Originally Posted by
AMCO72
Talking of XK's and Jaguars in general the name Sybil Lupp springs immediately to mind. She was the other half of Archer and Lupp of Wellington and had a big following of enthusiasts in the area. Plenty has been written about Sybil so wont go over it again except for one little gem she shared with me during a JDC rally at Easter in Rotorua about 1969. She had a novel way of balancing the SU carburetors on an E type. She would remove the bonnet, take out the plungers from the dashpots, put a piece of dowel with graduations on it into the oil chamber of all three carbs and drive the car up the Ngauranga Gorge Rd....SH1 out of Wellington...and watch the dowels to see how far out they were poking while under power. She would then be able to see which carb was doing all the work and adjust accordingly. Not sure whether she was having me on but she was dead serious!!!!!! Sybil was often the invited guest in the early days of the Jaguar Drivers club and her expertise was put to good use as a judge in the concours. She had a good eye and liked everything to be right, even back in the beginning of her racing carreer she usually won best presented car, especially at the Lady Wigram Trophy race where she came 2nd in the MG TC in 1952. Was a supercharged car so went pretty well and of course, unlike a lot of the machinery in those days, was reliable. She did all the tuning herself and cut quite a dash in the pits with her blond hair and white overalls. The MG still exists in the hands of FAZZAZ owner Gavin Bain and will be restored to its former glory one day.
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