JCNA CLUB NEWS

It was hard to ignore the ad in the NY Times . . "XK120M, family owned, white . .". The car was located in Bridgehampton, LI, arguably the birthplace of American road racing and a hangout for me and my buddies during the sixties so it didn't take much thought to hop in the car and take a look. I was surprised when the gentleman who opened the door and welcomed me in was none other than Bob Grossman.Aficionados of sports car racing will recognize Bob as a veteran race car driver, a member of the Briggs Cunningham racing team, six time veteran of Le Mans, and three time US Racing Champion. Bob also ran a large Jaguar and exotic car dealership in Nyack, New York from the early 50's through the 70's. Visitors to Lime Rock vintage race events as well as automobile shows in the Northeast are familiar with Bob as a an artist, specializing in watercolor paintings of vintage race events. He passed away a few years ago at the age of 79, I bought the car in 1993. The sports car thing really started in Bridgehampton, Long Island around '48 or '49. They were basically racing cars from before the war that they dug out of the woods: Bugattis, Alfa Romeos, and other vintage cars. Then along came MGs and Allards. In 1950, the XK120 Jaguar appeared and Bob was soon racing his own XK120 in area events In 1959, he entered his own Ferrari California at Le Mans, and drove it to his first of many top ten Le Mans finishes. The performance was good enough to win him a place on the Briggs Cunningham Le Mans team for 1960, and he drove a dramatic race, bringing his Cunningham Corvette to a class win. During the last hour of the race, the car's cooling system boiled over, but the rules prohibited refilling the radiator. Thinking fast, the pit crew cooled the motor by covering the intake manifold with ice cubes! Several pit stops were required to allow him to finish. The engine finally expired just as he crossed the finish line, one of the most dramatic Le Mans finishes ever. In 1963, he repeated the show, being the only Cunningham driver to finish Le Mans in his Lightweight E-Type. The excitement began when his brakes failed in the 16th hour, leaving the car with a crushed nose. A frenzied Jaguar crew pieced the bonnet together in a little over an hour, allowing him to finish. We walked over to garage, Bob started the car and rolled it out for my inspection. It was hard to contain my excitement. The sound alone was enough to sell me, I was hooked! The car was complete, except for the roadster top, but in need of some TLC. Bob was selling it for a Hampton family that bought the car new but the car had been neglected. Bob tossed me the keys and along with my buddy I took it out for a test run. It didn't take long to realize that the brakes were marginal . . I'm being kind, the man had given me a car with no brakes!! I'll never forget the expression on his face when I complained about having to drag my feet to stop the car. He told me that as a driver for Jaguar racing he NEVER complained about the lack of brakes and while he never said it I could tell from his expression that if I expected brakes then maybe this wasn't the car for me. The guy actually made me feel undeserving!! We closed the deal two months later after a wild ride with bob driving at speed on the back roads of the Hamptons. My only condition was that he fix the brakes. During those two months I got to know Bob better and enjoyed hours in his library going through his many photos and racing mementos. When we closed the deal Bob presented me with a signed drawing of the Jag that he made for me as a present. My job had a fair amount of stress so spending a day in the garage to bring the car back to life was more than therapeutic. I enjoy driving the car more than showing it so the mechanicals were the first priority, cosmetics would have to wait. I enjoyed dissecting the car so much that I decided to do the work myself. The XK120 was an advanced car for it's time, equivalent to a two hundred mile per hour car of today. Doing the work myself allowed me to appreciate its inner beauty. Some of the changes are worth nothing. The infamous brakes was the first task. Bob improved them but they were still short of all they could be so I replaced everything including stainless steel brake lines. Key step here is to make sure the leading edge of the brake shoes are beveled. If not they will "dig" into the drum and cause erratic braking. Handling was more truck than high speed racer so I removed the entire suspension, cleaned each element to bare metal, and rebuilt it with polyurethane bushings. The bushings give the car a more direct feel and I would strongly recommend them for all Jaguars. Ball joints, shocks were also replaced and the torsion bars adjusted to bring the car to proper ride height. The anti roll bar is a weak link, replacing it with thicker unit will greatly reduce body roll. The XK120 also has a pair of rubber bushings in the steering linkage which adds greatly to steering effort. I had a machine shop make me a solid steel bushing and the difference was dramatic . . . power steering! Final area was wheels and tires. The wires were sent to Dayton for complete rebuild, new spokes and rim. I decided to have six inch rims fitted to better accommodate the vintage Dunlop racing tires I planned to install. The wider rims also allow more modern radial tires to be fitted. When all was done the car was transformed and a joy to drive. The only engine modification was the replacement of the points with an in distributor electronic unit for better reliability and a stainless steel racing exhaust. This car has given me years of pleasure. I can recall like it was yesterday the night I drove the car home from the Hamptons back to New York City. It was a beautiful spring evening, the sky ablaze in red with a setting sun. My son was in the passenger seat and together we reveled in arguably the greatest sounding time machine in the world!