Excellent info, thanks for sharing.

That confirms what I've seen then. Three dark green ones, the white one and the blue one owned by F16.

The normal car is barely known by all but the most ardent of enthusiasts so the LM is like rocking horse...well, y'know. Surely Jaguar enthusiast magazines and websites at least would be interested in a story about them or something.

 

Any updates from anybody?

 

Apologies for the silence...I have been distracted by other things. I have made some progress on gathering information on the LM's. I have had some feed back from the original test driver who helped develop the LM's. He says that the original test car was blue. This may or may not be mine. I have been busy organising various parts for the car as I am about to start a rebuild. I am part way through the process of recreating the roof scoop. By the look of it I think mine was ripped off at high speed. In the next week or two I should have a replacement. I am quite looking forward to the engine rebuild to see what they have done with that. My car has a Lucas rather than Zytech engine management system and there appear to be a lot of difference in the engine bay between the race car and the LM. My LM was a 1994 build, so very late in the process, whereas the race car is a 1990.

I will post some pictures of he LM as I take it apart and where I have similar picture of the race car at the same stage I will post those as well so the differences can be seen.

 

Great thanks for the update, looking forward to the pictures and further updates!

 

look forward to your process

 

My research indicates that there is no agreed spec for an LM. If you look at the three pictures I have posted (two green cars and one white) these cars have subtle differences. One of the green cars has door mirrors the other doesn't. The two green cars have emergency cut out switches on the drivers side near the screen, the white one doesn't. The green cars have gold wheel centres, the white car has white wheels. There are no differences in the wheel arches that I have been able to detect. I have been able to zoom into one picture I have and it appears that at least one of the green cars probably has a 7.0 or 7.4 ltr engine. I have e-mailed with some of the guys who worked on the LM project and one insists that the Le Mans engines were rebuilt as 7.0ltr and not 7.4ltr. I am not sure what the engine size is on my car, but hopefully that will be resolved shortly.

 

Recreating the roof scoop. So after a lot of wasted time dealing with scanning companies, I finally decided to go back to basics and find a clay modeller. I located a young guy who had done some clay modelling as part of his degree course who was looking for hands on experience. Using as many pictures as I could find of LM's combined with the marks on the roof left by the original scoop, I worked out the scaling for the new scoop. I quite liked the detailing line on one of the green cars, so I incorporated this into my design. I marked a grid on the roof of the car, the rear screen and the rear deck. The grid assisted with establishing the centre line and generally to keep everything straight. It took about two weeks to produce a clay model. From the clay I took a plaster cast and from the cast I took a fibreglass scoop. The plan now is to take a fibre glass mould of the perfected scoop and then finally a finished piece. I have a plan for mounting the scoop which will hopefully mean that it is properly secured.

 

The scoop will eventually be painted the same colour as the car, but for now it is just a gloss finish to help with taking a mould from it.

Once the scoop is completed along with the new rear screen. The next job will be to look at the engine.

 

the scoop is looking OEM nice work tom cat Does you LM have the 7.0L or 7.4L? I think the 7.0L was rated a 700hp or was that the 7.4L. Honestly anything over 600hp in a sub 2400lb car is full blown race car. Really realy quite amazing. I "HOPE" to emply a buyer who can track down one of the four LM in Japan, at least find out if any are for sale or if indeed they are all in japan (anglophiles). It's utterly amazing that you were able to find and obtain a LM. I presume you got the one from france. I'm happy to see you building and treating this car with such respect. I look forward to any and all further processes with this LM. Once again excellent job on scoop.

 

****just read the entire thread page 1-to now looks like i'll have a heck of a time finding LM i appreciate your contribution to the 15 tomcat this car was the inspiration for the winning Nissan R390 and stevensons prelude to the F1. I literally cannot believe how over looked and affordable the 15 is considering..... im in the states (not technically more like virgin islands) maybe ill contact don law in britain? who knows what'll take to find a LM though.... really want the 7.0L or 7.4L with 700hp