Anyone Who Has Ever Looked at Our Website ( Will Recall Seeing a Green E-Type Coupe Speeding

ADIOS, #46

by Jerry Nuijen & Bernard Juchli

Anyone who has ever looked at our website ( will recall seeing a green E-Type coupe speeding at them. Those in the know will recognize Bernard Juchli’s #46, the winningest vintage racing Jag in the West. Well, sad to say, you won’t be seeing #46 anymore, at least not with Bernard at the wheel. Last August #46 was sold at auction and initially went to L.A. It’s now rumored to be in Europe, although Bernard isn’t sure. Since #46 had such an impressive record and was surrounded by so much rumor and innuendo while Bernard was racing it, I thought that it might be nice to reveal all the secrets that made it so quick and consistent. Maybe someone else in the club will be inspired to carry on where Bernard left off.

By the way, Mr. Juchli hasn’t retired from racing, far from it. He still regularly races 3 motorcycles; a vintage Honda 400F, a ‘93 Honda RS250 (a Grand Prix bike that runs in formula 2) see pix, and a vintage BSA Rocket 3. In his spare time (?) he races a 1976 Chevron B34 Formula Atlantic. see pix He says that the Chevron is the most fun he’s had on four wheels. Already he’s garnered a first with it, but Bernard and vintage racing is a story for another article.

I stopped by his shop the other day and we talked for 3 hours solid. Following is the gist of our conversation.

Jerry How and when did you acquire #46?

Bernard It was an old race car that my partner bought in England. It started life as a 63 coupe and when we got it it had an aluminum bonnet, Weber carbs, a dry sump, some suspension mods and a roll bar. It was in sad shape. We disassembled it and sent the tub to the metal stripper and when it came back the floor was so thin that you could push your foot through it and the rain gutters had all but disappeared. The whole bottom was rotten. We just turned the body upside down on a stand and cut the bottom out. This made it really easy to fit the roll cage. We just bent the tubing out of mild steel (.125) and welded it to the tub, then we replaced the floor. It’s an 8 point cage. I did all the work myself. At the time we had a body shop in the back here (Jaguars Unlimited). I restored the body and painted it. Moved the batterty to the bac, used a Corbeau racing seat, and the car has some interior, like a cloth headliner and vinyl covered dash and door panels. The dash is aluminum. All the safety stuff is there; a 5 lb halon fire extinguisher system, a 10 gal fuel cell in an aluminum container, a 5 point Simpson harness, and my special cool suit. Look at the plastic ice chest in the photo of the cooling ducts for the rear brakes.

Jerry So you built the entire car yourself, body, chassis, and engine?

Bernard Yes.

Jerry Who designed the color scheme, the distinctive yellow stripe?

Bernard I was a great admirer of Archie Scott-Brown, the handicapped English driver who was missing the fingers on his right hand from a birth defect. Ed note: Archie’s mom had German measles while she was carrying him. He had 22 separate operations to correct dfects in his arms and feet, but the doctors could do nothing to give him fingers on his right hand. Initially racing organizations refused to license Archie, but when he beat everybody in club racing they had no choice but to relent. Archie drove Lister Jags and was the best. The Listers were painted in that color scheme. Later on Colin Chapman stole the color scheme for Lotus because Lister quit racing when Archie died in one of his cars.

Jerry Over the years #46 evolved. Describe the body in its final form.

Bernard We had aluminum doors and a hatch made here in the U.S. All the windows were Lexan. The windshield was made to a pattern from a second series 2+2. It went all the way foward to the bonnet, giving much nicer airflow over the roof. The rain gutters had rusted off so we just took them off. Final weight was about 2340 lbs.

Jerry I don’t remember any spoilers or flares.

Bernard That wouldn’t have been legal. We did cut the rot away from the rear wheel openings so they were about an inch higher and the flange was missing. We also cut away the bump stops. This allowed the biggest legal tires. Sometimes we were allowed to run Hoosiers on 7 inch rims instead of the regular Goodyears. Different vintage racing organizations have different rules and there are different classes. Sometimes the rules change for each race. There’s one organization I don’t race with anymore because of this. I started out in C production and moved up to B. B Production is normally for 5 litres and up. I was allowed to run the 4.2 because of this.

Jerry Yeah. I’ve seen what look like SCCA cars running vintage, but that’s another story. We’ll do one on vintage racing real soon and we can really dish the dirt! Tell us about the suspension, starting at the rear.

