E-Type Club Round Brittan Coastal Drive

Car	1964 Jaguar E-Type S1 FHC
Miles this month	202
Latest costs	Fuel Pump - £150 Dynamo - TBA

The Run Up

Given the Indian Summer that September had served up it was almost inevitable that the rain would arrive. As I looked out of the window on the Monday, afternoon drizzle turned to real rain. At least the dust will have been washed off the roads a bit I thought.

My interest in the weather was due to having decided to volunteer my 1964 E-Type 3.8 Fixed Head Coupe to do the last three legs of the E-Type Club Round Brittan Coastal Run. Organised by Philip Porter and run on behalf of Prostrate Cancer UK, it comprised of 18 legs starting and ending at Goodwood Circuit and taking in as much of the UK coast line as possible. Participants had paid to do one or more legs to raise money for the charity with rides in the more famous cars also being auctioned off.

Many people chose to do their local sections and I as am fortunate enough to be close to both the 'Cromer to Maldon' and 'Maldon to Folkestone' ones I picked those. After a while I also decided that it seemed bad form not to do the final run from Folkestone to Goodwood circuit as well, hence I booked myself in for all three. I had talked to a couple of friends about coming with me as the route was quite complex, but in the end my son James had a few spare days before starting work and offering to navigate for me - a decision he questioned when I presented him with the fiendishly detailed road book on the first morning.

The car was cleaned, Oil, Water and Tyres checked and all packed up ready for the off that morning. It's at times like these I praise the FHC boot space and access via the rear hatch and it easily swallowed our luggage, coats, tools and all the spare parts I had with us.

We set off for Cromer late Monday afternoon - in an attempt to avoid the Norwich rush hour - aiming to book into our hotel that night in preparation for the early start the next day. We were staying in the Dales Country House Hotel in Sherringham, only a fifteen minute drive from the Tuesday morning start point just outside Cromer, but 80 miles and two hours away from home.

The drive up was good - only punctuated by a few odd showers - more annoying was the dirty spray from the lorries coming down the A140. We followed a rainbow up ahead - always out of reach but getting stronger as we progressed - that was a portend of worse rain, but we never caught it up.

Round Norwich was as expected - traffic better than rush hour but still the City is in need of a decent ring road. We passed a light blue E-type on the route and they waved us on our way.

The final 29 miles great driving roads - but it was getting dark when we approached Cromer looking for petrol and I'd forgotten how poor the Jaguar’s lights are. We found three petrol stations – to our disappointment one was closed and the next two had no Super-unleaded. Eventually we found a mainstream Esso station on the Sherringham coast road that had what we needed. The enthusiastic youth behind the counter wanted the car 'how much and where can I get one ?' he asked - but thought it was an MG.

Soon we arrived at the hotel, to a full car park with no spaces left but at least there was another S2 4.2 FHC. I saw a gap in the wall that in the dark looked like the overflow carpark, but turned out to be a short off road course leading to the compost heap.

We off loaded out bags and as I was waiting outside for a space a chap came out and I asked if he was leaving, it turned out that he was the E-Type owner and he and his wife were off for the formal meal elsewhere. Chatting to him the next morning I learned that they had hit a wall of water from the rain clouds we had seen earlier that afternoon as they came onto the Norfolk coast making driving very difficult - so I guess we were luckier than I thought.

Another E-type (S2 FHC) arrived later that night before there were spaces – looked at the road I had taken but thought better of the off road path after a good look - he seemed to have better lights too.

So having planned an early start and set the alarm we turned in.

Day 1

Morning was chilly but the sun was shining. The car sat in the shade covered by a thick layer of clear dew. Excellent for leathering off and cleaning I thought, so I started work about 7:30 am while James had a shower. We skipped breakfast, set off early as planned and James navigated us the 10 miles to the start point through the lanes easily.

We got to the Hotel early with only a few other E-Types parked up outside. To be honest when we went in we felt a bit like outsiders - as those staying in the hotel chatted over their breakfast. However more and more cars turned up including one with Marcus (a personable and knowledgeable Australian who works for Suffolk Sports Cars I'd met a few days before) so the three of us chatted and watched the rest of the cars arrive.

Soon the carpark was filling up and owners had to navigate to the far end. All hearts went out to the owner of a red 2+2 who arrived with battered sides and front wing - he'd been hit by a modern car earlier in the tour - and everyone gritted their teeth as people scraped their exhausts on the steep speed bump that guarded the entrance.

We watched the local press chat to a few owners and then the reporter went off for a ride in a Left-hand drive primrose S1 soft top. Eventually the time ticked on to 10:00 and we quickly joined a queue for the first batch of cars getting ready for the off. Getting flagged away about 10:10 we set off following several cars - hoping the leader knew the way.

