Once upon a time, I commissioned Guy Broad Jaguar to build an XK120 from the chassis up. From the breakaway steering column to the oversized (though Jag-sourced) six, it was my idea of what an XK should be. She was built with as many upgraded repro parts as possible, by non-union labor. Before I could fettle the machine for something akin to drivability, I spun her on black ice and took out a small English village. (Come back Colleen, all is forgiven.) By the time the car was re-re-built, divorce had claimed my most beautiful asset. But I’ll never forget the consternation the car caused amongst the cognoscenti.
Adherents to the Church of Original Jaguar XK considered Colleen a heresy. Her existence diminished the eight billion man hours they’d spent researching, sourcing and replacing rusted engine parts. And the two thousand hours spent by the roadside—or in a shed—trying to coax their XK to life. Colleen’s adoring fans were restricted to those who didn’t know what she was and those who couldn’t fathom spending a year in provenance.
This month’s Octane magazine offers another type of litmus test: a Lambourghini Jota repro.
All I remember about Lambos of that era: you couldn’t see anything and they’d roast you alive while you were looking. And deafen you for your trouble. And kill you for cornering. [NB: You, not Stirling Moss.] They were the world’s fastest hair shirts.
Obviously, I never drove the one and only V12 Jota. Whoever did made short work of it. Octane reports, “Its career was exceptionally short-lived; after being sold to Italian company Interauto in February 1972, it was heavily crashed and subsequently written off.” Heavily crashed. Don’t like the sound of that. Nor am I enamored with the idea of an overly-faithful recreation of the Jota’s spam-in-a-can character.
Before I share writer Mark Dixon’s prose on the nouva Jota, you may or may not know that this sort of work is OK (an exception, if you will) with the keepers of the authenticity flame. Ish. That’s ’cause it’s a repro of a car that you can’t restore—’cause there ain’t any. The “shark-nosed” Ferrari 156 projects are the perfect illustration. And still the faithful argue about the proximity of the repro to the original, right down to the engine bolts. (I swear.) So, Jota.
You sit low and casual in the Jota, legs spread as if slouched in your favourite TV-viewing easy chair. The screen sweeps around in panoramic Stratos fashion and the broad sills, each of which contains a 60-litre fuel tank, create useful elbow room on either side. There’s lots of black-painted sheet alloy, blue Dymo labels with evocative Italian descriptions, and a total absence of anything soft or forgiving.
The foot pedals are reassuringly large and well spaced, their broad metal treads looking as if they’ve been lifted from one of Cavaliere Lamborghini’s tractors, but it’s impossible for the driver to release the handbrake without brushing an elbow against the rear bulkhead. That’s a mistake you make only once: after being cooked for a couple of hours by four litres of tuned V12, that sheet of alloy gets as hot as the baking tray under your Christmas turkey.
If I remember my Pleistocene Era buff bookery, this is the part where the reviewer says “But on the right road…” Not quite, old chap.
But the clutch is surprisingly light and you can trickle the Jota away on a whiff of throttle – just as well, for the sake of the hearing of anyone standing within 40 feet. The steering is light, too, despite the 9.5-inch section front tyres (the rears measure an incredible 12.5 inches across). Rearward vision is non-existent, of course, but otherwise the Jota isn’t difficult to drive. It does make a fantastic sound.
Ah, the sound of old supercars. Are you up on your Greek mythology? Sirens. Not the sound of the police come to save you from yourself. The sound of orgasmic women luring you to your death.
Forget all the usual niceties of induction hiss, valve train chatter and the other nuances that journalists like to use to pep up their copy: the Jota is simply raw, animal, noise. It’s loud at idle and it just gets louder as you pile on the revs. At low engine speeds it sounds as though someone is blowing a tuba straight into your ear; then at around 3000rpm the brassy blast becomes a little ragged, as though the two banks of cylinders have got out of synch; but get past that and it sweetens into the most glorious, red-blooded howl you can imagine.
And… that’s it. No mention of handling, for some reason. Anyway, I’ve got no problem with this car—except that I do. If you know what I mean.
“They were the world’s fastest hair shits.”
I look forward to a chart showing hair shits, from slowest to fastest, in an upcoming article.
Jason :
Text amended. ‘Cause that’s WAY too gross.
Yeah, the Miura.
What an awesome car. I’m not to thrilled about the Jota though. Yes, there was only one built, but I liked the front of the regular Miura, Miura SV and Miura SV/J better anyway.
Knowing there is only one in the world is nice, but mainly for people who put cars in a garage and never drive them. Me, I’d rather have an SV/J and drive it around occasionally (I would sell the Jota an buy back the SV/J).
I sometimes check ot mobile.de to see if there are any on sale (not that I could buy one). Currently there are 6, from EUR295.000 till EUR480.000. I’ve never seen more than 3 on sale at the same time btw, maybe some people are forced to liquidate some assets. I see some scope for consumer bargaining power there.
Miura questionable handling? From what I have read front end lift can become your gatekeeper to the next world .. and suspension geometries were improved smartly on the SV. Now, what I heard .. from the vanquished – He, driving a Shelby mustang with worthy track rubber at each corner. He, who though young, raced regional SCCA Formula Ford at the time was driving his steed on the fast, winding roads of Westchester County NY when he spots a Miura up ahead. As soon as he catches the tail the Lambo takes off and within a few turns is simply gone, out of sight. That story was told to me probably 15 years after the fact, but still my friend was in awe of the whippin he got that afternoon.
Well there isn’t anything inherently wrong with “rebuilding” (literally) a classic, it’s more common than you think. Someone finds some box of rusty bits from a rare Ferrari and within a few years they have a complete car – built from scratch, more or less. But it’s not a repro because the engine block or some other bit is “original”. It’s hypocritical (why? Ever listened to a diehard Ferrai cognoscenti? Or is that condescenti?) but it’s the way things are done when it comes to uber-rare cars that don’t have replacement parts available.
