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A question often asked of me is, "How many prototype V12 quad-cam engines were built by Jaguar and where are they now?" As I previously reported back in May 2010, the answer is SIX. Of this six, only three progressed beyond test-bed stage and were installed in cars. A seventh engine was assembled as a 60° V8 and run on Jaguar's test bed. The V12 block for this engine was converted into a V8 using a special crankshaft with throws for only eight of the twelve cylinders. There were plans to assemble an eighth engine but it never reached the test bed stage.

Summer is approaching and Building The Legend's recreation of Jaguar’s legendary 1966 XJ13 Le Mans Prototype is well underway. In 2010, UK-based Jaguar enthusiast Neville Swales unearthed the ONLY surviving complete engine built to a similar specification to the original quad-cam V12 prototype engine as first installed in the car in 1966.

Spent a very enjoyable and informative morning watching the first of my bellhousings being sand cast. Having decided to produce a limited run of "customer cars" built using the same tools, techniques and the same meticulous level of detail as the first car, I needed to have a batch of bellhousings made.

As the build of my first XJ13 monocoque/chassis progressed, I wanted to consider the materials that should be used for construction of the component parts of my re-creations. Jaguar themselves went through a similar exercise in 1964 when the XJ13 had reached an advanced design stage.

The XJ13 was, for its time, quite an advanced piece of design. In 1964 Jaguar began to lay down the foundations of their prototype - at this stage, their sights were set on the 1965 24 hours of Le Mans and initial progress was rapid.

Looking back at building up the chassis/monocoque of my recreation of the 1966 Jaguar XJ13 - a "snapshot" of the car as it was in 1966 before it was crashed and modified. Almost 18 months of painstaking and exhaustive research revealed details of the original 1966 car which allowed me to recreate the car as Malcolm Sayer intended - without the later "1970's" modifications/enhancements.

The 1966 Jaguar XJ13 is no more. Its spirit and identity live on in a Jaguar-built replica constructed from the mortal remains of the original car which suffered a calamitous crash during a demo run in 1971.

On the 3rd June 1965 an internal "Instruction to Proceed (XJ13 Car)" was issued by Jaguar’s Bob Knight – it started, “Build one prototype competiton car …”. Responsibilities for all aspects of the car’s design were allocated – the responsibility for the body being given to Malcolm Sayer, Phil Weaver and Bob Blake.

During the rebuild by Abbey Panels in 1972/73, certain aspects of the car were altered and it lost its "pure" form as originally envisaged by Sayer. One of the more obvious "enhancements" was the addition of flared/widened wheelarches. The XJ13 log records this was done primarily for "cosmetic reasons". There are many differences between the car I wanted to recreate and the car as it stands today.

50 years (almost to the month) after similar events took place in Jaguar's Competition Department, work was continuing apace on my exact recreation of Jaguar's 1966 XJ13 Le Mans Prototype.