Another Sound Entirely

Don Coates reaches into the Jag’s open cockpit and turns the key to the “on” position. A high capacity fuel pump whines to life. He then turns the key to “start.” The straight six fires almost immediately and settles into a fast idle with the uneven gait of high lift and duration cams. That it starts from cold and runs so well is testament to his thoroughness and care, especially in the fuel injection department. Six throttle bodies hiss and suck big volumes of air, the barely muffled exhaust barks and snarls percussively as he revs the engine. With a grin just this side of evil the otherwise quiet spoken Coates looks at me and shouts, “You don’t think it’s too loud, do you?”

Delighted, I smile and shrug my shoulders. Loud is a relative term and the sounds this engine makes are music. When it’s the right music, I like loud music. “Sounds good to me!” I yell in reply, doing my best not to spit in his ear.

To be around a running race engine where emission and sound levels are not parts of the design sheet is to realize how toned down, sanitized and arguably civilized engines are in road cars, even the high performance ones. Whether a Honda Civic or Porsche 911, dozens of sensors send signals to electronic control units which crunch the numbers and spit out commands to fuel injectors, ignition coils, air valves and the like. So appeased, the Gods of internal combustion smile and the engine revs, and the car goes. But regardless of how fast the processors are, well, ok, maybe this doesn’t apply to Formula 1, there’s a perceptible disconnect, a numbness between the driver’s right foot and what happens in the engine bay.

Not so with Don’s Jag. While the car is intended for the road, the engine is one hundred percent race. Based on a 4.2 litre series 2, it’s been built with all the right stuff by noted tuner Lou Fidanza. Throttle response is instantaneous. It snaps to attention. Stand alone electronic fuel injection relies on very few parameters, the primary one being throttle position and the rest is pure mechanical work. No microprocessors and servos hunt for what to do, there’s no thinking about it. Give it the gas and hold on. No, actually hold on first. Things happen that quickly.

What about the rest of the car? I don’t want to give away the story quite yet, but suffice it to say it’s a one-off E-type, built almost entirely of carbon fiber, by hand by Coates. It is mouthwateringly beautiful in engineering, design and execution, with the maiden voyage slated for next summer.

For now it’s the sounds I relish. Once the car is on the road… my oh my. Stay tuned.

Gordon Bunker