How to drive the fastest car of the 1950s in 2019 ft. James May's tips

Captain slow would know

anyone else notice the E type in the background?

I drive old cars and trucks everyday. No quick inputs on the wheel just guide it along you'll be fine.

My dad owned a 1950 Jaguar XK120 for several years in the early 1960s.

Sadly, he sold it before I was born, but at least I still have several very nice black and white photos of the car.

My dad passed away nearly 30 years ago, but I’ll never forget him telling me that his Jag held a whopping 13 quarts of motor oil!

A well sorted 120 starts MUCH easier that this one.

This was exciting for me to watch because my dad had a 54 XK120M that he had before he married my mom. They drove around in it during their single days. They knew each other since they were 8 years old and went to elementary school together and my dad was my mom’s family’s paper boy. The Jaguar was their last toy other than their wooden speedboat before getting married and starting a family. I heard lots of stories about the car. How my mom could hear it from miles away and she knew that my dad was headed home. My dad talked about how nice it sounded and how well it cornered. He was afraid to ride in my 1966 Chevelle with it’s 427 that has over 500 horsepower but it doesn’t drive how his Jaguar did. I still have it and it’s fun to tell people that I do when they ask me if I wish I still had it. My dad’s Jag was sold so he could get a family car and the college kid who bought it got hit by a train and was killed. I’d love to ride in a XK120 to experience the feel.

energy involved in accident half mv2 so 30 mph is 3600 100 mph is 10000 units at 170 mph it hurts!!!!!!!!

I’d like to see the old top gear presenters drive some classic 1950/60’s cars

I've had the sidedraught SU carburettors on a previous car, which are the reason for the throttle massaging at start up. These are incapable of delivering fuel without engine vacuum, the fuel bowl simply acts as a drawn reservoir feeding a fuel line into the path of the airflow. It uses a needle and seat instead of a metered jet. This all works by having it side mounted and using a combination of gravity and engine vacuum to measure and deliver the fuel, hence the name, Simple Unit or SU carburettor. Tuning characteristics become very complicated but its basic operation is as basic as it gets.

The only thing the accelerator pedal moves is the throttle valve, there is no linkage to any other part of the carburettor. The pedal/valve does not make an SU carburettor squirt fuel. You cannot flood an engine with an SU carburettor unless the engine is running. It is the engine vacuum which makes the carburettor squirt fuel, and the throttle plate lets the engine vacuum gain access to the carburettor to do so.

No vacuum, no fuel. So on a cold start up you pump the pedal or else it don't start, but on the plus side it's literally impossible to flood the engine doing this. You can only flood the engine once it's running and if you didn't put any machine oil in the vacuum cylinders for the needle housing. Without oil the needles pull to full rich too quickly if you stab the throttle and flood the engine. The oil stops the needles jumping to full rich too quickly and prevents this.


SU, Weber and fuel injection are the three best racing fuel systems of the period and all things being equal there's not much difference between them as far as reaching the chequered flag, which for a budget conscious manufacturer who still wants to go racing the SU is obviously an excellent choice. Sorting needles will make you an alcoholic, however.

What’s that etype creeping up behind you

two of the problems the driver is having, IMO, are not what they appear to him to be. the brake pedal is wobbling because the bushings are worn out after seventy some odd years. and similarly, it's the worn-out steering rack that's causing the constant wheel corrections. both are easily remedied.

a poorly understood concept is if the brakes can solidly lock up all four wheels then the car can stop in no shorter distance than with any other brakes. once locking has been achieved stopping distance is a function involving only three variables. none of which involves the brakes at all. 1) the mass of the car, the speed at which it is traveling, and the coefficient of friction between the tires and road surface.

and yes, all four wheels can be locked on on any XK series car. it takes more pressure on the pedal, but it can be done.

what vintage brakes lack is ABS (Antilock Breaking Systems) and don't as readily "fade". the ABS promotes more control as they actually PREVENT the brakes from locking up altogether, thus the front wheels will still be turning and giving the driver the ability to steer the car in the event of an emergency stop. and brake "fade" is not as prevalent in disc brakes in that they more readily dissipate heat and thus glazing.

no need to double clutch on an upshift. just pause when passing through neutral. then apply moderate pressure on lever. because the RPMs are too HIGH right from the outset to mesh with the next higher gear, there will come a time when in neutral (we are talking split seconds here) and as the engine RPMs slow when everything will naturally align itself inside the gearbox and the lever will ease into the next higher gear.

downshifts (although it's best to avoid them if at all possible by coasting until necessity demands the car accelerate again) involve a little rev matching while passing through neutral as the engine RPM will be too SLOW right from the outset and needs to increase, in order to mesh with the next lower gear.

