Chapter 6 – Chuck’s Big Secret

My Jag had a small-block Chevy in it – and it still does.  There – I’ve said it…

Now don’t freak out – this was inevitable, as you’ll see, and it wasn’t my idea either.  I have a beautiful ’67 E-Type downstairs with the correct 4.2 Jaguar XK engine, and I love the XK engine as much as (or more than) the next guy – it’s mechanical art in the purest sense of the word.

I also have a 3.8 E-Type engine and everything I would need to put my car back to the way it left the factory, but then it’s not “my car” – it’s not “The Jag” as I know it…  And as you’ll see in this chapter, and subsequent ones – the Chevy powerplant was just destiny for me…

If you remember back to the beginning, Bab’s idea right out of the gate was “a Jaguar XKE with a small-block Chevy and Corvette valve covers.”  I don’t really know how he came up with this – maybe he saw one once or something.  But it just rolled right off his tongue that night in the truck like it was the most obvious, easy way to build an E-Type.

Next, when he went down to Open Toyring after I told him about it, Kevin actually had no less than FOUR E-Types available for sale.  You know, RIGHT NOW is the first time this occurred to me, but he was kind of my current age at the time and even my station in life – building a small Jag business, and like I have felt in the past year, he probably just said to himself, “I’m never going to be able to build all of these – I should sell some and fix up the shop, house, etc.”

So at any rate, there were 4 E-Types to choose from – all Series 1 project cars.  There were 3 coupes, that were complete with engines – take your pick – $2,500 each.  OR – One roadster, no engine and no trans – just a rolling chassis – really beat up too – $4,500.  Well, we ended up with the roadster of course.  Although, Bab is a coupe man from a design standpoint, but he was smart enough to know that a teenager needs the convertible…

Besides, no engine – NO PROBLEM – we’re putting a small-block in it anyway.  And I think at the time, Kevin told him that a Ford will fit, but a Chevy won’t – or someone did, because we had definitely heard that, but Bab was determined to build the car with a small-block Chevy from day one – a 327.  Plus, with my mentality at the time and the American Graffiti influence and all, I was convinced that we needed MASSIVE POWER – this car needs to be faster than ANYTHING on the road.  If I’m going to have to learn all this car shit and do this, it’s going to be worth it!

So as soon as we got our hands on the car, Bab started shopping around for an engine in the local “rag sheets” – which don’t exist anymore – they were basically printed versions of Craigslist.  And of course, there were TONS of engines available, so that was not that hard.  After just a few phone calls, we went out one night after dinner in Bab’s truck to look at a “327 Chevy – runs – $250”.

We pulled up to some guy’s house – no idea where it was, but it was an older house – not in a neighberhood per se, just on a street somewhere with lots of other houses around.  The engine was outside hanging from an engine crane under a tarp.  The guy pulled the tarp off, and here is this giant mass of greasy metal with all kinds of wires and hoses, etc.  Keep in mind, I had NO IDEA what I was looking at.  I had messed around with a few lawnmower engines, but for the most part, I was clueless – I didn’t know what a crankshaft or piston was…

“OK, well, I need to hear it run.” Bab said after looking it over.

“No problem, we had it running the other day.  But there’s no exhaust manifolds, and we burnt one of the spark plug wires, so it’s only going to run on 7 cylinders…”  and with that he sprayed starting fluid into the massive 825 CFM Quadrajet carb, hooked some jumper cables up to the starter, and cranked it over.  Keep in mind, this is about 8:30 I guess on a weeknight – whatever the time, I remember it was dark out…

“Stand back, Charlie…”

The engine EXPLODED to life – at the time, it was THE LOUDEST thing I had ever heard!  It only ran for about 3 or 4 seconds, but I’ll be honest, it was kind of scary…

But at 14, it was also THE COOLEST thing I had ever seen IN MY LIFE!!!  With no exhaust manifolds, about 12 inches of blue flame shot out of each exhaust port (except one), and I could feel the cylinder pulses in my chest.  I INSTANTLY had visions of me sitting in the Jag with this fire-breathing “THING” (that basically amounted to a JET ENGINE to me at the time) mounted in front of me, and then hitting the gas pedal and having the car LITERALLY rip my head off – just hanging on for dear life like Chuck Yeager in the X-1 in “The Right Stuff”!

Bab was 37 at the time, and these other guys were probably 30 or so, and so as soon as the engine quit, they all kind of smiled and laughed about how loud it was, and Bab looked over at me and I’m sure he could read the excitement in my face, “You like that, huh?…” and kind of smiled and slapped me on the back.

“OK – we’ll take it.”  and they dropped it into the back of the truck.

Now, I had never seen a Jaguar XK engine, (or any other E-Type for that matter!), and everyone around me was telling me they were unreliable.  PLUS – I didn’t have one!

SO – needless to say, after this night-time display of ear-shattering blue flame and raw horsepower, there was NO QUESTION in my mind that for powering my new machine, a small-block Chevy was the ONLY choice!  And this is also the point where the whole “Oldies fantasy life” started to develop kind of a subplot where not only is the Jag going to take me where I want to go, it’s going to do it FAST!

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