This is my learning curve:
I started out 8 years ago with an uncompetitive Jaguar Mk2, had enormous fun learning to race in it and if I'd spent the money on development more wisely could have achieved much better results, but at the time that was never the point. My next car was a Jag S-type, a known car with good results in quick hands and already half way to being a well sorted car. Great fun in the midfield but I could never get near the high budget V8's although it held its own amongst other Jags (where are they now?). The HRSR/HSCC regs allowed my 'hot rod' to be competitive without the much higher cost of getting the same performance from appx K rivals. Maybe I just answered my own question.
After a couple of years with my E-type it's fair to say that if the same had been spent on developing the saloon it could maybe have been a front runner - Roger is right in saying that the V8's are relatively inexpensive to run. If you want to be near the front on the longer circuits in anything else you will need to spend a whole lot more. It was the same in period "there ain't no substitute for $$$$", or something like that.
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