Jaguar E-type
2001 Porsche Boxster 2.7
Owned by Mrs Bell, phil.bell@bauermedia.co.uk Time owned 13 years Miles this month 847 Costs this month £0 Previously New E-type water pump and crankshaft damper and thought I was all set for Le Mans Classic
No, the car in the foreground doesn’t look much like my E-type. This is the third time that my wife’s Porsche Boxster has stood in for one of my cars on the trip to Le Mans 24 Hours or Classic. The first time, I was in limbo between selling Griffith and buying E-type. Then there was the time when the Jaguar refused to start, prompting a frantic transfer of our gear into the Porsche and a mad dash to the ferry. This year the E-type was beached by what the parts specialists amusingly list as a fan belt, in reality a drive belt for the water pump and dynamo – all E-types have electric fans.
Having battled through a list of variously fiddly and frustrating jobs over the past months, I really didn’t expect a simple drive belt to cause so much grief. To fit a more robust race crankshaft damper I had to change the pulleys from single-groove to the double-groove versions on the later 3.8s. So, I expected the appropriate belt to fit. Well, you would, wouldn’t you? But the belt supplied, and labelled SBS1010, was clearly way too short to fit. So, I measured the outer circumference and found it was 990mm. Then I measured the pulley run with a length of bicycle brake cable and with a spot of 2TT r calculated that I needed a belt with a minimum outer circumference of 1020mm. So, I ordered SBS1010 belts from different suppliers and hoped, but they all measured at 990. I tried the next size, which is SBS1050 as fitted to the saloon 3.4/3.8, and it fitted, albeit with the dynamo at maximum adjustment. With a week to go before the Classic, I had a functioning E-type. Plenty of time for some proper shakedown mileage.
Disconnect coil low tension wires, crank engine to build up oil pressure and fill the carburettor float chambers and… we have ignition. Months of frustrations evaporated as I nosed out into the evening sunset and cautiously wound the E-type up to its natural gait. Twenty miles later it was back in the garage and my mind was en route to Le Mans. Just 12 hours later my euphoria came crashing down when I noticed that the tensioner pulley was pushing the belt against the bottom radiator hose. The belt had stretched 10mm. The next week became a blur of ordering more belts and more hoping, but come the day of the ferry the Boxster was the only option. A damn good one as it turned out.
As our six-car convoy hoovered up the best driving roads between Caen and Le Mans, the Porsche reminded me just how much fun 220bhp and mid-engined agility can be. Of course, I had to share wheel time with its owner, whose job has kept her away from the last half-dozen Le Mans trips and was clearly making up for it. I thought we’d feel a little out of place at the Classic in a 17-year-old car, but there were plenty of modern classics to make us feel at home and take my mind off the stricken E-type 350 miles away.