David McKay's Mk1 3.4
The Jaguar Mk1 3.4 may have arrived in Australian motor sport with all the subtlety of a sledgehammer in 1958, but its immediate superiority over the stripped out, stove-hot Humpy Holdens of the era really should have come as no surprise.

Sure, it was heavier than the local heroes, but the combination of its teardrop-like aerodynamics, extremely rigid unitary body, large capacity DOHC engine, superior handling and powerful four-wheel disc brakes far outweighed any weight handicap.

The Mk1 was an immediate success in circuit racing and rallying in the UK and Europe, in the gifted hands of famous names like Mike Hawthorn, Duncan Hamilton and Sir Gawaine Baillie to name a few.

Arguably the most famous Mk 1 to race in Australia was the factory-prepared 3.4 driven by racing driver/motoring writer David McKay, affectionately known these days as the 'Grey Pussy'. It was also later raced by Ron Hodgson and Ian 'Pete' Geoghegan with considerable success.

It was this car which broke Holden's dominance of Australian touring car racing in the late 1950s, at a time when highly modified 48-215 and FJ Holdens driven by local heroes like John French and Leo Geoghegan were the cars to beat.

McKay's victory over the Humpies at Bathurst, during the big AGP meeting at Mount Panorama on the Labour Day long weekend in October 1958, sent a shockwave through the sport. For here was a basically standard British import, loaded with polished walnut and leather trim, which in one fell swoop made the hottest of hot Holdens look luke-warm by comparison.

It triggered a dramatic change in the look and sound of Aussie touring car racing, as the top guns quickly switched their allegiances to the new British super sedan.

The purchase of McKay's 3.4 Mk 1 by his sponsor, the Australian oil company Ampol, was quite a departure in the motoring writer's choice of racing machinery.

Ampol's prior purchase had been a beautiful Aston Martin DB3S which had previously been raced by such luminaries as Stirling Moss and Peter Collins. McKay used the DB3S to good effect in Australia, proving more than a match for Le Mans-inspired rivals including the Jaguar D type and Maserati 300S.

However, as Ampol's core retail business was selling everyday pump petrol to everyday Australians through its national chain of service stations, the oil company was keen to promote its products with a car that spectators could perhaps relate to more readily than a pukka Le Mans racer.

McKay did his homework on suitable choices and noted that the new 3.4 litre Jaguar sedan was proving to be a very competitive circuit racer in the UK and would likely be just as competitive on Australian circuits against the highly modified 'Humpy' Holdens.

However, as Ampol had its corporate heart set on the new car's debut being at the Australian Grand Prix and Australian Tourist Trophy (TT) at Bathurst in October (the annual Armstrong 500 production car race hadn't even been conceived back then), McKay faced a race against time to take delivery and shake it down before its Mountain debut.

McKay and Ampol came to an agreement in which he would fly to the Jaguar factory at Coventry in the UK, personally order and take delivery of the new car and then compete in a couple of major European road rallies - the annual Tour de France and Liege-Rome-Liege - as a thorough shakedown before it was loaded on a ship for its long voyage to Australia.

In the winter of 1958, McKay flew to the UK where he met Jaguar's exalted race team manager and service director 'Lofty' England and told him of his racing plans for a 3.4 in Australia.

England suggested several modifications, including upgraded big end bearings and replacing the standard pair of 1 ¾ inch SU carbs with larger 2.0-inch units. He also resisted a change to higher compression 9:1 pistons, suggesting that standard 8:1 pistons would provide a small safety margin to allow for irregular fuel quality in Europe and back home in Australia.

Several weeks later, McKay returned to Coventry to collect his 'semi works' 3.4 and ease it into the factory's running-in procedure on his drive to Europe, which recommended a 3000rpm rev limit for the first 500 miles (800 kms).

His first event was the gruelling Liege-Rome-Liege, which required maintaining very high average speeds over some brutally tough, rock-strewn tracks on a loop through Yugoslavia that proved the rugged strength and durability of the Mk1.

McKay then competed in the Tour de France (a combination of timed special stages using different tarmac-based disciplines) before returning to Coventry to give the car a full inspection prior to being shipped to Australia.

