2005-03-04 22:42:14 | pauls writes:

This car is mentioned in "The Jaguar E-type a collectors guide" by Paul Skilleter on page 75. The car was delivered to Cunningham in June of '63.

2007-08-20 18:33:30 | pauls writes:

Sold to Cunningham; 1963 24 Hours Le Mans, DNF Was at Cunningham Museum. Sold to Anthony Bamford ENGLAND. Sold to Michael Fisher; crash and rebuilt. Sold to Adrian Hamilton then to Bill Tracy (USA) then sold to Oglesby, then sold to Campbell McLaren; sold to Richard Freshman .Restored with new engine block,Sold to to Campbell McLaren; 1995 sold to David Vine in England .

2008-07-29 08:22:54 | Richard writes:

NOTE ! As someone who knows the owner of this car ( S850665) I should point out that Pauls notes of : 2007-08-20 18:33:30 are rather incorrect here. In Pauls last comment he has confused the car with chassis 850664 !

See : www.wspr-racing.com/chassis/Etype.htm

S850665 was crashed and not economically repairable in period and sold to a dealer for spares - although was never broken up for that purpose. S850665 remained in the North of the UK and is still complete to this date having been stored since the 1960's and now almost fully restored still retaining its original logbook and history.

2008-08-20 07:52:47 | Terry writes:

Richard, I just would like to say that you mention that this car is complete ? Well, from what i know of it and this was a few years back (around 1998) , it was originally sold off as spares in 1963, excluding the engine and injection system, which Cunningham used in one of his other team cars, chassis number S850659 (the first lightweight sold to Cunningham) . I understand that Crosthwaite and Gardiner in the UK have supplied a new block and dry sump assembly for the restoration of this car. As for the remainder....well... The front chassis frames incl. picture frame are original, but will only be kept for its identity. The body was wrecked for sure but the gearbox and axle and all suspension remained with the car. One can only guess that it was really destined for spare parts but it was kept, unknown to most in Scotland since the mid 1960's and has only been worked on in the past 15 years to my knowledge, but its location now is uncertain and I cannot remember the name othe guy who had it. I believe the car still has its UK registration documents and log book and therefore still is registered as 5116 WK It will be very interesting to see it when it eventuaslly shows its face again. If you have any idea where it is Richard, maybe you can post the info here.

2008-09-12 16:10:47 | Richard writes:

You are correct Terry - the information you posted is pretty much as it is. It would be wrong of me to mention the owners name without his authority, but I did contact him and he emailed me some more information regarding its history and the plans for its future and he has agreed with my compilation of these facts as follows.

Brief History:

The ‘Salvadori Car’ was one of three Jaguar lightweight ‘E’ types delivered to Briggs Cunningham during 1963. It appears evident from Jaguar–Daimler Heritage archives that the car was officially dispatched on the 7th June 1963. The car was actually registered on the 3rd June 1963 at Coventry City Council. It is not clear if Jaguar Cars organised the registration and first 4 months taxation of the vehicles on behalf of Briggs Cunningham or if Cunningham did it personally, but the signature in the original buff log book is in the same pen as used for the name and address entered in the log data also, so one would assume that Briggs Cunningham was in Coventry to take personal delivery of his two new lightweight Jaguars around the beginning of June 1963. This would have been a logical arrangement, especially since the cars would be due to have been shipped directly to France for the 1963 Le Mans one week later. To this date there appears to be nothing to suggest that Cunningham used any of the race track facilities in England for testing prior to going to Le Mans. 5116 WK was entered as car number 16 in the Le Mans 24 hour race and driven by Salvadori and Richards. It was Salvadori who was driving the car when it crashed heavily after hitting an oil patch at a claimed 170 mph on the Mulsanne straight. Salvadori, having experienced some problems with his safety belt, gave an account of how he was lucky to escape death, as he initially lost control of the car as he hit the oil patch, but then managed to briefly re-gain control until the car shifted towards the grass where he lost control again and spun on the grass verge, crashing the car in a rearward direction. The rearward impact forces throw Salvadori out through the Perspex rear window and onto the roadside embankment. Salvadori escaped the incident, but suffered very heavy bruising and other minor cuts and injury.

