On the 3rd June 1965 an internal "Instruction to Proceed (XJ13 Car)" was issued by Jaguar’s Bob Knight – it started, “Build one prototype competiton car …”. Responsibilities for all aspects of the car’s design were allocated – the responsibility for the body being given to Malcolm Sayer, Phil Weaver and Bob Blake.
As my quest to recreate an exact copy of the 1966 XJ13 continued, I came across the story of the man largely responsible for making the original body - Bob Blake. What follows is the story of a man able to translate the designs of people, such as the legendary Malcolm Sayer, into metal. Contemporaries of Bob Blake described him as "An Artist in Metal".
In 2015 my first car was approaching its "rolling chassis" stage - mirroring events of 50 years earlier in Jaguar's Competition Department. It was then 1965 and William Heynes, Jaguar's Engineering Director still had hopes of seeing the car on track to contest that year's Le Mans endurance race. Time was short but the skilled team working behind closed doors were used to working to such tight deadlines ...
