I don’t know who was more happy, Fiona or me, but we had a nice chat and I asked about her father, Dr Samir Klat. Because I didn’t know where he was, or even if he was still alive ( well it was 37 years ago since he was with the car !! ). Anyway, great news came back, he was well and living on a small island called : ALAND ( which is pronounced OLAND ). This is part of the islands belonging to Finland, and is between Finland and Sweden.  Dr Samir Klat had been there on business and liked it so much, that he moved out there from the UK. Fiona asked a few questions and talked about the car and that she wanted to surprise her father with something special, especially as his 65th birthday was coming up. She said he knew he wouldn’t see the car again, with it being in America. 

It’s owned now by Sir Anthony Bamford of JCB, she then went on to tell me her father was coming over in September to the UK. What date, I said, the 14th came the reply. It’s racing at Goodwood that weekend ( 14th, 15th & 16th ), Fiona just went mad bless her !!!. Why don’t you surprise him, just buy tickets and I will make some phone calls and try to get your father re-united with the car. A series of nice e-mails followed between us, and a number of phonecalls lined everything up nicely for Sunday the 16th at the Goodwood Revival Meeting, Fiona was also put in touch with Michael Lee of JCB.

Several weeks passed and Goodwood was looming, Fiona and her family had all decided to go as well. And talking together, they had made a decision, they told Dr Samir Klat what was to happen. This was done because he would probably turn up in the UK, without proper clothing etc to attend a race meeting ( it can rain and turn muddy here you know !!! ). Plus Dr Samir Klat told me it was a good decision because, he is an active person who would have probably organised a trip out somewhere himself whilst in the UK.

Trevor ( JMC Member 17 ) had decided to come along, so we arrived at Goodwood at about 1.30 pm on the Friday, we were to meet Roy Salvadori too at 3.00 pm to sign plates for model bases. We really enjoyed the atmosphere and the smell of Castrol R !!, and before we knew it, Sunday was upon us. Fiona had my mobile number to make contact when they were about 15 minutes away. The phonecall came in the middle of the St. Mary’s Trophy race which started at 10.55 am. We were up at Madgewick Corner which is a long double right hander leading down to Fordwater, the cars racing of interest to me in this race were : Jaguar MKI’s including BUY 1, MKII’s and MKVII’s with one in particular, the Magnesium Lightweight car driven by Stirling Moss and Rowan Atkinson ( now that was a sight to see, Stirling Moss and Mr. Bean sharing the same car !!! ).

We met after about 10 minutes, and although I had only seen photo’s of Dr Samir Klat in his twenties in Philip Porter’s book, I did recognise him as we approached. Whilst walking through the outer paddock, I was asking him questions about how he got involved in motor racing. He said he was studying at the Imperial College London, and went to a Motor Club annual dinner. The guest speakers were Peter Lumsden and Peter Sargent, who were racing another E-type at the time which ran at LeMans in 1962 ( Reg : 898 BYR ). Dr Samir Klat was introduced, and was recruited to help with communications ( interpreting ) for the French Officials working on the Costin bodied Lister Coupe of 1963 ( Reg : WTM 446 ). This car developed problems during practice for LeMans, Dr Samir Klat made suggestions to sort the problems out, these worked !!, and he helped the mechanics working on the Costin bodied Coupe, this got him an invite to help during the actual LeMans race, as part of the team. This strange but stylise coupe body was made by Frank Costin, Dr Samir Klat told me Frank was the first man to try and tackle aerodynamics on a racing car properly. Dr Samir Klat respected Frank Costin, and told me so. He also was humble enough to say he learnt a lot from Frank which helped him when the Lowdrag E-type project came along later. Peter’s Lumsden and Sargent were so impressed with Dr Samir Klat, that they asked him to develop the Lowdrag E-type project. He teamed up with Harry Watson who shaped the roof of the lowdrag with Dr Samir Klat and Dr Samir Klat shaped the nose of the car first. At the time, wind tunnels and computers were not around, so the E-type was marked out with a grid pattern and good old fashion Wool tufts were stuck to the car at every point where the grids crossed. Dr Samir Klat and the team then drove the Lightweight 49 FXN up and down the M1 Motorway for the whole day, following in a S-type Saloon. Each time wool tufts blew or flapped in the wrong direction, the S-type would flash it’s lights, they would stop, jump out and bash the new sloping roof with a mallet at these points. This was repeated over and over again, until all the wool tufts were blowing straight back in perfect unison. I asked if the roof needed much shaping after that, no he said. By the time we had spent about 10 or 11 hours hitting it in the right places with a big mallet, it was perfect !!!.

