Not Like The Others - Story of the Coombs Jaguar Mk2

 To many this stunning piece of British engineering is your run of the mill old Jaguar MkII. A wonderful example of world class British engineering and style of the 1960s. But to petrolheads, this is a Coombs Jaguar MkII. And the two are not the same.

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Let’s start with the basics. What is Coombs? John Coombs owned a Jaguar dealership in Guildford, Surrey. A long time racer, Coombs applied his engineering skills to his business brain and effectively created tuner culture as we know it. In the early ‘60s, Touring cars (or saloon car racing as it was known) was the racing to be watched and revered here in the UK. Closely fought, high energy and diverse. Saloon car racing took the best drivers from every discipline and made them work for it. Minis took on Galaxies. Cortinas took on Mustangs. And everything headed out to try and take on a Jaguar MkII. So successful were the big Jags, that even bank robbers and the old bill got hold of them to use away from the race track. But then as we said, there was a Coombs MkII.

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John Coombs took what he had learned from the circuit and applied it to road cars. Engine packages, suspension and steering upgrades, brake kits and exhausts were available to be ordered onto the car straight from the Surrey showroom. So, someone could order a car to go to the office or take the children to Brands Hatch to watch a spot of club racing and then watch the likes of Roy Salvadori, Graham Hill and Dan Gurney pedalling the same straight-six beast around the circuit. Marvellous isn’t it? 

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What made the Coombs cars so successful? In all honesty, it was the thoroughness of their development. The body for instance would have all its seams rewelded to gain extra stiffness after the weight had been taken out methodically. The Coombs MkII’s were known for their engine work. Beautifully set up and thoroughly reworked, the 3.8 litre Straight-Sixes retuned in Surrey. New pistons made specially for the Coombs cars were fitted, the cylinder heads extensively massaged and fettled, a new intake system to let it breathe better and then a much lighter flywheel to keep it in the power. As standard…

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Along with that, an early cold air intake could be optioned from the Coombs workshop. A set of 2” carbs that drew into a heavily machined cylinder head, racing cams and new pistons allowed for a 9.5:1 compression ratio on the big-6 out front. Then, all of that matched up to a series of bespoke, handmade stainless steel exhaust systems from the Coombs catalogue. Even in basic state of tune, they 3.8 litre Straight-Sixes that had been worked on by Coombs’s boys made 300BHP in the early ‘60s. Also, you didn’t have to have it all and you didn’t have to buy the car from John Coombs. Some of the cars were bought in elsewhere and taken to Guildford for the conversions. See? Even back then people liked to have fast, practical road cars.

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John Coombs didn’t just stop at the engine. From his experience racing and also from preparing very successful racecars, he knew it was all in the big cars ability to change direction like a small car. For that, his team set to work under his customers cars. The Coombs MkII’s could be loaded up with adjustable dampers, stiffer front springs, an anti roll bar specifically for the car and if you asked very nicely (and signed a big enough cheque) then Coombs would fit a close-ratio steering box to liven up the steering of a normal MkII which from my experience can be described as “naval”.

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Although a lot of it was performance based. You could have some visual tweaks done to the cars. Louvred bonnets with leather straps, black wide wire wheels, leather wrapped roofs and bits and pieces off the E Type fitted inside the saloon like bucket seats and wooden racing steering wheels.

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So, John Coombs created dealer performance packages all the way back in early 60s. 10 years before AMG were fired from Mercedes. 20 years before M division was mentioned in a BMW board meeting. All from a man in Surrey who went racing, and thought his customers shouldn’t miss out on the fun with their cars.