Spaw - yes Hawthorn was a very aggressive driver, but how does he lose about 40mph before Macklin can react? Does anyone know the top speed of the Le Mans Healey 100/4? I'm betting about 140. I never managed to get an MGC over 135 and that was the much more effective 6-pot engine.



John - What normal tyres? OK the Dunlop Durabands allegedly on the Hawthorn Mk1 were a very early and somewhat iffy radial (but they were on wider rims at the rear that Jag later offered as an option) but SP41s were great in the wet, and C41s more than adequate. I have seen no suggestion that the Hawthorn Mk1 was developing much more than 230 bhp (220 standard). Yes the Coombs garage was close and there were suggestions that it was trying to cure a sticking hairtrigger throttle on Hawtohrn's jag at the time.    And yes the Mk1 jag had a bad reputation in the wet - as did the Mk1 Zodiac with about half the power.