workshop, but more frustration after the promise of race one and all the braking components seemingly being fine!
Then onto Thruxton for the May meeting, it all started well with Jack securing P2 in qualifying on lap six. The gremlins then hit again and the return of the brake issue manifesting in a slightly different way but resulting in Jack locking up and having a serious off with enough front-end damage to ruin his weekend. A faulty brand-new master cylinder on the pedal box set up finally diagnosed as the cause needless to say we are no longer using that brand!
After the disappointment of Thruxton and with only two weeks to repair the car and test it we arrived at Silverstone National circuit. An off like Jack had at Thruxton could easily dent your confidence. Jack’s response was to go out and put the car on pole, that was a proud moment. He then followed it up with a flag-to-flag win in race one, what a performance and the brakes were fine. More bad luck was to follow in race two and going the first corner, Copse the XK8 was tagged from behind and spun around and then refused to restart! It was hard to believe the luck.
After a July break we were at Anglesey circuit. Jack had never driven at Trac Mon, so we elected to do official practice on Friday. The benefit of that showing on Saturday with and another pole in qualifying. A wet race one and we made the wrong choice of tyre going with intermediates’ which cost Jack, and he could only finish P7 with little grip. Race two and a very minor electrical problem prevented the XK8 making the formation lap for race two, and more frustration with a DNS.
A manifold upgrade with one of our creations from our designer/fabricator Nick Kellow before the Brands Hatch round gave the XK8 a slight boost in power once the ECU had been remapped for the new manifold. Jack managed to nip under 55 seconds on the Indy circuit but was narrowly beaten to pole by Colin Philpott who is the master at Brands Hatch. Driving a superb race Jack managed to keep Colin honest in the first outing with the gap just 1.3 seconds at the chequered flag. The second race produced another close race, Colin again taking the win, with James Ramm second in the V12 XJS and Jack third with less than three seconds between the front three. I finally got an outing myself in our newly built XJS 4.0 Class C car and came away with a third and first in class.
The final round at Snetterton and Jack I decided to chance his XK8 in CSCC Modern Classics 40-minute race as well as the Jag Championship rounds. Modern Classics is full of BMW ‘M’ cars and Porsches, despite that we qualified 5th overall. Jack made a tremendous start and moved up to second and by the end of lap two was leading, but eventually lost places to two quicker BMW’s and a Ginetta. In the pit stop we lost a further place to a class rival in a Toyota Celica, but gradually I was able to hunt him down for the class win and 4th overall from a grid of forty-two cars.
Back in the XJS for Jag Championship I qualified a satisfying 4th overall and first in class, meanwhile Jack set a new Jaguar Championship lap record of 2:10.767 for pole. He then proceeded to drive away from the rest of the field for back-to-back wins to end to season on a high. I settled for third overall after scrapping for P2 in race one and P7 in a tougher race two but still with two class wins.
It’s been an up and down season, but we finished on a high and tested out new parts and proved the performance of several, eventually finding consistency.
