The engine was developed by Walter Hassan a Bentley boy originally planned with twin overhead camshafts but only single to keep production costs down. It was a completely new engine not a double version on an xk crank as you suggested.
the engine is NOT 2 xk6 engines bolted together , that is BS , nothing is the same to an xk6 engine , every part has been made specialy for this engine ,
Norman Dewis was not merely a test driver. He was a key member of Jaguar’s development team who strongly influenced, from concept to production, all of Jaguar’s sports cars from their golden age in the early 1950s to the mid-80s. At 130 mph, the XJ13 prototype he was guiding around a long sweeper experienced a broken rear wheel and the car instantly became uncontrollable. Miraculously, Dewis was uninjured. Describing his event as”tragic” is inappropriate because there was no loss of life.