I applaud this effort. Like the Superformance Coupe and GT, it’s a faithful recreation of the original, only better – modern materials, modern reliability, with the original raw (death-trap to us mortal drivers) handling and power intact. Don’t neuter it too much or you’ll lose the charm.
I’m sure there are a few repro Lotus Elans around. Spyder makes a tube spaceframe replacement chassis that is better than the original, and I’m pretty sure that Lotus still sells body shells.
Well Robert if you haven’t been completely denuded of funds, I do in fact know someone who has had an XK120 under a drop sheet for close to 40 years. It’s all there and just waiting for you to hand someone a check!
It’s ok with me. We should all be happy with any reproduction Italian car that isn’t based on a Fiero.
I’m still waiting for a someone to make a reproduction Bertone Lancia Stratos Zero. With all the crazy features. The have been some one-of recreations, but I want something I can buy as a rolling chassis.
While the original 550 Spyders and Cobras sit in climate controlled garages it’s good that Superformance, Factory 5, Beck, etc. are making very decent reproductions that can be driven the hell out of.
(this post is somewhat redundant, my original post just showed up above, it had been taken out as spam because of the youtube link).
My 1st Porsche was toy 904 that was given to me when I was six years old. That car started a lifelong obsession. I wouldn’t mind having a repro. someday.
re: “…Sirens. Not the sound of the police come to save you from yourself. The sound of orgasmic women luring you…”
Robert Farago / February 2, 2009
i like it. robert, you have a way with words…
Robert Farago
If you ever get in the mood for another reproduction Jaguar you should give these guys a call. The XK120 is nice, but the D-type is insane.
http://www.lynxmotors.co.uk/index1.htm
Sounds like a blast. Cool idea if you have the bread for it.
Course, it also sounds like breakfast for my (not yet made) Mazda Miata with a LSX motor.
no_slushbox :
You don’t find the fact that Lynx is for sale even the tiniest bit disconcerting?
I want one.
Robert Farago:
I didn’t notice that, but hey, what isn’t for sale these days. Lynx will probably qualify for a Brit bailout.
Britain can’t let what has to be it’s second largest automaker, after Morgan, fail.
I’m still in pain over laughing at the first comment, btw.
I see nothing wrong with reproductions of very limited ed. cars that may either still exist in someone’s dusty garage or no longer with the living. Usually the things are replicated so meticulously that the engineering & recreation itself is of awe.
That’s completely different than building fier-o-rari’s and trying to sell them off as the real deal. At least I hope it is.
There was someone making repro XK-SSs at one point… THOSE were pretty badass. (can’t seem to find a link online)
They used an XKE as the base, so you had to sacrifice one of those, so that would get the purists doubly upset, but who cares?
Since there were only 16 origiinal XK-SSs made, this is the only way any of us would even get within miles of seeing one, let alone driving one.
jjdaddyo: “Since there were only 16 origiinal XK-SSs made, this is the only way any of us would even get within miles of seeing one, let alone driving one.”
You just have to be in the right places! =) I’ve seen 5 of the original 16, and even ridden in one of them (#16, the last built before the factory fire.)
BTW, the passenger seat of an XK-SS is less roomy than the back seat of a 911. There is essentially NO footwell, and where your feet go is basically a heat box: Exhaust (LOUD) on the left, oil sump ahead, and transmission on the right. Jaguar never designed this car for street use, and the fact that it is really a race car made (barely) street-legal is obvious once you are inside. Of course the 0-60 in about 5 seconds, all in 1st gear, in a car built in 1958 sums it up pretty well too!
Robert, we really need to hear this whole tale of the XK 120 someday. Will you ever write it up, or will it keep dribbling out in little dollops in unrelated posts? Or do I have to buy you a beer?
–chuck
A little more Jota history and some Miuras that were modified post-Jota…
http://www.supercars.net/cars/2267.html
Since there were only 16 origiinal XK-SSs made, this is the only way any of us would even get within miles of seeing one, let alone driving one.
Ok here is my moment in the sun…
When I graduated from Coventry University I found employment as a lacky engineer at Jaguar Cars, Whitley (Coventry) in the Advanced Engineering team who worked on (European Government funded) advanced vehicle systems projects. One of my many menial roles therein was to ensure our fleet of 12 engineering vehicles were serviced and had the modifications performed. For this purpose our team had allocated 1.5 full time mechanics within the engineering garage.
It just so happens the remaining o.5 head, or half the remaining dudes time was allocated to the Jaguar Daimler Heritage Trust. However since the guys were in our team I had to also allocate for the JDHT vehicles and book them in too.
Since the JDHT cars were based (mainly) at Browns Lane, and the service was done at Whitley which is at the other side of Coventry there was a fair amount of shuffling cars onto transporters. I was frequently involved in this task, more so at the Whitley end where due to union issues the transport drivers aren’t allowed to into the garage only off the transporter and into a park bay.
So the upside is that I have driven an XKSS albeit about 50 yards at a time.
“So the upside is that I have driven an XKSS albeit about 50 yards at a time.”
And I imagine it was glorious!
Did you ever take the helm of the XJ-13 then??
–chuck
The sound of orgasmic women luring you…”
Wouldn’t they me more alluring if they were on the way up the mountain but hadn’t yet reached the climax? I mean, if she’s already there, what use does she have for you?
Ronnie Schreiber:
Orgasmic. Not orgasming.
“Did you ever take the helm of the XJ-13 then??”
Unfortunately not, since it was already at Whitley all the time I was there having some major mechanical work done