Enola Gay by Peter (Frosty) Frost 1984-1988:

Having recently been lucky enough to receive a few 'hand me down' copies of your excellent publication. I am very impressed with the way the Jaguar Enthusiasts' Club are continuing to support enthusiasts in such a comprehensive manner.

Of special interest to me personally are the racing reports and the colourful and extensive exploits of Mr. Kevin Doyle and 'Enola Gay', a 1969 based XJ6 that I originally built and prepared for the JDC 'Road-Going' series in 1984. It is so pleasing to note Kevin's continuing success with a car that was deemed 'out-dated' and elderly when I first put it together under the entrant business Beenham Garage Racing.

The car never was an XJ12C, as erroneously reported in an earlier edition of the magazine but latterly had the rear doors skimmed and welded into the body to stiffen the handling as we approached 480bhp on the 'brake' and the yaw proved a serious problem with wheel-lift on the driftable bends on the long circuits like Donington, Brands, Castle Combe and Silverstone.

From day one it proved to be an exceptional reliable and quick saloon and from 1984 to 1989 it was modified from the road-going 6 cylinder Class through the whole gamut of road-going Modified, to road-going 12 cylinder, to eventually XJ12 Fully Modified Saloon winning 6 Championship classes in 5 years including participation as a member of the Winning '198something' Sir William Lyons Endurance Relay Team.

During the1988 racing season the car took me from 7th to 2nd place on the road in the same 'Sir Bill' four hour race series at Donington with only the Porsche 'A' team in front (who we were catching) when the rear low-level fuel tank split covering a fair section of the grandstand straight in 115 octane Avgas + Octane Booster and completely 'mullered' a set of hand made Pirelli 'Qualifiers' that they'd sponsored us with.

But such races were the stuff of dreams and I believe the Old Bitch still holds the lap record for her Class to this day at a few of those circuits.

The people who I raced with/against were such legends as Roger Mac, Tim Exeter, Laurence Sayers-Gillan, Martin Wheatley, David Botting (I built his venomous 'uncatchable in the wet' lightweight XJ6), Paul Hands and I am honoured that I can share the mantle of friend with such worthies as Mike Botting, Mike Hoggarth etc. Not to mention my ground crew - Chas "Magic with Metal" Frost (younger brother).

The car never was as reliable in V12 mode but for the few laps that the bottom end held together it was mind-blowing, with lots of 'naughty-bits' that I forgot to mention at 'Skrewtineerin'. Looks like Kevin has overcome those reliability problems and is as consistent as he is 'balls-out' quick, power to you Kevin, keep up the good work, that car needs YOU.

Letter sent to and published by JEC Magazine, June 2007.