MECHANICAL MEMORIES
Monterey Reunion 2011, Mazda Raceway-Laguna Seca
Michael Green reports... page 2
The Quail Lodge event is a fantastic event, gorgeous car's (and girl's)... Our entrance was one of awesome Jaguar noise's, lovely green grass -hard not to spin the tyres on- golf course and a huge crowd of on-looker's that included some very famous Jaguar driver's, such as Bob Tullius (below). With engine off, I began to climb out of the Jaguar when this well dressed lady says... "I bet you've never chased a CHP in an E-Type Jaguar before! Lucky boy." She hadn't a clue as to what she'd just said! So I said to her; laughing, "Oh but I have, and in one of those (pointing to a silver '74 V12 E-Type roadster). One night I was running at a fast clip (about 150 mph) on 580WB to Dublin in the fast lane when I flashed the light's at the fast moving car ahead only (but slower than I) to see HIGHWAY PATROL light up on the trunk lid!" Laughter from all who heard...
After talking to Bob for a few I walked among the cars and people. Hoping to bump in the Alma & Derek Hill - never found them, I did see and say Hi to Danny Sullivan, saw a few of my dads old friends, such as Stirling (yes, Moss), who I chatted to for 15/20 minutes. Carroll was heard to be about, but I never saw him either, be it Quail or Laguna.
The ten Jaguars were to leave at 2PM, so at 1:45 I made my way back to the car, only to find that I was the only one there, the exception being the CHP motorcycle officer's ready to go. I lit off the E-Type, its lovely noises acting like a wake-up call to the other Jaguar driver's, but before I could get out of there this pretty young lady wanted to take a few photo's... Yes, with me! Then it was off for another awesome ride back to the track... chasing the Highway Patrol with an E-Type! STIG would have loved it.
Back at the track... Having now had time to drive the Jag and think about a few thing's, I set to work on the SUs, which I quickly sorted out. Then I adjusted the clutch yet again, as I too had minor clutch slip on hard throttle opening's in 3rd gear. Friday was a long, but fun day out. Tomorrow we'd run the Jag in the early morning session, so I headed for the Casa Munras for the evening.
Saturday is the "big" day at Laguna, the crowds being of a grand size and the press everywhere, including SPEED TV. Alan was entered for Saturdays E-Type race. Early that morning we had a 10-lap warm-up that he would complete, sad thing was the clutch was still slipping as he'd engage 3rd gear with the power on hard, again the only way it would hook-up was to throttle back. After the race, and the Jag having cooled a bit I set to work. Todd and I again tried adjusting the free-play to such an extent that IF this was the problem it would surely now engage 100%... not! Brain running... I thought I'd better check the crankshaft end-float just in case, all was well, so we pulled a NASCAR trick and fired a fire extinguisher into the bellhousing with engine running and clutch depressed, hoping it would clean off any oil or cosmolene and introduce some grit to the clutch face's. When Todd and I tested it all was well, but during the later stages of the E-Type race later in the day it was again starting to haze the clutch... alas Alan finished all 20-lap's on Saturday. We hope old Merle enjoyed the show.
My only gripe of the weekend? There was all those wonderful Racing Jaguar's lined up under the tent and not one came out for a Racing Jaguar parade on Saturday lunch-time. Urg... Sitting there was OKV3, Briggs D-type (that Phil drove in 1976), the Group-44 Jags, the Silkcut car's, plus a line-up of C and D-type's.... What a noise they could have made!
Above: The two British Leyland (North America) E-Type's from 1974 did a fantastic and noisy demo at the Monterey Historics of 1976... Bob in 44 had a front flat on the last lap though. It would have been great to see Bob drive it again... opportunity lost!
Above: Jay Leno and Michael during an interview on Richard Greens 1959 Aston Martin DB2/4 MkIII....
Watch video at http://www.jaylenosgarage.com/video/1959-aston-martin-db24-mark-iii/1364985/
Photos Copyright WCB2011