The World’s Fastest Jaguar (Part 2)
Editor: Thank you very much to the JDCA (Jaguar Drivers Club of Australia) and club member Gary Satara and editor Brian Todd for the following story.
(Last month we featured a report on the Fastest accountant in Australia. There was a backstory that wasn’t covered...and that is “how does a “normal” kid equip himself to produce the fastest Jaguar in the world?” This interview with Gary unpicks more background, which I hope you’ll find as interesting as I did... .Editor) B: What was the path ...car to landspeed record? G: I bought the car in good original condition in 2005 but the wiring harness was eaten through by rats so it wasn’t running. I got it real cheap from out in the bush and it had zero rust. The intention was always to build a land speed vehicle after my first visit to the salt in 2004. The car only came out of my shed twice in 8 years of building. Once for the wheel alignment to make sure it tracked straight as I changed the frontend mounting points to dial in about 9 degrees of castor into it. The second time was for the chassis dyno. Getting it ready for its first run on the salt in 2013 was a huge rush at the end. I had never driven the car or changed gears and had only started it in the shed three times before pushing it up to the start line for its trial run. Very scary but it performed flawlessly. Considering that every single nut and bolt, all the fabrication, all the wiring harness and electricals, wheel alignment, brakes, manualised steering rack etc etc all came together perfectly surprised even me! Also considering that I needed to modify a school bus to act as the transporter as well. B: You grew up on a farm? G: We moved from our first farm to PAGE 34
settle at Bringelly in 1977 but I had my Austin 105 paddock basher from the age of about nine years old. I had to do all the work/modifications myself as my father worked as a truck driver. When it blew a head gasket, he told me what to do, pointed to the tool kit and said go for it. I remember lifting off the cast iron head by myself standing in the engine bay. It was just a necessity. I learnt by doing and my father was always available if I wanted to ask questions. I spent a lot of time driving that car flat out, much to the disgust of my grandfather (who had a Series 1 XJ6 at the time). My father and my uncles all drove fast so I know why my genes are the way they are. We rarely paid anyone to do anything on the farm. We always did stuff ourselves. B: What was your first car? G: as above and then a Rover P6B 3500S V8 manual. B: Did you study mechanical engineering? G: No, I did accounting at uni initially then dropped out and only finished the degree and CPA a number of years later when I ‘grew up’. I did a couple of welding and machining courses at tech which helped a bit on the farm. B: You’ve stated your prime concerns as fire and becoming airborne. G: These are my two biggest fears with land speed racing. As a Vehicle Scrutineer I have attended a few accidents here and at Bonneville and helped with investigations. There is nothing more sobering than to see your mate walk away from a bad accident/ fire. This was always uppermost in my mind during the build. How do I build a car that is as safe as it can possibly be? I made no compromises when it came
to safety no matter how long it took or how much it cost. I view it the same as putting together a 10,000 piece jigsaw puzzle with no picture and you can only put down a piece once. No second chances. That means you have to think about your move considering what the next ten moves will be. I don’t weld a bracket/brace/support without knowing exactly what the consequences will be to the finished project. That takes a lot of thinking time. Fire- the main issues are that the vehicle is front engine and EFI/blown (electronic fuel injection & supercharger). That means that not only does the engine need copious amounts of high pressure fuel, which in my case is methanol but that it is also at the front of the car where the fire will generally initiate. At 300kph the wind pressure is huge so any fire turns into a blow torch. Besides all the mandatory kill switches I have twice the required fire suppression product on board. Instead of two 10 ld bottles I have four bottles. I have arranged these so I have two completely independent fire systems. Separate mechanical and pneumatic actuators, separate nozzles to engine bay, cabin and boot and separate stainless lines down either side of the car in case some are damaged in an accident. I have hobbs switches set up to kill ignition and fuel pumps if the fire bottle is actuated. I also wear a five layer /20 fire suit, nomex underwear with two sets of gloves, boots and overboots. Carbon fibre helmet and HANS (head and neck) restraint as well. Airborne- This eventuality is not as easy to determine. Every car is different. What is critical is the weight distribution i.e Centre of Pressure (CP) compared to the Centre of Gravity (CG). Ideally you want the vehicle to act like a dart with weight
THE OFFICIAL MONTHLY MAGAZINE OF THE JAGUAR DRIVERS CLUB OF SA
