The Egal has landed – again

“Once seen, never forgotten. Or perhaps it’s once heard, never forgotten!” As CKL Developments founder Chris Keith-Lucas says, enthusiasts who know about the Jaguar Egal will instantly recognise it, while those who are new to the blue monster should get to enjoy it for the first time at this year’s Goodwood Revival.

The one-off Egal, probably best remembered for when the late Barrie ‘Whizzo’ Williams campaigned it, will take on the Jaguar E-types, AC Cobras et al in the blue-riband Royal Automobile Club TT Celebration two-driver race. It should be well-placed to do so, a seven-litre Ford Galaxie engine giving it V8 grunt denied the ‘normal’ lightweight E-types with their straight-six XK power.

Despite the association with Whizzo, the Egal was created by Geoff Richardson for Rob Beck. A handy racer who had already successfully campaigned a D-type-powered XK120, original owner Beck first raced the 1962 Series 1 E-type, chassis 850450, with its 3.8-litre XK engine. But after a crash, the decision was made to fit something with a little more power.

Enter a Holman & Moody V8 from the Ford Galaxie, which was in the process of making Jaguar’s Mk2 obsolete in saloon car racing. Richardson, a noted engineer who had also contested the 1948 RAC Grand Prix at Silverstone, did the conversion work during 1963, ahead of the Egal’s first season of competition the following year.

The V8 was, of course, heavier than the XK unit, though work was done to make it lighter, plus changes were required to the front subframe to get it in. The Jaguar/Moss gearbox was retained as the Ford bellhousing wouldn’t fit – meaning that the drivetrain was being asked to cope with a lot more torque and power than it had been designed for – and there were many detail modifications, such as moving the position of the starter motor and rerouting the steering column. Special parts were bought when they were available from Jaguar, including an aluminium lightweight bonnet, while the GTO-style cooling ducts went in early.

Richardson reckoned it handled pretty well, though that’s not the view Williams infamously took after he drove it in 1967-68: “Horrendous to drive, with way too much power and no grip. It ran out of brakes, too. The thing is, it was so quick to the first corner that I won a lot of races.” Keeping everything cool, especially the brakes, was also a challenge.

The Egal was entered for the Pontin Trophy at Crystal Palace in June 1964. It failed to appear but that race, won by future three-time world champion Jackie Stewart in the famed Coombs E-type Lightweight 4 WPD, featured the sort of machinery the Egal will face at Goodwood.

Beck did race the car at Silverstone a week later and wins followed at Castle Combe, where Beck beat two Ferrari 250 GTOs, and Oulton Park, while Beck and Richardson also used the Egal in sprints.

Initially the car had the same narrow E-type rims but the wheels and tyres “very quickly got wider and wider”, according to Keith-Lucas. Indeed, developments continued throughout the car’s competition life.

A nasty crash during testing at Castle Combe in 1965 put Beck off circuit racing and Chris Summers stepped in thereafter, though Beck and Richardson continued driving the Egal in hillclimbs and the Brighton Speed Trials.

"The car evolved considerably over the years and in the process I think it lost some of what had made it so special"
Bonamy Grimes

Williams started racing the car in 1967, by which time it had a more monstrous appearance, and racked up multiple successes on the national scene. The Egal was sold to Bob Kerr in Scotland in the late 1960s and was then owned (and campaigned, now without a roof) by Tom McCallum before heading Stateside to Steve Morse.

By the time Keith-Lucas helped bring it back to the UK shortly before the COVID-19 pandemic, having flown over to authenticate it, the Egal was a true monster and housed an 8.5-litre V8. It had been restored in the United States but the feeling was that an earlier spec would be better, so CKL started again. Its initial UK owner was unable to do anything with it for personal reasons and it was bought a few months ago by Bonamy Grimes, a modern racer now turning his hand to historic competition, and mentored and coached by co-driver Johnny Mowlem’s Red River Sport.

Grimes agreed that its 1965 form – when its wheels were the same as a lightweight E-type’s: seven-inch front, 7.5-inch rear – was the right era to target. “The car evolved considerably over the years and in the process I think it lost some of what had made it so special,” he says. “We saw an opportunity to take it back to how it raced in the 1960s and to recapture some of that character.”

The lack of any really international competition history could have been a problem, but the main reason for buying the car was always with the Goodwood Revival, and in particular the famous TT, in mind.

