‘ There’ s a level of common sense there, obviously. If it’ s actually shagged, you don’ t put it in. But if they’ ve done 40, 50, 60 years and they haven’ t failed, why put a new bolt in and we don’ t know what the correct grade is. That’ s the attention to detail on restoration work.’
Outright power, performance, reliability and usability aren’ t the only factors when William is rebuilding engines; preservation is something that has to be considered.‘ You wouldn’ t take the Mona Lisa out, take all the varnish off it and put brand new varnish on it from B & Q. You would go off and find the same oils and the same bowl that was mixed in in the 1500s. And I think that’ s what I’ m trying to do as a company, which I think we’ ve got a good reputation for now. If we’ re doing it, we are doing it the same way they did in period. And if we can feel there’ s a justification for improvement, which doesn’ t affect cosmetic, then we’ ll do it.
‘ We build concours cars. I feel concours should be preservation and attention to detail to what was there in the first place. That’ s really what we’ re chasing, the detail.’ The XK was designed to be a beautiful engine, so understanding and preserving that beauty makes perfect sense.
That’ s with the concours and restoration cars; a different attitude is taken with a growing part of William’ s business, competition cars.‘ I know we’ re building some of the best road
Nine XK SS chassis were never completed. Jaguar has since built these official remaining cars as‘ continuation’ models
engines in the world. Race engines, I obviously like to think so,
but we haven’ t done enough mileage on them yet, in truth.’
William’ s cars have raced at three Goodwood Revivals so far.‘ We’ ve done really well, and we’ ve learned so much by race development. But my next stage, I really want to push the race side of the business. There’ s no point going racing if you get the same BHP as everybody else. The trick is to get the same BHP as everybody else, but not cheat. I think we were the only Mk I Jaguar in St. Mary’ s [ the Revival’ s touring car race ] last year, which was within regulation. I think we were the only person with a correct size engine. I was proud that we were in the top five, still.
‘ There’ s a limit to what you can rev an XK engine to, and that’ s probably about 6500, 7000rpm. We’ re just chasing reliability. It’ s actually about knocking out vibration and knocking out stress.’ The limiting factor is the crank.‘ You can buy some good cranks for road engines. But if you want to push the boundaries from road to race, there’ s only a couple of options. And at that point, what I would be chasing is molecule structure and the stress levels of the machining process. Some of the best cranks now are made in China …
Six appeal: Straight-six sports car highlights
TVR Tamora It may have built its reputation on V8 roadsters, but arguably TVR’ s best cars were powered by its own inline-six, the 4-litre Speed 6 engine. The Tuscan is the more recognisable late TVR, but its targa top wasn’ t as fitting for this list as the Tamora’ s convertible roof. Either way, both are deeply enjoyable cars, and more sophisticated than the badge is renowned for.
Wiesmann MF3 We could have added BMW’ s own S54 3.2-litre inline-six-powered Roadster, the Z4 M, to this list. But why not include the lighter, flightier, rarer and more exceptionallooking Wiesmann instead? It might look like a traditional British sports car, but there’ s nothing traditional about its performance.
Maserati 3500 GT Vignale Spyder Powered by an Italian inline-six engine, fed by three Italian carbs and cloaked in Italian coachbuilt bodywork. The only way to behave in a more Italian manner than driving a 3500 GT Spyder is to gesture wildly while tucking into a dollop of tiramisu. Both sound like truly exquisite ways to spend time.
30 The Engine Rebuilder Issue 06