CORTANA

Stock 3.2. Enough power to pull the skin off a rice pudding. Just.

CORTANA

OK, so here's the problem, and the solution.

The Bear has reassembled his 3XXbhp race engine, but how do you run in a race engine in a race car? You can't. You wait til a test day, or pay money for a dyno.

Well, here at Kutuka North we say duck fat. There is a clear place to run in an engine.

So a perfectly functional and tidy road car drives into the garage, and we take it to pieces...

The car comes in on Sunday morning, and we peer at it for a bit. We don't do road cars, usually. Racing Jags, sure. Roadgoing MGBs, yes, even humble Rover 200s, but roadgoing Jags, nah. There are wires everywhere, and they used star drive button head bolts all over the shop. Everything is fastened to everything, everywhere.

It's what we're calling over-engineering. There are bolts to hold single wires that are rated to carry 2 tonnes, and long enough that they may also hold on the rear bumper. Someone at Jaguar needed to learn about tie-wraps.

So it takes a while to yank the engine, because we do intend to put this car back as it was. Good practice though, we might one day get back to road cars.

All told it takes us about 6 hours to pull the engine and box, but a lot of it is learning how it all comes apart, interior, gearbox mounts etc, all new stuff to we humble Yorkshiremen. Removing the exhaust manifolds is simpler because the joint is rusted up, and nothing wants to move, better to take it off and twist it free afterwards.

The car is right on the cusp between solid and smart runabout and completely dead. Pipes and hoses that are just about to die, corrosion on steel pipework and alloy housings, jubilee clips that are stripped, exhaust clamps that shear under the force of a lusty application of ratchet, the whole car is probably saved from major failure by this unscheduled attention.

Whilst we're here, we'll shed that stupid dual-mass flywheel. Why. Just why?

Despite the complications, some bits are easier than predicted. The engine comes out at such a steep angle that we don't even need to remove the gearlever. And the prop stays attached. Valuable time saved.

We attach the X300 inlet and electrics, sensors etc to the XJS race engine, and other than a clutch issue, by Saturday evening we're ready to install.

Reinstallation is easier now we know where everything goes. At 5pm Monday we split the box and flywheel, fit it to the new engine, and plug it in. At 10.30 the car is done, every bit reattached as Jaguar intended, running, and apparently serviceable.

Timing the engine, usually a task in itself on the old-style system we use on the race cars, is rather simpler on this. Find TDC, set the little window thing - not the half moon, the little circle! - and go. Turn the key, and she fires instantly. Too easy, let's do it again.

By way of a test, we dispatch our resident lawyer on a 130 mile round trip. Well, it is his car, and fuel, he might as well get the chance to try a real engine. With the leaks, breaks and failures found during the refit, it's distressingly uneventful. The running in is underway. It's only in for a week. Yes, that's right, we need to redo this at the weekend to remove the engine and put it back in Christine. But how else do you run in a race engine?

ENGINE SWAP - temporarily

Jesus, stop it with all the clips and connectors, and can we please have a break SOMEWHERE in the engine wiring loom?

Bear looks awfully pleased with himself for what he's done to my road car. The dent in the front wing wasn't me!

Jaguar thought this car needed 225 horsepower. We think one Bear is an adequate substitute. Here we see him being trial-fitted in the engine bay, and as you see we don't need that exhaust now.