I was back on the road again yesterday to pick up a new job for this coming Spring. I had the alarm set for 4:30 AM, but at 3:41, I was already wide awake and ready to go…
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- Here’s a shot of the shop from earlier today – I did the annual cleaning about a week ago and so it’s a good time for photos. I bought the banner of the E-Type racer on the wall on eBay several years ago, when Monocoque Metalworks was still just a dream. Never in my WILDEST dreams did I think I would ever take…
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- THIS picture! Here is the latest challenge to my metalworking skills – two aluminum race bonnets from Donovan Motorcars in Lenox, Massachusetts! The bonnet in the foreground is an original Jaguar racing piece from the 60’s – it is one of two bonnets made in aluminum with no headlights. The bonnet behind it is THE bonnet from the car on the banner! Brian called me a couple of weeks ago to discuss these and asked if I could repair them and if I’d like to come up and get them. It was a question that tested the limits of my professionalism – all I could think to say was, “Can I come up right now!?!”
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- I left WAY before dark, and had already gone through Delaware, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey before the sun came up. I went right through the college town of Princeton, NJ, which seemed like it would have been really cool to see, but it was dark. MAYBE I’ll be coming back through it in daylight – we’ll see…This is somewhere in either northern NJ or NY, coming up I-87 and getting into some mountains – I think this may have been the beginning of the Catskills.
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- Lots of ground to cover, so I’m just trucking along!
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- These bridges were cool – this is Eastbound I-90, headed into Massachusetts from New York.
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- Almost there – we’re headed into the Berkshires now in Massachusetts.
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- This is the town of Lee, Massachusetts – it looked just like a slice of the set from “it’s a Wonderful Life” – which I had just watched on Saturday night – an annual tradition! If you look closely, there is a fresh deer kill in the back of the truck in the foreground, with lots of town people stopping by to check it out!
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- Here we are – Donovan Motorcars! One of their E-Type racers is right there in the corner of the showroom.
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- Here’s “Challenge #1” – this is the original bonnet from the 62 car – wrecked several years ago and replaced with another aluminum bonnet, when it was stashed in this warehouse – patiently waiting for Monocoque Metalworks to get off the ground I guess…
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- And here’s “Challenge #2” – the head-lamp-less bonnet from the 61 car – wrecked earlier this year at Watkins Glen.
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- Brian rolled this car out of the warehouse, which is scheduled for a restoration next year that includes several upgrades – including an aluminum bonnet. SO, this original Series 1 bonnet is available for purchase.
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- This bonnet is in GREAT shape – and I don’t get to say that very often! Call me if you would like to talk to Brian Donovan about purchasing it for your E-Type!
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- Here is my first look inside one of the two Donovan Racing trailers – the scale of their E-Type racing effort is impressive – to say the least! The number of mounted racing tires was MIND-BLOWING – they were everywhere!
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- The car in the foreground is the 61 car, minus bonnet and drivetrain. The car is designed to be raced and easily maintained, as evidenced by the removeable top bar of the picture frame. In this shot, I was trying to capture the size of the flare on the rear wheels – HUGE!
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- More racing tires and wheels stacked under the cars – and mounted on them…
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- The roll cages were no toys either – serious, thick tubing, and plenty of it!
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- This is the tail of the 63 car, which seems to be pretty much a clone of the 62 car in appearance – although based on what I saw in the shop, there are no two engines that are alike!
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- This is the tail of the 61 car – it seems to be more of an all-out, no-holds-barred racer. On this car, they have smoothed out the rear wing seams, enclosed the license plate recess, and flared the rear wings – ALOT!
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- This has a very aggressive look in person.
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- The 61 car – I see this treatment on alot of E-Types that have either had shoddy clutch repairs, or cars with poorly executed engine swaps. I often wonder what is holding the car together! In this case, this is all done for quick access to the transmission at the track, and the roll cage running under the floor holds things together – PLENTY!
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- And as if all of that isn’t enough, there’s a second story! That’s Dean in the photo below – soon after this photo, we went out to lunch at a local restaurant.
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- We sat at the bar in this rustic local restaurant, had steaks, and traded stories about two lifetimes of playing with British sports cars…
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- Here’s a better shot of that other room – this place reminded me alot of the lodge in Brainerd, Minnesota where we had our wedding reception.
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- Rudolph the red-nosed bear?
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- Back from lunch, and I had a chance to wander around the showroom for a few minutes. All of these cars are for sale.
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- This was a very solid driver E-Type – a ’63 roadster in the same color scheme as the ’61 wqe did a complete tunnel rebuild on earlier this year.
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- Here’s another shot – the paint was not 100% perfect (according to Dean…), but for me, this was a GREAT E-Type!
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- Here’s another shot. I should have pretended I wanted to buy it and twisted his arm to take it for a spin! That probably wouldn’t have worked – Dean is an avid reader of the blog and knows I don’t have the space!
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- This was a nice 150 Fixed-head with some sensible driveability upgrades.
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- I love all antique cars, and so this front-wheel-drive Cord Beverly was cool as well!
