This Jaguar Mk2 came out of a 60-year slumber for the 2026 Revival

It’s owned by Michael Culhane, and we met with him at this year’s event to learn more about the prized Mk2 he entered into the 2026 St. Mary’s Trophy presented by Motul with drivers Darren McWhirter and James Dorlin — complete with its three registrations on the nose.

Alongside Culhane’s Mk2 were three other Jaguar Mk2s, the first being driven by three-time World Touring Car Champion Andy Priaulx and another by 2009 Le Mans 24 Hours winner David Brabham. The third car, prepared by Jaguar Classic Works, was driven by current Jaguar TCS Racing Formula E driver António Félix da Costa. 

“Jaguar Mk2s have always been my favourite car,” Culhane told us. “Ever since I started doing a paper round, I was thinking ‘one day I’m going to save up and buy one of these’. But this is the ultimate car I guess, because it’s one of the original few surviving touring cars from the ‘60s, probably one of three.”

While that may sound like an insignificant detail, it’s a crucial one. With set racing specifications it wouldn’t be impossible to take a standard Mk2 and adapt it for racing, fitting the relevant safety devices, the right brakes, tyres and so on. But this Mk2 is the real deal, a genuine period racer, first bought by respected private entrant Peter Berry, who had the likes of Bruce McLaren race for him in other cars. 

“Berry bought it through Henley’s and had it registered as ‘1 FNK’. And shortly after he contacted Jack Sears, saying ‘right, I’ve got this car, I want to compete with it, how about you do the RAC Rally’. So, Jack Sears and Willy Cave did the 1960 RAC Rally, and they came first in class and fourth overall.”

Though Jack Sears may not need an introduction to Goodwood regulars, he won the inaugural British Saloon Car Championship title in 1958 and again in 1963. For this reason he’s affectionately known as one of the founding figures in what we now know as the British Touring Car Championship. But this Mk2 had another famous name behind the wheel.

“It also raced for Team Speedwell under ‘1 FNK’,” Culhane continued, “with Graham Hill driving. We’ve got documents and we’ve got programmes showing Graham Hill drove this car — we believe only once, but we know he definitely drove this car.” As if Jack Sears wasn’t enough, the two-time Formula 1 World Champion is a pretty good name to have on the list.

Berry managed to secure sponsorship from Castrol, after which he purchased four consecutive cars and registrations from Jaguar. These were ‘3 BXV’ and ‘4 BXV’, both of which were E-types, and ‘1 BXV’ and ‘2 BXV’, both Mk2s.

Culhane’s Jaguar Mk2 raced in the British Saloon Car Championship for a few years, and when Berry’s Castrol sponsorship eventually dried up, while the four consecutive cars were sold on Berry did keep the registration numbers, and so ‘1 FNK’ became ‘1 BXV’. Another change of registration lay ahead, though, and before long ‘1 BXV’ was changed to ‘687 DXA’. 

The ‘687 DXA’ registration is the car’s most famous, Culhane explained, as the Tommy Sopwith Equipe Endeavour team were racing a Mk2 at Aintree for the support event of the 1962 British Grand Prix. Following a heavy crash before the race the team needed another Mk2, and as the team were familiar with this Peter Berry car they asked if they could use it. 

“They put their own running gear in it,” Culhane told us, “and then Jack Sears went and won the support race for the British Grand Prix in this actual car. He beat Michael Parkes and Touring Car Champion Bob James, too.”

From here the car continued to compete. In fact, as the names on the side of the car show, Bruce McLaren and John Surtees also got behind the wheel. But its final racing outing was actually made at the hands of Albert Powell, driving for the Universal Gearbox Company, with Zenith Films the owner of the car. Now at the end of its motorsport life, Culhane reveals, “it was then forgotten about, used as a road car and then went off the radar for a bit. I then acquired it maybe 15 years ago from Albert Powell.”

What followed was an outpouring of love and care, getting this special Jaguar Mk2 back to a ready-to-race condition. But before its adventure at the 2026 Goodwood Revival there wasn’t any time for a proper on-track shakedown.

“It didn’t have any track time before qualifying. I was very nervous, very apprehensive,” shared Culhane. “The car went out, Dorlin took it gently to start with, then he came in and said ‘the car is OK, it handles alright, it doesn’t get hot, the oil pressure is OK, but there’s no power, no revs — I can’t even get it to 6,000rpm so I can’t set a very good time’.”

A C-clip had come off the linkage on a carburettor, and the linkage had then come apart so the engine effectively had twin-SU carburettors rather than triple. It was Culhane’s hope that better times would be set once this was fixed, and sure enough, the car went from best times in the region of a 1:37.527 in Official Practice to 1:34.875 in Part 1 of the race, where Dorlin moved up five places to finish 22^nd . In Part 2, McWhirter had a difficult race running 26^th and the team finished 24^th overall.

But for ‘1 FNK’, ‘1 BXV’ or ‘687 DXA’ — whichever registration you refer to this Mk2 as — the Revival was never about challenging at the front of the race. For Culhane, who arrived here on a journey that began with paper round fantasies, it’s much simpler. “It’s just a dream come true. To actually have it here, at Goodwood, in the Revival, in the St. Mary’s Trophy, I’m really delighted.”   

Photography by Pete Summers, Joe Harding and Rob Cooper.

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