Le Mans  24 Hours    June 17, 1984     cont.

Tony's Jaguar rounds Mulsanne Corner at the end of the legendary three mile long straightaway

     The vehicle was damaged on left front which damaged the oil line to the engine.  I tried to call the pits on the radio, however I could not make contact, so I proceeded around the course idling in low gear.  I finally got to the pits and the crew determined the car was repairable.  However, the engine oil lines & cooler were damaged.  Even though the car was driven slowly around the course, the oil level was low, in fact nearly depleted.  No apparent damage to the engine, nor was there any loss of oil pressure.

     The one thing Jaguar officials did not want was a V-12 engine failure, so they retired the car.

     Goodyear examined the tire and determined its failure caused the incident.  The tire deflating causing the car to understeer into the barrier.  This information was shared with the Jaguar VIPs and pit crew.

     The other two cars eventually went out with gearbox failures.  It seems no effort was made to filter Hewland gearbox debris, so shifting became impossible, and they popped out of gear.  Dog ring and bearing wear, etc.  I'm sure my car would have suffered the same fate later on.  Running short GTP races had not shown any problems, but unfiltered Hewland gearboxes weren't durable enough for the 24 hour event.  Jag VIPs were OK with that kind of a failure, at least it was not their engine.

     The Group C Lancia's had the same trouble.  Porsche on the other hand learned from their long distance past, and were the winners.

The three drivers for the #40 Jaguar:  Tony a2z, John Watson, and Claude Bella Lena

Perhaps a little harshly, Group 44 was cast aside as Jaguar's works team after Le Mans

Tony Adamowicz, Gary Wheeler, Tony a2z, Tony Adamowics, a2zRacer, Gary Wheeler, Tony Adamowicz

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