The 3.4 arrived in good shape and before its trip to Bathurst it was treated to a set of red, white and blue stripes across the top of the Jaguar's grey-coloured bodywork from nose to tail. McKay suggested this be done, after seeing similar stripes bearing the colours of different nations when he was competing in Europe.

It was a cheeky move, given that under FIA rules racing cars were forbidden to display any form of commercial sponsorship in those days. However, McKay figured that Ampol's distinctive red, white and blue corporate colours could easily be explained away as those of the Union Jack and the 3.4's spiritual home!

Not surprisingly, the arrival of McKay's Jaguar was given the same hostile greeting from Bathurst Holden fans that England's cricket team enjoyed during each Ashes tour. Anything that posed a threat to their beloved Humpies - particularly something British - was given the full treatment.

Not that McKay was bothered by any of this, for he was stunned by the eerily silent and smooth performance of the 3.4 during practice, as it whistled down Conrod Straight at nearly 130 mph with barely a puff of turbulence from its teardrop-shaped bodywork.

In the first of two touring car races held on the Sunday of that long weekend, the lightweight Holdens of French and Geoghegan got the jump on McKay off the start line, as the Grey Pussy's greater bulk took longer to get up to speed.

Once it did, though, McKay pounced on French down Conrod on the first lap and was closing in on race leader Geoghegan on lap two when he felt the steering start to momentarily lock up and then free itself as he powered through several high speed turns across the top of the Mountain.

Choosing discretion over valour, McKay withdrew from the battle (much to the delight of the booing and hissing Holden fans) and discovered that the problem was simply a carburettor cable catching on the steering column's universal joint as the big engine leaned on its mounts a little under the high cornering loads. It was easily fixed.

Monday's second touring car race was there for the taking. It was this maiden victory over the previously dominant Holdens, achieved with what looked like considerable ease on Australia's toughest race track, which instantly changed the course of local touring car racing.

Not only that, the days of the super modified Holdens being accepted as 'touring cars' were numbered anyway. The sport's governing body, the Confederation of Australian Motor Sport (CAMS), would introduce a new set of national rules from January 1, 1960 called Appendix J, which would allow only standard road cars to compete with relatively minor modifications.

Until then McKay continued to enjoy great success in the mighty 3.4, becoming the most successful touring car of its time until his sponsor Ampol decided that it had achieved its marketing goals and withdrew from the sport - taking its now famous 'Grey Pussy' with it.

The company refused to sell McKay the car to continue racing, so together with NSW Jaguar agent Jack Bryson, McKay ordered another Mk1 3.4 from Coventry HQ - only this time it was a full 'works' car with all the factory tweaks under a brilliant coat of red paint.

It was this car which McKay drove to victory in the first Australian Touring Car Championship (the ATCC was decided by a single race each year until 1969) at Orange's Gnoo Blas road circuit in 1960.It was later sold to Sydneysider Bill Burns, who didn't enjoy the same success.

Ron Hodgson's Jaguar Mk1 3.4
Quite how the flamboyant future Sydney Holden dealer Ron Hodgson managed to pry the 'Grey Pussy' from Ampol's clutches when the persuasive David McKay could not is an interesting question.

In any case, Hodgson became the second owner of the ex-McKay Mk1 3.4 which had done an awful lot of winning in the motoring journalist's skilled hands.

With the local Jaguar competition stepping up, though, Hodgson did a considerable amount of development work on the car to try and stay one step ahead of the 3.4 litre works cars driven by McKay and talented Queenslander Bill Pitt.

Using the improvised hot-rodding skills local Aussie racers were famous for, Hodgson built up his own 3.8 litre engine for the Mk1 based on a Mark IX block fed by a bank of triple Weber side-draught carburettors. Coventry was not amused!

He also played around with the complex science of mixing and matching gearbox and diff ratios, just like the open wheeler guys did to suit different circuits and engine specs.

Perhaps the young Sydneysider's most memorable race in the Grey Pussy was the first ATCC decider held at Gnoo Blas on Monday February 1, 1960 - the first official hit-out for the new Appendix J touring car rules.

