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From the Library
THE WORLD'S FASTEST
E-TYPE JAGUAR - THE
QUEST FOR THE RECORD
by Phil Shephard
This book is the latest donation to the
VSCC library. Donated by the
Shephard family, it tells the
astonishing story of how a road-going
Jaguar E-Type, bought in 1962,
developed into a salt lake racer that
clocked 170.068 miles per hour on
Lake Gairdner in 2015.
Originally bought by Wagin
businessman and racer Harley
Pederick as a road car, the E-Type
only raced because Pederick's stove
hot Holden blew up in practice for the
Albany Around-the-Houses race and
the E-Type was rung in as a substitute.
In 1964 the E-Type won the Le Mans Six Hours Race at Caversham, when the brake trouble
that showed up at Albany became a major problem. About that time the state government
introduced the state-wide 65 mph speed limit and with that limitation on its use, Pederick
couldn't see the point of the E-Type and sold it to Stan Starcevich, his co-driver in the Six
Hours win.
The Jaguar was used as a road car and
occasional racer by various owners
until 1975, when its then custodian
drove it under the back of a truck.
Allen Shephard bought the damaged
E-Type from Roadbend Motors in
1976 for $2500 and completed the
repairs.
Since then the Jaguar has been used
for club events, Targa Tasmania in
1996, Classic Adelaide and the 1997
Panama-Alaska Rally.
All of this, plus using the E-Type as
his company car between events was
not enough, so the car was converted
to run on methanol and prepared for
maximum speed running at Lake
Gairdner with Dry Lakes Racers
Australia (DLRA). This required
much modification to the car to meet