The roads were good – but the route book practically useless. Luckily the car in the lead sped us along the route or as close as made no difference as far as James could see. We passed along the Norfolk coast with lots of similar 'Beach Road' or 'Coast Road' signs flashing past as did small villages, fields and some smaller seaside towns.

At one point we turned abruptly off the route into a very narrow road which got even more rural with the grass in the middle getting longer and longer each minute until we popped out at a cross roads. Fifteen minutes later more cars had caught us up we were in the middle of a convoy about seven strong and running through great roads. There was even the odd appreciative nod or wave from people we passed. There is always something heart-warming about being in a convoy of classic cars – even James commented on the feeling that it brought us – and as we zoomed on, even the sun seemed to come out a little more.

However, about 30 miles into the run I spotted the charging light glowing faintly when the revs dropped. I looked over to the ammeter and saw it sitting sullenly in the discharge zone. I tried keeping the revs up which helped a bit, but it seemed to be a losing battle so I pulled off into a carpark to check if anything had fallen off. Obviously it had not (it never is that simple) so checking the route I decided to keep on the main roads to maintain the revs and decide what to do as we went.

The plan worked for a few miles but then we hit traffic getting round Yarmouth and the red light seemed to be more consistent. I resolved to push on and pull into a petrol station with a large forecourt and check and tighten the fan belt in safety rather than just let the car peter out on the road. A few miles later as we past Lowestoft we spotted a Shell site and I stopped at the far end, in the shade to investigate.

Several minutes later I'd got the tools out and started tightening the belt when a dark blue E-type drew up to fill up with petrol. He parked up and came over to see if he could help. It turned out that he was Phil Bell, an editor on Thoroughbred and Classic Cars magazine. Obviously a knowledgeable enthusiast we chatted about the possible cause and testing the tension on the belt he confirming my feeling that it was tight enough and suggesting I called the SNG breakdown team supporting the run.

He was navigating on his own and his plan of following another car backfired when it pulled over to confess they were also lost. Phil left to re-join the run wishing us well. Several more E-Types passed the garage and another white S1 E-type stopped to see if they could help.

I rang the SNG Barrett support team and spoke to Simon. He said he was about 15 minutes away so I finished tightening the belt while we waited. I'd just finished when he arrived. Ten minutes with the circuit tester confirmed the worse and he found that the Dynamo was only just charging at 3000 revs and not really working at all below that. The ignition light glowed slightly even at those high revs so there was no easy solution. He also thought the belt had stretched which is why the dynamo would hit the cross member on full adjustment.

He had not got a Dynamo nor a voltage regulator in his spares and knew they had none back at base. Cheerfully he confirmed that I'd probably get the 60 miles home if I did not use the lights/indicators/wipers etc. and possibly up to 100 miles if all went well. He suggested I swapped batteries every few hours with another car to continue the run (it would therefore get re-charged) but my heart was no longer in it.

As a final thought I put in a call into JD Classics in Maldon (the high end Classic Car specialist) who had worked on my car before and was conveniently our destination that night. Although they don’t normally use them any more (reliability problems) they were hopeful as they used them to concourse cars and went off to search for one, but unfortunately they rang back to confirm they had no serviceable units left in stock.

We headed for home and with every few miles the charging light got brighter. I knew that the spark plugs drew a very little current and having had the same position in my Citroen fifteen years before I knew the logic was right and the battery would last - it was just waiting for the stuttering as the spark died that stressed me.

However we got home as the sun faded and the storm clouds came out again and parked up safely back in my garage - not the end to the run I had wanted but OK in the end.

James and I went down in the SAAB to go on the tour of the JD Classics’ impressive facility. When there we spoke to one of their restoration team (and the owner Derek) and it turned out that they convert every car, with the exception of 100% original cars destined for the concourse circuit, to an alternator which they suggested I did too. Hence there was nothing available in stock and only suspect second hand ones were left - all of which needed to be refurbished.

We bumped into Marcus, Paul and the other couple that stopped to help us who all enquired how we had got on, but we had to confirm that we were dropping out.

The tour of the showrooms over, we came home, had supper and watched the local Anglia news. It featured our car in the front row of the establishing shots for the 2 minute article and I thought that was good enough end to the escapade.

Overall the car ran very well (even when not charging) for the 190 miles and remembering it is a 52 year old car it maintains the performance and good looks that still sets the E-Type apart today.

Post Script:

On taking the final photograph I noticed that the mileage had just clicked over to 43,666.

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