Goodwood has a technical declaration, based on FIA HTPs for cars that Goodwood deem would be nice for people to see. “Goodwood’s motorsport department have been incredibly supportive from the get-go,” says Mowlem, “and we kept them involved in the whole rebuild process throughout.” The plan is for the car to run under these rules initially and then see what the future might hold.

It was quite a journey to get the car ready for Goodwood, but it is largely original and there were some highlights along the way. “One of the standout moments was the wheels,” enthuses Keith-Lucas. “We spoke to Borrani, who still had the original order and drawings, so they were able to remake them. Then one of the CKL guys found an E-type Borrani wheel online and it turned out it was one of the originals. What happened to the other three I’ve no idea!

“It was a matter of carefully researching photos of the time and understanding how Richardson did things.”

Richardson gas-welded the body modifications and the welds can also still be seen, which Keith-Lucas says “really do show how little disruption the body actually has”.

“I’m very passionate about it because I knew Barrie very well and I went over to America to authenticate it and ended up helping to bring it back,” continues Keith-Lucas. “The whole company is excited about the car.”

CKL MD Mark Hews adds: “The hardest thing about the rebuild is what’s happening now, which is testing and trying to get a really unique, almost prototype-spec car to handle early E-type running gear.

“We’ve got this beautifully powerful V8 engine in period spec, but you’re still limited by the functionality of E-type cooling, which was never very good, E-type brakes, which are very small, E-type differential and gearbox, which barely copes with E-type power. So to put all that in one package that works has been very difficult.

“The other challenge with the car was agreeing on the period photographs that we would then base the metalwork on for the correct overall appearance. But that’s an enjoyable challenge because it’s CKL’s USP.”

For Grimes, there was never any question of what he wanted to do with the car, and it was the Egal’s unique history that led him down the less-travelled route. “I love the story behind the car,” he says. “Since buying it, I’ve met numerous enthusiasts who remember seeing it race in period – it was clearly quite a head-turner, and probably ear-bleedingly loud too.

“There are some lovely, highly original period E-types out there, but for me the appeal of the Egal was its history. It has a wonderful backstory, people still remember it, and ultimately it’s one of a kind.”

The Egal wasn’t quite ready for a planned outing at Silverstone’s BRDC Classic in July but had a shakedown at Turweston airfield in mid-August before heading to Snetterton to begin testing.

"When I first sat in the car with straight pipes it blew my head off"
Johnny Mowlem

Experienced sportscar racer-turned-historics ace Mowlem was behind the wheel. The CKL team was not able to complete as many laps as it wanted due to teething issues, including the engine, so stopped early as a precaution. Nevertheless, Mowlem was encouraged by his first impressions of the 500bhp Egal, which revs to 6200rpm.

“When I first sat in the car with straight pipes it blew my head off – I couldn’t believe how noisy it was!” laughs Mowlem, who admits to thinking about his old friend Whizzo while in the cockpit. “It didn’t feel quite as torquey as I expected – maybe that’s because everyone had been talking about it and my expectations were high – but it still lights up the rears easily enough in second and third gear.

“The top end felt incredible. I wasn’t able to accelerate to the end of the straights as the final drive was a bit too short, and I was having to lift off to not constantly hit the rev limiter. But it felt like it would have pulled for another mile!

“You can’t leave the braking late but the brake pedal was solid and I was pleasantly surprised. It’s a big thing going very fast so you have to start slowing down early.

“The corner entry needs work but once you’re into the corner and on the power the rear feels settled immediately, and from mid-corner to exit it felt significantly better than I expected. I’ve helped develop several prototype sportscars in my career but this one is a bit different!

“You’re limited by 1960s tech, but there wasn’t any area of the car I didn’t trust. The traction felt great and the car felt solid on the road. CKL has done a really good job and the car is comfortable to drive.”

So, how quick will it be at Goodwood? “I think we’ll find all the other cars are so well-developed the Egal can’t walk away from them,” reckons Keith-Lucas. Mowlem agrees and says: “I have a funny feeling it’s going to be a weapon, but it’s so raw still and it is going to take a lot of development before it troubles the established Goodwood frontrunners.”

Either way, the Egal is likely to bring a smile to many people’s faces – except possibly those lining up against it in six-cylinder E-types…

This article is one of many in the monthly Autosport magazine. For more premium content, take a look at the October 2026 issue and subscribe today.