Bernard We built the lower control arms into A frames and eliminated the trailing arm with its big rubber biscuit. This way the wheelbase doesn’t change in a corner, which is a problem with the stock E-Type. I built a special sway bar. It’s 1 1/4 inch tubular steel and has adjustable aluminum arms at both ends. You can also change the stiffness by changing the thickness of the tubing wall (front was .25, back was .095) and by changing the pickup points on the heim jointed links. The front was stiff, like 3800-5000 in-lbs at the pickup and the rear was weak, about 500-600 in-lbs. see pix of front suspension. First I mounted the suspension cage solid, then I eliminated the cage by building a tubular crossmember with the differential bolted solidly to it. This made it possible to change the differential much quicker. I lowered the differential 2 inches which changed the roll center and made it possible to maintain the correct negative camber on the outside rear wheel in corners. The shocks are Spax racing, externally adjustable and with adjustable perches. The springs are special racing. When we set the car up for a particular track we’d put it on scales in the shop and adjust the corner weights right here, half a tank of gas, me in it, just the way it raced. Had about 51% of the weight on the rear. Normally an E-type is front heavy. We had different differentials with different gears for different tracks. Normally I ran a 3.73 with the standard Jag limited slip. Sometimes I ran a 4.09 and for really short tracks I had a 4.27 with a Quaife (Torsen) limited slip. The front suspension has the same type of tubular sway bar and the upper control arm mounts were interchangable so you could setup for the correct negative camber on the outside wheel depending on the tires you were using. In the corner we could maintain 3 degrees of negative camber. I used delrin for the bushings and uniball mounts for the lower A frame. The torsion bars were special made and the reaction plate was special so the bars were individually adjustable. I used Fox gas pressure shocks, made here in San Jose. They do a lot of Indy cars and motorcycles. The steering rack was solid mounted and the tie rod ends were heim jointed. The bump steer is adjustable. We bored the upright to accept XJ6 stub axles because the E-Type axles have a habit of breaking. The hubs are D-Type pin drive front and back with 3 eared knockoffs.

Jerry Gee, you hardly did anything, or you hardly didn’t do anything, I should say. So with all this trick suspension the brakes must have been pretty trick too.

Bernard No. Sometimes I didn’t even have vented rotors because the rules wouldn’t allow it. But the usual setup was V-12 E-type rotors and calipers in the front and, for short tracks, vented rotors in the back. I needed them at Laguna Seca and Palm Springs. I used a Tilton proportioning valve so I could control the force on the rear brakes. Of course, I used carbon metallic racing pads that could take the heat and the rear brakes had cooling scoops and ducts that exhausted through the boot.see pix The front brakes had cooling ducts built into the bonnet (see pix) and the front calipers had a recirculating fluid system. Ed. note: each time you step on the pedal fresh, cool fluid flows to the caliper I kept the E-Type remote booster. Some guys eliminate the booster for racing.

Jerry So the braking system wasn’t very exotic.

Bernard Didn’t need it. The braking was limited by the tires I was allowed to run.

Jerry Did you use the old Moss box?

Bernard No, I used the standard Jag full synchro with the close ratio gear set. The synchros kept on breaking after a race, race and a half, so I had special racing synchros made. They are a different design and made out of a different material. Then I had no more trouble.

Jerry What about the flywheel and clutch?

Bernard Tilton aluminum flywheel and Tilton triple plate clutch. see pix I made the throwout assembly. It’s a direct acting hydraulic slave cylinder inside the bell housing.

Jerry You were turning the engine as much as 7500 rpm. Did you have a scattershield?

Bernard No, just the standard bell housing. I never worried. I used the best equipment and always maintained it properly.

Jerry You started with a 3.8 then went to a 4.2, but sometimes you were forced to race with the 3.8 What were the main differences between the engines?

Bernard The engine was totally trick. The only thing stock was the block, the head casting and the crankshaft. The 4.2 is good for about 60 ft-lbs more torque and 40 more hp. This really makes a difference. The engine I ended up with was a 4.2 bored .040 over. It dynoed 365 hp at 6500 rpm, but I think under the right conditions I was gettiing close to 400hp. I kept the dry sump, but had to completely rebuild it. The original pump was missing. I used a Weaver belt drive 3 stage pump. The new aluminum pan had pickups front and back. Total capacity of the system was 4 gallons. We ran about 80 to 90 lbs of pressure. Some people think a dry sump adds horsepower, but it doesn’t. If you have the proper scrapers for the counterweights and a windage tray a wet sump gives just as much power. The thing that a dry sump does in road racing is make sure you always have oil to all the critical parts. You never have to worry about momentary starvation or aerated oil. Both of these can kill an engine. The crank was stock.

Jerry No enlarged oil holes, radiusing, filleting, polishing, nitriding?

