Classification theory guarantees the existence of an isomorphism between any two E 8 's, at least over an algebraically closed field of characteristic 0 . The purpose of this paper is to construct for any Jordan algebra J of degree 3 over a field Φ of characteristic ≠ 2 , 3 an explicit isomorphism between the algebra obtained from J by Faulkner's construction and the algebra obtained from the split octonions and J by Tits construction.