www.jec.org.uk

Not sure I like the front end treatment or bumpers.

Not to my taste, I'm afraid.

Ian Callum is a brilliant designer, but even brilliant people make mistakes. In my view, this is one of his. I can still admire the workmanship, though.

The Mk2 is a design icon, as is the E-Type. They should be left alone.

Sorry Ian, although I still love your efforts in your day job.

Regards

Hello all,

I agree with the above comments and particularly dislike the louvres on the side. The DB4 on engine bay side vent looks and I suspects works better?

Alec

Yep not keen on bumpers, front spoiler lights and side vents and vented full filler(?) thing at back.

Much better to make a mistake here than on the day job though

I'm not sure about the external improvements, but I would love to know what was done to make 250 bhp? was the fuel consumption improved as well? Was that bhp at the flywheel or the axle? Still only 66bhp/ltr.

Brian

You can never satisfy some people !

Hello Brian,

that is not a difficult target especially as it is at 4.3 litre capacity. Figures in excess of 300 bhp were seen long ago on racing E Types.
A decent cylinder head with 'livelier cams and a good exhaust system (It is on 2 x 2" S.U.s.


Alec

9 mpg?

Brian

£350-£375k?

There's a long list of other cars I'd rather have at that price. Or a selection of cars totalling that price.

No doubt they'll sell some though.

Regards

Haven't Beecham done it all before ? , talking of which i did see a Blue Beecham of sale in the car park , wonder how much thats up for ? . Russ

I've been on the CMC website to see the detail of the car, in particular the chassis strengthening and the rear suspension arrangement, just the odd glimpse in the video of the rear end.

Anyone know what was done?

Brian

Hello Brian,

I'd love to be able to have a look underneath and see what they have done. I'm also intrigued at the description that says the engine is repositioned to improve cooling and fuelling. There is not a lot of room to move the engine, nor I would think space to cut the bulkhead.

What has always looked wrong to me on the original design is that very short panhard rod, which actually broke on my car when my wife was driving over a rather bumpy Welsh back road. There is certainly room for a conventional length panhard rod which would be geometrically far better. I have always toyed with the idea of fitting a Watt linkage which then gives the capability of playing with roll centres? Apart from higher unsprung weight there is not much wrong with a live axle given good location. Spencer King when he became chief engineer at BL Triumph said that he favoured that in place of the semi trailing arm Triumph 2000 design with its continual camber change; a design that has since been copied by many of the big car manufacturers however.

Alec

Hi Brian/Alec

Yes would love to get it up on the ramp and have good look at it. It does say the rear end in independent, so there is a fair bit of redesigning gone in there. Not sure if they have taken something like and XK8 and modified it and the car to fit.

On the front end, when Beacham put the V8 into the Mk2 body, they put the whole V8 front end into the Mk2 as that also carried the engine, could be they have done something similar and remounted the XK on it, maybe made a new sump and lower/canted the motor a bit! As Alec said not a lot of room, you could move it forward a bit if you repositioned the radiator or radiators! I'd be looking to move the weight back not forward.

For that amount of money all you need is the imagination and anything is possible. I thought they could have gone to six speed box rather than going with the five speed, that's old hat now.

With a bit of luck maybe Nigel will do an article on it and put our minds to rest.

The article is in the latest magazine that you probably haven`t seen yet, John.

That front bumper detail is totally at odds with the lovely curves between the headlights and the radiator grill. A straight top lip butted up against the curves. The bumper looks like it was bought at a go faster shop and just nailed to the car. The loovres in the bumper are again at design variance with the rest of the front end of the car. The whole visual impression at the front grates visually in my opinion. A little profiling and it could have been more in keeping with the rest of the car.

I know of a fresh Beecham about to be built for one of our Region members down here in Portsmouth. That will be based entirely on the running gear from a modern XK 5 litre! That really should be something.

Mike