Meeting your heroes

E-types always catch the eye and spark a host of emotions. Emma rewards a longer look

When I first saw John Corbett’s 1964 Series 1 E-type, it was prowling towards me in the dark under street lights on a wet night, its muscular form hunched, the Series 1 headlamps recessed under curved glass covers looking distinctly animalistic in the gloom.

I stood, similarly hunched, in the drizzle. The car stopped alongside and John threw open the door, revealing the welcoming warmth of a snug tan leather interior. I clambered over the high sill under the tiny door and, with the aid of the handle attached to the dash, slotted — at the second attempt — into the beautifully curved passenger seat. I needed to refine my technique but at least I’d get that opportunity. I would be navigating for John in the

Targa VCC time trial over the next week. The dash sits close, with the steep and deeply curved windscreen rising immediately behind it; the short triple windscreen wipers doing their 1960s best to keep the screen clear.

The car looked to be in terrific condition. The heater was running and John suggested I pull down a little flap under the dash which discharged a jet of warm air into the footwell. Lovely.

The next morning at the motel I met John downstairs. He already had the bonnet up to check the oil and brake fluid levels. Peering around the clamshell bonnet, I could see one of the most gorgeous engines ever to come out of Blighty. John wiped away some water spots, and the aluminium and gold paint gleamed in the bright morning sun.

This car looks standard to the untrained eye but the engine-driven fan has been replaced with an electric version. The radiator is an improved design and the generator has been replaced with a smaller alternator — although it very much looks the part. John ran through the starting procedure, winding down the choke lever as the engine revs climbed.

A whiff of hot oil rose in the air. Some of the lovely clean oil from the dipstick had dropped on to the hot exhaust; over the next week, that smell became familiar after a stop. Turns out there are two types of final engine seal that can be fitted in front of the flywheel. John’s car has the original type, which apparently tends to weep after a while. The later design sealed better but, as making the change would involve pulling the engine out again, and it was currently running like a Swiss watch, John has decided to live with this traditional feature for a while.

“It is British,” says John.

CHARACTER BUILDING

John thought he had beaten the leaks. While the engine was being overhauled he decided to fit the optional five-speed Getrag gearbox to provide more relaxed high-speed cruising. He still has the original Moss gearbox, which lacked synchro on first and second but that had already been replaced with a later full synchro Jaguar four-speeder. This new Getrag box had a port at the bottom of it for the speedo cable, which leaked persistently onto the hot exhaust.

“Ridiculous place for it, really.” says John. “On the Jaguar gearbox, it’s on the top.”

To fix that, John opted to install a digital drive for the speedo. Somehow it manages to drive the analogue needle and dial thanks to some trickery at the back of the instrument, taking a signal from the front wheel. That meant the cable port in the gearbox could be sealed. But then the rear engine seal decided to join the fray. All good character-building stuff.

Even more character building was the effort required to get the vehicle complied with the new gearbox. The box was designed specifically for E-types, as a bolt on replacement, but as it is a bit longer than the original it comes with a shorter beefier driveshaft, which required a different universal joint at the diff. The compliance centre decided this merited fitting a U-shaped protective collar both above and below the shaft. Fitting one below was relatively straightforward but there was no room for one above. John said it took a great deal of toing and froing with the authorities to get agreement to fit the collar over the transmission tunnel inside the car instead of underneath it.

“Just to satisfy a requirement they had created,” he explains.

The underside of the car has had more special attention. The springs are “quite a bit stiffer” than standard and John has fitted English Nitron shocks all round. The suspension was tuned at the Ruapuna racecourse. John, who lives in where he runs a luxury accommodation establishment and an exporting business, is an experienced racing driver, competing a Lotus 7 in classic and historic racing.

WELL SHOD

There’s no way John wanted a thoroughbred like Emma — the car is named after the athletic pantsuitwearing, judo-chopping Emma Peel of TV’S Avengers — to be hobbled by saggy suspension. He expects the car to go around corners as well as it does on the straight. Any suggestion the wire wheels might not be up to the job was resolved by replacing the standard two-spoke design with a three-spoke version; these were also slightly wider and look just right. They were shod for the rally in new Avon tyres, which have a very authentic balloon profile in the sidewalls. They offered unbeatable grip during the Targa on damp, wet, cold, and hot and dry conditions.

