1990 convertible has about 64,000 miles on it; has never seen a winter, but . . .
Replaced all 6 shock absorbers - the 2 right rear were shot. Also replaced steering rack bushings with poly bushings. The transformation is amazing. The ride and steering have gone from emulating my '93 Cadillac Fleetwood to being as taut and precise as my '01 XK8.
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You can keep the improvements going with roll bar bushes, upper control arm bushing, and those big donut bushings that hold the front of the subframe to the car. All are worthwhile.
Are we the only two people on earth with an XJS and a Fleetwood? The 90 Fleetwood I have was Grandmas…. Why hell do you own one?
At the risk of sounding like a jerk, I think the guy who penned that car design just got done designing the toaster oven and they told him to come up with something else before the end of day!
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John . . .
My '93 Fleetwood was bought new by my wife who was a very successful real estate agent - nothing says success to prospective clients better than a Cadillac the size of a yacht. It became mine when my wife died about 15 years ago. It is by far the most comfortable, reliable, and trouble-free car I have ever owned.
And, of course, it is essential to have a reliable every-day car like the Caddy when you have a bunch of old British cars like mine:
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Gary . . .
I won’t touch the “jerk” comment, but I must point out that John and I do not need a key fob to find our Cadillacs in the mall parking lot.
And I apologize if I offended any Cadillac owners. I’m not a fan of most modern car designs that are done on Autocadd.
Older style vehicles tend to have more style and passion by the men and women who designed them back in the day. Not dictated so much by regulations and wind tunnels.
But as they say beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
There will always be a need for reliable commuters.
My most reliable is a Toyota 4 Runner. But I’m not sure if it will win any design style awards.
I’m also one of those guys that thinks the Lamborghini Espada with a V-12 is one of the coolest cars on the planet!
I haven’t really looked hard enough at either of my xjs or xk8 to see, but I’ve wondered a couple of times since the xk8 used the xjs chassis (if I understand right) if an xk8 rear assembly would fit l, without too much modification, in the xjs. The price you pay for the 4 rear shocks would almost pay for a whole used xk8 rear lol
Marcos… Now that something you don’t see everyday… Looks like a Marcos GT is that the 1800 or 3 litre & an even rarer Mantis M70. How cool is that. real beauties!!
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Mark . . .
Thank you very much - I love 'em both.
The Mantis I bought new in England when I was living there in 1970. Went to the factory and had them build it LHD for me. Definitely rare - the factory made 32 in total.
The 1970 GT is the 3-litre Volvo, built for North America with LHD. It was previously owned by the family of James Hinchcliffe, the Indy driver.
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OK Ron, you’ve gone back into the cool factor. My new found friend (24 years old) from the car world . I asked him what the make of these cars were ? He picked out the Marcos GT
, struggled with the other one. But I’m amazed he could nam
e them. This is his car. I’m so glad to see the youth of today still have an interest. He just bought himself a Model T to restore.
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