For it was there that Hodgson came face-to-face with his Jaguar adversaries McKay and Pitt in a thrilling 20-lap battle. Hodgson briefly led the trio until he got it all wrong under brakes and speared off the circuit, stalling his engine and flooding its triple Webers.

In the eternity it took to get the big cat fired up and racing again, the young 'Hoddo' had dropped too much time to threaten race winner McKay and runner-up Pitt, but still managed to salvage third.

He continued to develop the Grey Pussy during his ownership and enjoyed considerable success during the early months of 1960, before selling it to the famous Geoghegan family.

Ian 'Pete' Geoghegan's Jaguar Mk1 3.4
The 'Grey Pussy' became the 'Black Cat' when old Tom Geoghegan talked Hodgson into selling his famous car after the big annual Easter race meeting at Bathurst in 1960.

All the Geoghegan team cars, driven with great skill by Tom's two sons Leo and Ian, were painted black in those days. And the Mk1 joined a big stable of Britain's finest, including a Daimler SP250, Mini 850, Lotus Elite and two Lotus open wheelers.

It was in Pete's hands that the ex-McKay, ex-Hodgson Mk1 (back in 3.4 litre specs) achieved its longest and greatest run of successes, winning 16 of 24 major races and finishing no lower than third in all the other events it competed in from 1960 to 1963.

Pete Geoghegan remembered this car with great affection, as it was in the Jaguar that he felt he came of age as a driver and started winning lots of races. He also remembers that it felt very fast at the time, particularly when he became the first driver in a touring car to lap the fabulous Warwick Farm circuit in under two minutes.

It was also the car in which his father Tom, who was very economical with praise for his youngest son, finally decided that after about 18 months in the Jaguar, Pete had refined his race craft enough and was driving fast enough to have a serious crack at Jaguar ace Bill Pitt in the 1961 ATCC clash at Queensland's Lowood circuit.

Pete put a smile on Tom's dial with pole position ahead of Pitt's well sorted Mk1 and three other Jaguars, including two new Mk II 3.8s driven by Ron Hodgson and Bob Jane, plus Bill Burns in the red ex-David McKay Mk1 3.4 that won the 1960 ATCC clash at Gnoo Blas. The rest of the field were merely grid-fillers against this Jaguar juggernaut.

Geoghegan made a great start and built a handsome lead as Jane retired early with suspension trouble, Hodgson fell back with transmission and brake problems and Burns was simply off the pace. It came down to a two-car war between Geoghegan and Pitt. Pete was holding a handy six-second lead until he started to slow due to a slipping clutch and into Pitt's claws, who stormed by to win the '61 ATCC title at a canter.

Geoghegan didn't make the starting grid for the 1962 ATCC clash at Tasmania's Longford road course due to rear axle problems. By then, however, the black Mk1 was starting to struggle against the might of Bob Jane's highly developed 4.1-litre Mk II and the V8 brute force of Norm Beechey's Chevrolet Impala, so the Geoghegans retired it early in 1963.

Bill Pitt's Jaguar's Mk1 3.4
Bill Pitt's famous Mk1, painted in patriotic British Racing Green, is well remembered for heading towards what looked like certain victory in the 1960 ATCC clash at Gnoo Blas until the car's electric overdrive unit failed and David McKay powered past to win in a similar car.

Of course, the talented Queenslander got it all together on his home track at Lowood the following year, when it was Pete Geoghegan's turn to suffer some drivetrain trouble and allow Pitt to pounce and win the 1961 ATCC title.

Pitt's memorable stint in the Mk1 3.4 came about through a chance meeting with Cyril Anderson, Queensland's official Jaguar distributor through his Westco Motors dealership. Anderson's wife Geordie was also a mad motor sport fan, who competed whenever she could.

Pitt eventually became sales manager at Westco Motors and raced some interesting Jaguars for the Andersons, including their magnificent D-type sports car and of course the BRG factory-prepared Mk1 3.4.

As local distributors, Westco Motors had a good line of communication with the Jaguar works in Coventry through its competitions manager, Lofty England, so the supply of the latest parts and technical info for the car was on-going. Pitt's 1961 ATCC win was one for the record books and without doubt this car's most memorable victory.