1962 Jaguar EGAL – Classified of the Week

Now this Jaguar EGAL isn’t going to go over too well with the purists. You know the type. Those sticklers for originality who love nothing more than to discuss the merits of matching numbers, factory parts and production figures, all in varying degrees of nasal tones – invariably preceded by terms like “I think you’ll find…” – over a half pint of the most uninspiring ale to ever cross a bar. But for those of you with a tad more imagination, well, you’re going to absolutely bloody love it.

Don’t get us wrong, we can certainly appreciate those classic car characteristics we just glibly listed above but if it weren’t for cars like this Jaguar EGAL the automotive world would be a lot less interesting, and indeed inspiring.

People have been shoehorning whopping great V8s into anything they can fit them in for decades and the pairing of an eight cylinder motor with an elegant British sports car has always been a particularly winning combination (we’re looking at you Carroll Shelby) and the AC Cobra and Sunbeam Tiger are two archetypal examples of this perfect pairing.

Well, you can add this Jag to that distinguished list because what we have here is a unique Ford Galaxie 427 V8 period swapped E-Type. That’s a whole seven litres of displacement in a car that was designed for a rather less outrageous 3.8-litre straight-six. So how on earth did they make it work?

Firstly, the “they” in question was Rob Beck and Geoff Richardson, a pair of accomplished racers and engineers who already had experience of fettling Jags after heavily modifying an XK120. They also knew their onions when it came to plonking big old American engines into cars they didn’t belong having experimented with a 3.5-litre Buick V8-engined Cooper Formula Junior car in ’63. Fast forward a year to the 1964 season and this dynamic duo set their sights on a V8-engined E-Type project.

But back to our original quandary. The engine in question – a 470bhp+ NASCAR spec unit prepared by American race engineers Holman & Moody was obviously too capacious to just plonk into the drop head E-Type Beck and Richardson had sourced (chassis 850450 for those purists…) and so some modifications had to be made, most notably tot he Jag’s space frame.

The top tubes were altered to create a space large enough for the engine and a revised bonnet featuring 250 GTO style air ducts was fitted but aside from a new twin-plate Borg and Beck clutch, a larger Gallay radiator and oil cooler it was a surprisingly simple conversion, with Richardson exclaiming the project: “gelled rather better than expected”.

With the car complete it was time to hit the track and hit it hard and the EGAL’s first outing at Silverstone was a smash, with the car winning both the sports car and Formula Libre events. It would go on to beat Ferrari’s best at Castle Combe a year later, beating a pair of 250 GTOs to the chequered flag.

The car would change hands numerous times over the coming years but would continue to rack up a whole host of silverware along the way before making its way to the States where its engine was bored out to 8.5-litres, boosting peak power to over 650bhp and 605lb ft of torque! Repatriated in 2018 the car was handed over to renowned Jaguar expert Chris Keith Lucas at CKL Developments to be prepared for the next step in its competition evolution and the car returned to the track for hill climb events at the Goodwood Festival of Speed and Shelsley Walsh in 2021.

This is what happens when England and America get it on in the early ’60s: you get this utterly sublime creation and it’s nothing short of magnificent. It’s road legal, too, so treat it as a weekend B-road blaster or as purposeful historic racer, or both! Available from Fiskens of London who’s reputation is built on three, rock-solid principles: knowledge, trust and discretion, you’re sure to be in good hands should you decide to buy, and you really should. The purists can keep their matching numbers originality, we’ll take the Jaguar EGAL thanks very much.