Coincidence?

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GregMVF4
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Coincidence?

Post by GregMVF4 »

I had my Corvette on the grid on Sunday at Goodwood's Breakfast Club's Supercar Sunday - there was this stunning Invicta car which was incredible - looked like something the bad guy in a Batman movie would drive - just wondered if the owner was 'our/my' Mark Capehorn? https://www.goodwood.com/grr/event-cove ... 320-coupe/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
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cannonball
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Re: Coincidence?

Post by cannonball »

GregMVF4 wrote:I had my Corvette on the grid on Sunday at Goodwood's Breakfast Club's Supercar Sunday - there was this stunning Invicta car which was incredible - looked like something the bad guy in a Batman movie would drive - just wondered if the owner was 'our/my' Mark Capehorn? https://www.goodwood.com/grr/event-cove ... 320-coupe/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Yes i saw that when i collected your Jensen,
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Chris_R
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Re: Coincidence?

Post by Chris_R »

In the Goodwood write up is the following text
“The prototype they had at the motor show they gave to Silverstone to use as a pace car. The guy they let drive it wasn't up to the task and wrote it off completely. The engineer at that time did very little work with computers or software, so 10 million pounds worth of R&D went in that one accident.”
which reminded me of the story of the Interceptor prototype in 1966.
A board meeting was planned for Saturday 11th June 1966 to preview the new car. Kevin Beattie had promised the car to be there. An air ferry was already booked for first thing in the morning of 10th June 1966 to cross the channel from Le Touquet to Lydd. Late morning on Thursday June 9th 1966 the car only left the factory in Turin for the first shake down drive and was not ready to depart until mid-afternoon. The solution? Drive non-stop at breakneck speed through the night. Across France on unfamiliar roads (no Autoroutes in 1966), in a largely untested car with a 7am deadline in Le Touquet to catch the plane. A very high risk. At the time it was the only completed car. If they had had an accident or had some other incident the history of the Interceptor might have been very different.
Chris
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GregMVF4
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Re: Coincidence?

Post by GregMVF4 »

Duncan - I thought it must be - unfortunately I’ve never met Mark, so wouldn’t know him if I bumped into him!! Would have been nice to let him know how SWR 20R is getting on! Chris - that would have been quite an experience!! Didn’t the first E-Type shown (at an Italian(?) show) have a very similar tale?
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Chris_R
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Re: Coincidence?

Post by Chris_R »

Yes Greg, it was quite an event. Commemorated in the famous JOC Turin run of 2016, exactly 50 years later.
Mike Jones who accompanied Kevin Beattie on that dash back to the UK is still with us now living in America and remembers the event well.
There was a similar 'E' Type run the opposite way in 1961 when William Lyons wanted a second car in Geneva at their world launch event by the following day and one was taken from Coventry in an overnight dash, apparently covering the 180 miles from Browns Lane to Dover in 2 hours! The Jensen one was probably more significant, Jensen was a smaller company than Jaguar (who by then were already making the cars) and a lot was riding on the new Interceptor and the loss of the only car would have been a very serious setback, let alone the risk to the two engineers both of whom had young families.
Chris
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