Bernard No. None of that is needed. Nitriding makes a crank brittle and it cracks. The V-12’s have nitrided cranks. You magnaflux ten V-12 cranks and nine of them are cracked. It doesn’t matter for street use, but in racing it’s no good. At first I was breaking cranks. I tried different dampers, including that special “trick”damper from GTJ. Nothing worked. Then I had one special made by these guys who make dampers for dragsters. My design worked. Making dampers is a black art. There’s only one dyno in the country that can measure harmonic vibrations at speed and under load. All the other guys are just guessing. Never broke a crank again. I always make sure I use a standard crank. Even a 10-10 crank isn’t as good. Ed note: If you’re a racer who’s breaking cranks Bernard can build you a copy of his trick damper for about $500. You can reach himat 408-354-4445,MondaythruFriday.

Jerry What kind of rods did you use. Were they longer than stock to promote better cylinder filling?

Bernard I used Carillo H-section steel rods. Standard length. At first I used J.E. pistons, but later I switched to Cosworth. I machined the top of the pistons to my own design. They had a ceramic coating on top and a oil retention coating on the skirt. Compression was about 13:1. Regular racing gas of 110 to 115 octane worked fine. When the guy bought the car at auction he called me a few weeks later and asked if he could use pump gas. He’d been driving it on the street!

Jerry Did you have the famous wide valve head, the one with the 2 1/8 intakes?

Bernard No. They cost $6000. I’m not sure they work any better. The peak of the combustion chamber is so steep that the cams have to be specially designed so the intake valve doesn’t hit the exhaust valve on overlap. On my standard head there was only .030 of clearance. I used a standard head ported and with fuel injection valves, 1 7/8 inches. We were running .445 lift, with 296 degrees of duration at .017 lift. They were ground by John DeLong right here in San Jose. He was a bloody genius. Nobody else’s cams made as much power. When the factory ran the wide angle head on the 3.8 lightweight E-Type they got 320 hp. I did better with my head. Mark Adams, who ran 180 mph at Bonneville a few years ago, uses one of my heads. He also uses some of my suspension parts and the trick damper.

Jerry You used 48 DCOE Webers. Did you ever try the standard SU’s? I’ve heard that they make just as much hp if they’re setup right.

Bernard I don’t see how they could. The Webers have a bigger bore, flow more air, and much more sophisticated fuel mixture. I’ve never run a back to back test, but I think the Webers make more hp.

Jerry You ran a Vertex magneto instead of a modern solid state ignition. What’s the advantage to a magneto?

Bernard The faster you spin it the hotter the spark you get. It’s independent of any electrical system the car may have. There was no charging system on this car to save weight. We just ran total loss on the battery. If we had electronic ignition we’d have to keep the battery charged up.

Jerry What kind of advance curve did you run, or was it fixed?

Bernard We had two mags, actually. One had 24 degrees of advance built in and the other one was fixed. After 3000 rpm you have full advance. Total advance was 28 to 29 degrees. More advance gave less power. I also burned some pistons up playing around with more advance.

Jerry No charging system, what about the cooling system?

Bernard The water pump was stock. We made an aluminum pulley for it, larger than stock to slow it down. The radiator was aluminum. It weighed nothing. So was the header tank. Had a 14 inch electric fan. Earls oil cooler.

Jerry What temperature did the engine run at?

Bernard We had to put a thermostat in to keep the engine up to 180 degrees. On a cold day we had to cover the radiator. Sometimes it was130 degrees inside the car, but the engine was no more than 200 degrees.

Jerry 130 degrees! What about the poor driver?

Bernard Yeah, but I had my cool suit. I was comfortable.

Jerry What kind of overall racing record did #46 have in the 14 years you raced it?

Bernard I was the car to beat for the last 10 years. I was VARA (Vintage Auto Racing Association) B production champ for 1992, 93 and 94 with 19 victories. Originally I ran C Production where the car belongs, but we ran away from those guys so they bumped us up to B. No DNF’s in the last two years. Totally reliable race car.

Jerry B Production. That’s 289 Cobras and small block Corvettes.

Bernard That’s right.

Jerry What was the best race of #46’s life, even if it wasn’t a win.

Bernard Hmmm. I don’t remember what year it was, probably ‘88-89, but it was Laguna Seca, the Monterey Historics. I was racing Tony Podell in a Ferrari LM 250 and we were dicing for 10th and 11th place. On the last lap alone we traded places 3 or 4 times. We were the race of the day. We had the crowd on their feet coming up the front straight. I beat him by half a car length. That was a fabulous race. Ed note: The races at the Historics lump together cars of vastly different abilities. That race had Cobras and Gran Sport Corvettes in it.

Jerry What’s the significance of the number 46?

Bernard Nothing special. It was a number that was available when I started racing and I just stuck with it.

Jerry What would you estimate your total investment in the car was, parts and labor?

Bernard I have no idea. A lot of hours. I maintained the car well. Jason Len at XK’s said he would have to charge $100,000 to duplicate the car. To build a reliable, competitive race motor it’s about $18-20,000. You don’t want something that only lasts one or two races. My motors last a couple of years.