The suspension feels firm around town but at open-road cruising speeds and above it really comes into its own. E-types, it should be remembered, were based on the racing D-type and were made with the same unitary construction: the engine and suspension are attached to a subframe bolted to the cockpit tub. It is immensely strong.

The car felt new. The only time it didn’t feel right at home, or capable of resolving an insultingly tight turn with a deep draught of torque on the exit, was on a rutted and potholed section on the Forgotten World Highway. As we were repeatedly jostled and jarred on the 20km section, John became increasingly exasperated that this car was being subjected to such an assault. Emma was way too good for that. The road left us with a rattle behind the dash that John was determined to fix when he got home. Apart from a slight wind noise at high speed from the top of the window frames, that new rattle was the only sign that this was no longer a new car.

By far the most impressive thing are the car’s perfect lines, set off beautifully by the immaculate paint and the condition of the tan leather interior and fine cut-pile carpet. The paint is a deep blue-black with a hint of purple in the sunlight. John explained it’s oldfashioned enamel — not fancy two-pot stuff — and there’s no clear coat. It exudes a quality you appreciate all the more the longer you look at it.

UNIQUE AND ORIGINAL

The 1964 car was originally a left-hand drive car, imported from California early in its life. It was first registered in New Zealand in 1998. John says it was restored by Leon Phillips at Canterbury Classics, a recognised Jaguar authority, not long before John bought it in 2017.

Apparently Leon said it was the only Jaguar he had seen that had no rust in it. The body was incredibly straight and the lustre of the paint shows off the perfection of its lines. It’s a car you want to look at from every angle, and even just stop and stare at it. The interior is equally satisfying. The car was retrimmed in approved Jaguar leather and vinyl. Again, it looks new and was none the worse for wear after a week of very hard use.

Peering around the clamshell bonnet, I could see one of the most gorgeous engines ever to come out of Blighty

John’s car was far better than I thought a car being entered in a spirited driving challenge, with the ever-present possibility of an undignified exit, would be. Saying a car like this needs to be driven is one thing; putting the effort and modifications in to adapt it to competition, and exposing it to the vicissitudes of wet, unknown roads at speed, is next level. The car has been set up for hard driving. John says the result conforms to what Jaguar calls ‘fast road’ specifications.

John has added a pair of professional rally headphones to the set-up, which meant bolting the parent unit to the upholstered panel behind the two front seats. I already knew he was competitive — a trait largely hidden by his generally jovial demeanour — but this level of commitment both to the Targa time trial and to using a car like this in this way deserves complete respect.

John had already driven the car in two previous Targa VCC Time Trials, in 2018 and 2019. After the last one the engine drank copious amounts of oil, which prompted a rebuild. It was entrusted to Steve Weeber at Performance Engine Centre in Christchurch.

TUNED TO PERFECTION

John said Steve puts a lot of thought and research into an engine rebuild and the car now sports uprated main bearings, conrods, and new cast pistons. It has D-type cams and the three SU carbs are also slightly modified. They were carefully tuned just before the event. This car was the last year of production of the 3.8 engine, before it was enlarged to 4.2, but many connoisseurs feel the original 265hp engine was the more free revving and sporty. It now produces around 300 hp.

The car is magnificent to look at from every angle but John is absolutely right in deciding it has to be driven to be truly appreciated. Time after time, I marvelled at the purr of that straight-six, so much sweeter than the lumpiness of a V8, and what Steve Weeber had achieved as it pulled from around 1100 revs and wound out to a snarl as it came on the cam.

John was clearly very at home in the car, working away at the big wheel. Others had suggested he change it, saying it would surely break, but John kept it, arguing it had held its own so far.

Occasionally, I got the chance to drive on a touring stage. I had driven a friend’s E-type roadster many years before but this car was definitely a step up, as it felt like a new car. I treated it with the respect deserved, never burying the throttle or threatening the redline, but the torque of the engine, the ease of turning the thin-rimmed wheel, and the surprising lightness of clutch and gear lever made it easy to see this car as a true GT — a relaxing but potent tool on a big drive. For me, this was a boyhood dream come true.

John bought a beautifully restored classic then really went to town on it. He recently went through the bills.

“It wasn’t cheap exercise — at all,” he says ruefully. “But the work Leon and Steve have done is exceptional and it’s worked out extremely well. We’ve got a great result.”

The car is magnificent to look at from every angle but John is absolutely right in deciding it has to be driven to be truly appreciated