5116 WK was very badly damaged due to the rearward impact, causing the fuel tank to rupture and the car to catch fire. Salvadori also recalled, in his account of the incident, that the fire crew attended the burning car swiftly but it was the end of the race for Salvadori and for 5116WK as a viable rebuild project at the time. The Briggs Cunningham team decided that the damaged lightweight was certainly beyond economical repair for their purposes. The front of the vehicle remained intact but the aluminium body tub was very badly misshaped from the scuttle back towards the tail and indeed the rear of the car was very badly crumpled and burnt.. The engine, being protected in the frontal steel chassis frame was not damaged and removed by Cunningham for use in one of his other lightweight car, registration number 5115WK (chassis 850659)

The remainder of the damaged Salvadori car was discretely sold to a racing privateer and enthusiast in Scotland in 1963 and remained with him until the early part of the millennium. The remains of the car included the original damaged chassis frames (“picture frame”) - still bearing the factory number, the front bulkhead and transmission tunnel, various suspension and brake components, gearbox, later sourced period engine components and rear axle/differential within a somewhat damaged rear sub-frame. It was the previous owners ambition to restore the car one day in the future as he had a passion for Jaguar E-types, however, the reality of such a fiercely expensive venture, lacking funds, new business commitment and eventually a family prevented the realisation of this dream.

5116WK is now owned by a Private British Collector and restorer in the UK and is destined to be re-united with the field of Historic Sports Racing cars before the end of 2009. The original front chassis frame has been retained, although new items have been constructed for strength and safety along with a restored body tub in original lightweight form, being amalgamated with the salvageable bulkheads and transmission tunnels. The engine is being rebuilt using an original period race spec. cylinder head and many other original components on a replacement aluminium cylinder block incorporating the Jaguar ‘Works’ dry-sump assembly as per original fitment. The fuel injection system will be as per original.

The “Salvadori Car” is possibly one of the most desirable of the Briggs Cunningham cars, if not one of the most desirable of all the lightweight Jaguar XKE cars and certainly one that has never suffered confusion with any other cars. The current owner wishes to retain his privacy and anonymity and predicts that the title will remain with him long into the foreseeable future. It is his plan to select and instruct a professional historic racing team to manage, maintain and drive the car once the restoration is complete and it is hoped that Historic Le Mans and Goodwood Revival will be high of the list of desirable first meetings for the car to attend.

2008-10-12 14:01:05 | Michael writes:

Note. Roy Salvadori was a member of the Cunningham Team in 1963. He was teamed with Richards in the No. 16 Lightweight. What follows is extracted from our correspondence.

March 22, 2000

Thank you for your letter and enclosures concerning the Jaguar Lightweight E Type, and because of my fond memories of the Briggs Cunningham Team and also the various Jaguars I raced in the course of my career I would be delighted to assist you in any way I can.....

I have photostated a couple of races concerning the E Type and Briggs Cunningham and enclose them herewith. I have had considerable experience with the E Type, having raced it in its first race in England, and then on to the various models, including the Lightweight cars, and they were the most comfortable and dependable GT cars I have ever driven. The great mistake was the 5 speed ZF gearbox which had a very slow gear change, and was very very heavy, causing block failures because of its weight. From memory, after one race in England, we discarded the ZF 5 speed, and went back to a 4 speed British gearbox. With regards to Briggs Cunningham's cars, the coupe I drove with Briggs to 4th position at Le Mans (ed note: 1962) had a 4 speed gearbox and the 5 speed boxes we used in the team cars for '63 were, I believe, the ZF gearbox, but I am not absolutely sure. Certainly the lower gears were seizing up and we were using only 4th and 5th speeds.....

I look forward to hearing from you .....

Yours Sincerely,

Roy Salvadori.

Note: the following excerpt from Mr. Salvadori's autobiography was included with this letter reference his 1963 Le Mans drive for Cunningham

I also drove a Cunningham-entered E-Type at Le Mans for the second year in succession, but it proved a far less happy outing than in 1962. I was delighted to drive for Briggs Cunningham. This American millionaire was a really great enthusiast, charming, easy-going, but very professional and with a superb organization. Cunningham had entered a team of three E-Types and I was the fastest driver by quite a margin. Walt Hansgen, who was Cunningham's number one driver, was a little disconcerted about this, so the team manager, Alfred Momo, suggested that I try the other team cars. I was still faster with both these cars than with my own and fastest of all with Hansgens's car, partly because of a 'tow' down the Mulsanne straight behind Sears' Ferrari Prototype. The last thing that I wanted was a dice with Hansgen in the opening laps and at my suggestion my co-driver Richards started the race. Richards drove very sensibly and when he handed the car over to me after three hours we were reasonably placed, but the Jaguar was already experiencing gearbox trouble which was plaguing all the Cunningham E-Types. After a couple of pit stops to sort out the problem, I settled for lapping in fourth and fifth gears-and I was still matching my earlier lap times.