For a race at the Nurburgring in Germany, the Lowdrag E-type was developing a severe mis-fire, Dr Samir Klat worked on this and developed a fuel injection system with curved camshafts. Lucas the fuel injection people, said this would never work, it did work, and Lucas ended up copying the design. Unofficially, this was called by the Lucas guys the : Klat System, praise indeed.

After this Dr Samir Klat worked on the suspension and pressure points on the cars body, he found high pressure points at the base of the windscreen pillars, here he made holes to relieve this pressure build-up. But each hole was utilised as a means to cool inside the cockpit, the drivers side blew air onto the drivers feet, the metal pedals got quite hot during a race Dr Samir Klat said. The other side blew cold air direct into the cockpit. Two elongated slots were added either side of the rear window too. These were low pressure points, and the top one on either side was left open, this drained the hot air from the cockpit, whilst the lower slot on both sides had pipes attached to extract hot air from the differential and disc brakes. Dr Samir Klat said they would only dare to rev round to 5,800, which was around 300 bhp, but with better technology the car today would probably rev nearer to 7,000, developing 350 bhp.

I followed Dr Samir Klat round the car as he talked to the mechanic who was looking after the car now. He asked where the rib had gone which was in the same place as you will see the seam on the rear of the standard lightweights (he calls these the HEAVY cars !!!). The mechanic told him they removed it to improve aerodynamics. This was met with a friendly scowl !!!, it must be there, this stops turbulent swirling air rising up and meeting the smoothed air flowing down off the lowdrag roof. We moved to the front of the car, and Dr Samir Klat was looking into the bonnet vent. He asked the mechanic a question, what have you behind the opening ?. Nothing came the reply. Well it’s pointless it being there now, he asked for the bonnet to be lifted. There should be a box which sits behind the vent opening, this also has the trumpets going into the box. This developed rammed air which pressurised in the box to produce more power. The mechanic said they just use the opening now for cooling, Dr Samir Klat told him to add the box, or fill the hole in, it wouldn’t work as it is at the moment.

I must also say that watching Fiona’s face was a treat, you could see the joy as her father's memories came flooding back to him. And the mechanic was good too, letting him ask as many questions as he wanted, plus taking the whole thing in the right spirit, because Dr Samir Klat was also questioning some of the new features on the car now. He asked why a plastic lip had been added to one of the high pressure point holes, to force more air in, he was told. This will not work !! said Dr Samir Klat, it needs taking off.

49 FXN retired from the LeMans event due to a Gearbox seal failing, a Jaguar factory part. Dr Samir Klat hinted that he felt the gasket had been put in the wrong way round by someone at the factory ( innocently, I must add ). Malcolm Sayer was about the only person at Jaguar to be on speaking terms, and he even replied to letters sent to him about the Lowdrag. In one he congratulated the team but was cautious about the shape of the roof causing the car to lift at high speed. Dr Samir Klat didn’t agree and knew he had the calculations right. I mentioned the long-nose LeMans C-types of the Jaguar works team of 1952, as Jaguar like to forget these C-types. I will bring them up !!, I asked him if his car with a similar nose with smaller opening suffered any over-heating, like the C-types did. No he said, Jaguar made one big mistake, the cars allowed air into the opening freely. Dr Samir Klat said this actually allowed air to pass through the radiator, but also escape around and over the top of the radiator. Dr Samir Klat made rubber shields which closed around the radiator sides and over the top of the radiator. This forced all the air coming in to be directed straight through the radiator, and no where else, this kept the engine cool and the car never over-heated.

My model  was shown to Dr Samir Klat and he was told to study it, and criticise anything he thought was wrong. He actually thought the models shape was excellent, and only a few minor points were pointed out, all these will be changed.

Dr Samir Klat kindly gave me Peter Lumsden’s contact details, and after speaking with the driver of the car, he agreed to sign a number of bases. He also contacted Peter Sargent, who in turn also agreed to do the same. These models will look very nice on a base with three signatures and certificate. You can reserve a model by e-mailing the Jaguar Model Club.