BTW, diggn' the powder blue and steelies!

Steering is by recirculating ball, rather than rack and pinion as stated.

heel and toe helps with double clutching

A real scottish technical word for too much play on a lever is .... "Too much Shooggle". 😂😂

First Matchbox car I got as a kid was an Aston Martin DB4 in a Metallic Mint Green!

Music…..non stop……WHY? So effing irritating

Just oozes character that thing, doesn't it

I remember when drum brakes were "internally expanding" as opposed to the earlier "externally contracting" 😂

First - learn to drive. Seriously. Right now most people point their Lay-z-boy cocoon somewhere down the road and the car does pretty much everything else for them. Second - pay attention, all of the attention. No phones, entertainment center, screaming kids. Third - listen to the car, it speaks and tells you everything you need to know. Finally, plan ahead, the road, the corner, the weather, traffic and every thing else around you. It's easy, just drive the car.

The French were making almost identical cars in the 30's. You think thats where Jaguar got the body design from? I do. Bugatti or Delahaye should have been annoyed 😠

I had to smile at this . My first few cars I had to double declutch , none had power steering either . My Dad taught me how to do it , he had been a driver in the army during the war . Anyway it didn't take long to become 2nd nature and you can do it pretty quickly when you're in practice

Why the silly music?

Very enjoyable video

double de-clutch?

It over heats in hot weather.

The car wanders because it does not have rack and pinion steering as stated in the video, it relies on a steering box and linkages. It has nothing to do with having a ladder chassis which in the XK is a substantial unit. Could we have some engineering accuracy in these reports as it is painful to listen to incorrect points and conclusions made from erroneus assumptions. The report in all other respects is great. You should mention that without power steering most older cars steer slower so in low speed movements the car requires a lot more wheel twirling to turn the car, especially in places like carparks for example.

The 120 didn t have rack and pinion steering Thatcher came with the 140

Fastest car of the 1950s? ✍️on record.

The W198 Gullwing looking at this like 🤔

And the Bentley continental, Chrysler 300, Ferrari 250s, and Corvette C1s all looking at the missed opportunity to try the record in the 50s….😲

What a rip off! I saw James referenced in the description, then it is the execrable, fatuous, very weak presenter mike... please drive tribe axe this dullard.

James!!

Never heard of anyone double declutching going up a gearbox, only down.

I would own that car in a heartbeat 💓

No fun with a synced box! Perfect DDC 😉She's a beauty you lucky guy.

That XK engine was in fact 40 years ahead of al the other technical features .
A ladderchassis , drumbrakes and live axle are 30s tech .
It's a wonder that the XK didn't tear the whole car to bits!
A trueley wonderfull engine , second best to the RR Merlin

American here who owned a 48 GMC 3500 w/4 speed un synchronized trans. It was so fun upshifting; downshifting not so much. Engine could wind to 3000 rpm so you were lucky to downshift to first.
Thnx
chuck

My tip is it’s fun but it’s not a toy.
Start slow and learn, it’s a living class in physics, (kinematics and mechanics) and geometry.
Because it’s have a temper, drive with respect, drive as a man.

I bought one for £80 in 1978 and sold it for £100, my parents had petrol station/garage and they recommended I get rid of it?

love the car
on an unrelated note is that the kenyan flag on your wrist band

you couldnt pay me to go 172 in this thing

now that's a proper jaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaag

Pretty much like all the old cars, you need to baby it. Dont slam into gear, gas and stop. Take your time

Jaguar was a small company when that car was made. And it changed the world. Pride 🇬🇧

What a joyful treatment of a beautiful car. Great video!

When you speak about the engine you should let people watching know the horsepower and torque figures

Duh......