jonmac wrote:
>
> worked for Jaguar in Coventry before joining Triumph and drove more E
> types than I'd had hot dinners, up to that time. A beautiful shape,
> I'll not deny - but fiendishly uncomfortable (for me).
I still remember a sort of man-on-the-street interview series in the
early `70s of a motoring reporter asking passers-by in New York what
they thought of automobiles... the remark of one woman was instructive:
"I hate them, they're stinky and awful and they look boxy and
nasty--except Jaguars!"
> I found the
> pedals an agony on a long journey and let's face it, there were quite
> a lot of them around and this made them a little too "common."
> If one has to stay within the Jaguar fold, surely the most beautiful
> and the MOST classic, has to be an SS100.
My brief close association to Jags was an occasional request to consult
on problems a former employer encountered with their repairs, and the
storage of a `49 Mark VII with landau top for a friend. The latter, I
kept in my large basement for more than a year while my friend (a
wonderfully-gifted guitar-maker, but lousy mechanic <smile>) searched
for storage. The car had suffered overheating for years because he had
decided to test the ether-bulb thermostat in hot water... dropped it
into the boiling pot, where the bulb promptly exploded. In Florida, he
asked a local shop to fix the problem (since he could not find an
original). They had told him they'd had to do a great deal of expensive
machining to make a standard thermostat fit, and still, the car
overheated (to the tune of it taking him three weeks to return the car
from Florida to Michigan (!)). While in storage, I said I would have a
look at it, and found that the formed recess in the thermostat housing
was identical to that required for a standard thermostat (and that,
therefore, no machining had been done) and that the cause of the
continued overheating was that the Florida shop had installed the
thermostat backwards....
I did tell him that, and that I had corrected the problem. I did not
tell him, in that long year of storage, that my cat had chosen the
leather back seats of the car to have her kittens....
> These days, as my hair has gone, and the dentist has seen fit to
> remove rather more of my teeth than I'd have preferred, I err towards
> a Buckingham Palace Drawing Room - on wheels. My years have now
> approached a pivotal point where comfort and silence is something of
> a pre-requisite.
Ah, in that case, John, you'll be more than happy to sell me your GT6 at
a bargain-basement price, no? Just as sort of a small part of the down
payment on something more luxurious? <big grin> And, I assure you, John,
hair has nothing to do with it. (!)
> A former colleague recently visited me bringing with
> him my present vehicular inclination. Alright, it's fitted with auto
> trans, power everything and it smells strongly of leather and walnut
> - but all this nothwithstanding, it has to be said that the ability
> to accelerate 3 tons of car to 60mph in under 8 seconds is rather
> dramatic to say the least.
> Of what do I speak?
> A Bentley Mulsanne Turbo.
Very nice... but, there are still Triumphs, no? Clashing, thrashing,
banging, but still there.... <g> However, I will say that 6,000 lbs of
Bentley has a pretty fair chance against a Chevy Suburban, and perhaps
even a Humvee, in any altercation. <g>
> I think I'd rather like one. It has a certain elitism - which greatly
> appeals. It has to be said as well, that the financial wherewithal to
> be able to run one and not even think about the cost, appeals even
> more.
For that, John, you will have to start writing romance novels for the
lonely ladies of the world.... <big grin> Does Barbara Cartland give
lessons? <smile>
Cheers, John, and all, and a merry Christmas.
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