V12 E-type, “Unleashed”

[Barry]

EtypeUK are certainly good on PR, and particularly with the recent announcement of the Unleashed V12. An article in Autocar no less, a magazine noted for today’s latest offerings. And the Unleashed would have got 4 stars if it wasn’t for the ridiculous price tag of £500,000! I commend EtypeUK for their efforts in producing a great Restomod, and feel rather pleased that if they are selling their cars for £500k, it makes my own 6.0 litre V12 Restomod E-type worth more than I ever imagined! Interesting comparisons with my car too. My car develops 385bhp against the Unleashed at 400bhp, but I’m getting 40lbs ft torque more. A mistake, in my view, as perhaps torque is far more important, and the route they went down on injection is perhaps the culprit. Interesting topic if anyone wants to continue this discussion……anyway, well done for creating another interesting E-type.

[lowact]

Sounds like they use the original flat head configuration. Redline 6500 rpm. You have a HE engine, these can't breath much faster then 5000 rpm. Pwr = torque x rpm, slightly less torque, lots more rpm. All these numbers i guess are extrapolated, considering that Jaguar only ever managed 315 hp.

[Barry]

Not sure about their internal configuration of the Unleashed other than it is stroked, which is the default mode modifying 5.3 engines. Mine was the very last crated 6.0 litre engines from the factory. There were 6 engines in total and one ended up in a ex Broadspeed XJ12 racer, the rest went to JD Classics, and the last one went in my car. Because I have a TT AJ6 conversion, which includes bigger throttle bodies, exhaust, and a special ECU to control the injection. You are not entirely correct, as mine revs all the way to 6500 rpm, but the torque is the epic event! Like all V12’s, it will pick up cleanly from tick over, but the torque just hammers on especially from just a bit over 2000rpm before tailing off at about 6000rpm. Do you need to use all those revs, the answer is no. But Restomod E-types is not just about the engine, it’s how the chassis has been sorted. Mine has Ohlins dampers (amazing!), quick rack steering, special Eagle bushes, and sits on 16” x 7” wheels with 225/60 Continental tyres.

[MarekH]

People might want to be wary of advertising how wonderfully powerful their cars are if they want to stay on the right side of the law and the insurance companies.

Generally peaking, these cars have had declarations of "historic status" made so avoid the need for MOT and save road tax of a couple of hundred pounds each year.

In making such a declaration, no "substantial change in technical specification" is allowed. Unless you have asked a laywer or QC, you may not have thought to ask what they think a "substantial change" is. Looking back at the original draft proposal put forward by the authorities, their view was that if the engine power exceeded 115% of original, then it would not qualify for historic status. If one takes a purposive view of the legislation, then given this history, whilst the wording finally adopted may not reflect it, they may feel that carburettored v12 cars with a power output of over 315hp or fuel injected v12 cars over 345hp were not envisaged as qualifying for historic status. That might then affect your insurance if you may have been driving without an MOT.

I did take advice before looking to make the "historic vehicle" declaration. The advice was that converting to fuel injection was not considered a substantial change to technical specification. Neither was fitting lpg. It's not obvious to me what answer you'd get if you claim you have over 350hp on tap.

kind regards
Marek

[Barry]

Hi Marek,
Good point well made. All I can say is that I have classic car insurance for my car described in detail and explaining all the modifications. I always go for an annual MoT because it is both good practice, and an important part of the cars history. With that in mind, I suppose I, along with other Restomod owners who carry out such practice, maybe we qualify within the law. But what would I know!!
Cheers
Barry

[E600]

Sorry for coming late to the party, whilst the draft legislation implied power increases as a fail for historic changes the final version was reduced to the following which is a cut and paste from the government website….

“Alternative cubic capacities of the same basic engine and alternative original equipment engines are not considered to be a substantial change.

If the number of cylinders in an engine is different from the original it’s likely to be, but not necessarily, the case that the current engine is not alternative original equipment.”

I read from the above that you would not be denied Historic status for modifying your existing engine. You could argue an 8:1 export 3.8 engine being replaced with a 9:1 4.2 on triple SU’s is well within scope.

[dal2.0litrefrogeye]

Hi all , going back to the original post about the unleashed E Type, having driven them the quality of build and the way the car drives is 2nd to none , the effortless tourque that seamlessly turns into monster reving power never gets tiresome , along with quality of ride , yes it's not cheap but as I always say the price is long forgotten while the quality is always felt