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- …and a vintage Mercedes too – there was a little bit of everything for all enthusiasts!
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- At the end of the row was the car from the banner on the wall in my shop – the 62 car. The full, coupe-style window channels were neat pieces that Brian said he picked up in Englaned years ago.
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- Now THAT’S some free-flowing exhaust!
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- And I guess you need it with these 48 (not 45’s..) DCOE Webers!
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- There were 4 aluminum bonnets in all in their shop, and all of them were hand built and drastically different. This one had one of the strongest treatments for the rear main support…
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- …but it was FAR from stock!
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- This handle treatment to the outside bonnet latches is how Jaguar did the XK-SS – and E1A and E2A – VERY cool!
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- This is another car available in the showroom – a fully restored 4.2 Series 1 roadster with LOTS of upgrades!
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- …and it was restored right here at Donovan.
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- 6 inch rims with modern high-performance tires of the proper size to take advantage of the poly suspension bushings and uprated sway bars.
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- The engine carries mild steel headers, uprated cams, and race-tuned SU’s – AND a Donovan-prepped 5-speed trans!
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- Cooling system has also been uprated with all aluminum components. The fit and finish were excellent, and the car is ready to go! This car is not being offered cheap, but from what I saw, it’s worth every penny, and one afternoon drive won’t leave you with any doubts about where the money went – this one is RIGHT! Call Donovan if you are interetsed in having the BEST in an E-Type, well-sorted, and turn-key!
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- Along the edge of the showroom was this original SS-100 engine and trans – you don’t see one of those every day!
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- In the office, ANOTHER race engine – they were EVERYWHERE!
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- All fitted with Webers – some 45’s and some 48’s – I must have seen 30 DCOE’s in all!
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- This is Brian Donovan – he’s laughing because I just told him, “Stand still – I have to get a shot of you working on a race engine with a big hammer for my website!”
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- But have no fear – it was just to give a little tap on the main caps to pull them off and swap out this crankshaft. This is a stock Jag crank that he said he had run for several seasons in this block. He told me that they usually break either right across the rear main journal, or right through the very center main journal, adding very matter-of-factly: “When they break on the center journal, it’s a real mess – stuff goes everywhere…”
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- WOW!!!! Look at the lift on these cams! The photo doesn’t even begin to do it justice… I asked Brian and Dean if it was OK to post this photo, and they said, “Yeah, go ahead, just don’t post any specs!”
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- What’s wrong with this photo?
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- How about from this angle? Do you see it?
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- How about NOW!?! Yup – this is a wide-angle head – it has the same 35-40 valve angles as an original D-Type head.
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- …and angled plugs too! This was super cool…
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- Here is a Donovan-prepped 5-speed. Brian said that a few years ago, they bought one that was “race-ready” – it lasted half a lap. Now they build all of their own internals, and they are bulletproof. And with Donovan’s horsepower and track record, I’d say that there’s really nowhere else to go for a serious 5-speed conversion!
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- This is the new crank for this engine – custom machined from billet steel.
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- I don’t think these freeze plugs will be working loose!
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- Well, so ends my visit to Donovan Motorcars – time to head back to Monocoque Metalworks!
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- Coming back through Lee, Mass.
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- This True Value at the end of Main Street has to be the most Christmas-ey hardware store I’ve ever seen!
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- Back across the bridge, and on to the long drive home. About 10 miles from here, I pulled over to “rest my eyes” as my wife says, and I fell asleep in the truck for over an hour – finally waking up because I got cold! I guess all the excitement of their shop got to me – I was in “sensory overload”, and going (and talking, I’m sure…) a mile a minute! Plus, getting up at 3:41 doesn’t help…
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- So it was very much night when I went back through Princeton – that was dissapointing, but ended up being worth it because I got to see this REALLY COOL, and REALLY BIG monument all lit up like this! I pulled over and jumped out to take these photos, and went about it so quickly that the college couple kissing in the lower left-hand corner didn’t have enough time to figure out what was going on! Look closely, and you can see them making out – ahhhhh, to be young again – it was a perfect night for that sort of thing – I was envious…
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- Back at the shop the next day, and we’ve unloaded the bonnets for some “before” photos. This bonnet is from Donovan’s “61” car. It has been hit lightly several times in the past, but was pretty much wiped out this past Summer at Watkins Glen.
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- The combination of aluminum, the extent of the damage, and the fact that this is NOT the standard, stock E-Type shape is going to really push the limits of what I’m capable of, I’m sure… BRING IT ON, BABY!!!
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- Here is a close-up shot of the good side – it does look weird without those eyes!
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- Note the extra louvers. One good thing is that the damage is virgin – someone else hasn’t tried to mess with this and made it worse – VERY important!
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- This is the bonnet from the “62” racer on the banner. It “ate some dirt” several years ago and was replaced, but saved to be fixed at some point in the future. That time is NOW – we will make this new again – starting with a new aluminum lower valance. And once I get it done, you can give us a call and we’ll make one for YOUR E-Type!