After my last pit stop I had been unable to get my seat harness done up as the shoulder strap would not clip into place. I was reluctant to make yet another pit stop and so I was driving with the harness loose round my waist because I had been unable to tighten it. Shortly afterwards, at the kink in the end of the Mulsanne straight which I normally 'straightened out" and took at about 165 mph, I saw a massive pool of oil on the road and a spinning car.

I knew that I could not avoid the oil and I thought that this was the end. I lifted my foot almost off the accelerator, leaving on just enough power to control the car, hit the oil, felt the car slide sideways, then the wheels bit again as I mounted the grass. I was sure that I had held the car and for a moment I felt immensely relieved. Then the Jaguar suddenly spun right round, I ducked, protecting my chest by keeping my hand over the gear lever and my bottom slipped out of the seat harness which was not tight unless the shoulder strap was done up. Then there was the most enormous bang as the car hit the opposite bank. It bounced back on the road and I was thrown through the perspex rear window on to the track, saturated in fuel from the ruptured fuel tank. My Jaguar careered forward into the bank again and caught fire.

I lay on the road, still very clear-headed, and could see just a few yards from me another driver, Jean-Pierre Manzon (the son of Robert Manzon), stretched out unconscious and obviously badly injured. I was petrified that the stream of fuel trailed by the Jaguar would burn its way back to me. I could not move my body because of the severe bruising (although, thankfully, I could feel no pain at this stage), so I stretched my fingers into the grass at the edge of the track and hauled myself up the bank. The marshalls quickly doused the burning Jaguar. Manzon's Rene Bonnet had been the first to go off the road, Dewez's Aston Martin had ended up in the ditch, but, worst of all, Bino Heinz' Alpine crashed on the other side of the circuit rolling end over end and bursting into flames. Poor Heinz was incinerated in the wreckage of his car without any of the marshalls crossing the road to try to get him out of the wreck. The incident had been caused by McLaren's works Aston Martin which had blown up in the biggest possible way, depositing the entire contents of its sump on the track. Although 1963 was the first year when electric illuminated warning signals were used, the marshalls had displayed no signals at all.

After a long delay I was taken to hospital, by then very shaken and racked with pain. I was supposed to stay in France because I was a witness to Heinz' fatal accident, but all I wanted to do was to go home. At 5:00AM on the Sunday morning a friend collected me from the hospital and drove me to Le Touquet in her Morris Minor convertible. Silver City would not allow me to stay in the car during the flight, and, as I could not bend, I had to be carried into the aircraft like a stiff, dead body.

Although I had not broken any bones, I think that it was the worst shunt that I ever had; I was conscious throughout and remember every moment very vividly. My bruising was agonizing and I could barely move for a fortnight. Later theAutomobile Club de l'Ouest (ed note: the organization that sponsors Le Mans) issued a statement to the effect that the warning lights were on, that there was no oil on the circuit, and implying that the accident had been caused by drivers not taking enough care. I felt so badly about the mishandling of this accident and the white-washing by the organisers that in future Le Mans was a race that I could take or leave.

© 2000 Michael Frank, all rights reserved. May not be reproduced without permission.
"Jaguar" is the property of Jaguar Cars, Ltd, Coventry, England
Extracts from Roy Salvadori, Race Driver are Copyright © Roy Salvadori

2010-09-11 05:20:59 | terry mcgrath writes:

unlike everyone who has posted I will include my full name and contact details!
All of the above makes good reading but very interesting in the sale of the wreckage to Scotland in 1963 minus engine of course.
The interesting part is that I have original documentation noting the damaged car being returned to the USA so presumably after MOMO took out the engine and gearbox the wreckage was returned back to the UK for sale to Scotland
I would love to hear from any of the above people who have posted information and maybe we can get to the bottom, of the story
terry mcgrath

2010-12-30 13:50:49 | MQ writes:

I have very grave doubts over the authenticity of some of the claims above. All my information tells me that this car ceased to exist in period.

Delivered June '63 to Cunningham; '63 Le Mans for Salvadori/Richards, Salvadori crashed on Mulsanne kink at 160mph and written-off

2011-03-23 19:37:28 | terry mcgrath writes:

Philip Porters new LWT E type book is out late April, will this book finally put to rest the tall stories on this car surviving! I hope so
Ultimate E-type - The Competition Cars
by Philip Porter
• Lively, authoritative, intriguing, definitive, stylish, detailed
• A chapter for each of the 12 cars
• The full Lightweight E story
• The history of the E2A prototype
• The development story of Jaguar's answer to the GTO
• The driving impressions of E v. Cobra v. GTO
• Revelations from Adrian Newey
• Why a fresh water mussel was found in one car!
Publication: Mid April

The Lightweights Es are the ultimate E-types, and this is the ultimate book on these charismatic cars. This is the full story of the competition E-types that took on the might of Ferrari and often beat the legendary GTOs and the AC Cobras. With copious unseen period photographs and original Jaguar reports, the glory years of the '60s are told as never before, including the build up to the Lightweights and the evolution of the Low Drag versions.

This book is packed full of material to fascinate and inform E-type and motor-racing enthusiasts...

• Masses of fresh information
• The early racers to the final Low Drag Coupés
• Stunning period and studio photography
• Over 100 interviewed including Sir Jackie Stewart, Dan Gurney, Roy Salvadori, Martin Brundle, Brian Redman, 'Whizzo' Williams, John Coombs...
• Almost every owner of each car traced
• Part 1 - Period Story, Part 2 - The Cars, Part 3 - Evaluation
• By Philip Porter, award-winning author of over 15 Jaguar books
• Over 700 colour & mono illustrations


Standard Edition: Hardback, 528 pages, 11.22" x 10.22" (285 x 260mm) - £120
Introductory offer: £95 incl P&P direct from the publishers (Mainland UK only)

De luxe First Edition: Hardback, 528 pages, 11.22" x 10.22" (285 x 260mm), limited to only 150, leather-bound with cloth slip-case - £450

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P.O. Box 2, Tenbury Wells, WR15 8XX, UK
Sales@porterpress.co.uk, Tel: +44 (0)1584 781588, Fax: +44 (0)1584 781630
www.porterpress.co.uk

2011-05-13 04:42:35 | RAC writes:

This saga could be attributable to Nevil Shute or some such novelist. The enormous value that these cars command can only increase the lengths that people will go with smoke and mirrors to give valuable credibility.
In this story it can be seen that every classic car owner/buyer has to carry out the most extensive research to ensure authenticity. Especially as the involved characters of the period are now, conveniently, no longer with us these tales will undoubtedly become more frequent.

2011-06-14 12:53:30 | Brian J Martin writes:

I have read all of the previous comments on the fate of the Cunningham lightweight registered as 5116 WK and am very confused by the claims that are being made. For my sins, I was a development engineer in the experimental department at Jaguars Browns Lane factory from 1956 to 1967. I had a particular responsibility design and install the electrical systems on all competition cars during that period, including all of the lightweights. My time was therefore shared between the main Experimental department and the Competition Department. My understanding of the financial arrangements for the purchase of the 3 Cunningham lightweights was that the cars would be purchased less enginess, these being prepared and supplied by Jaguar Cars, who retained ownership (this was a pretty normal arrangement with some Jaguars competition customers).

After the 1963 Le Mans race, where 5116 WK was virtually destroyed, the vehicle was returned to the competition shop at Browns Lane. The engine was removed and returned to the Experimental engine shop for evaluation. All other salvagable components including virtually the whole front suspension, brakes, steering rack and anything else of value was removed and returned to the Service department at Browns Lane where it was packed and shipped to Briggs Cunningham in America. The unsalvagable remains of the car were then reduced to scrap. Lofty England, who had total control of these arrangements confirmed to me in his later years that the arrangements with Briggs was for any items that re-usable as spares for his other two lightweights should be shipped at his cost to the States and that the remains of the vehicle should be scrapped. That is what happened and I was part of that arrangement! How this equates to the remains which are now as I read residing in the North of England, I cannot imagine, unless of course they were recovered from a certain scrapyard in the Coventry area that handled Jaguar's scrap. Stranger things have happened!!!

2013-04-14 07:29:42 | Rich Harman writes:

Michael Franks - Would it be possible for me to contact you privately please?
My email address is attached.
Rich (not the same Richard who posted earlier about this car)