10 December 2018.
On this day I become the person who has owned my E-Type the longest. One of its POs owned the car for 15 years and 7 months. I’ve met them, her actually. A few years ago I made contact and arranged to let her see the car. She and her husband were enthusiasts, owners of many other Jaguars over the years, and were please to see the car still being cared for. I will write to them to let them know the car is now more mine than theirs!
Over the last 15 years and 7 months and 1 day, I have driven the car over 60,000 miles. I have logged every journey made and every penny spent, except that spent on petrol. My OCD doesn’t stop there, I’ve even written a book about the car and my experience of owning it. Pure vanity, I know.
Upon reaching this milestone I’ve begun wondering whether I should continue, lest the car becomes a millstone. I’ve had some very good times owning and using the car. However, the 60,000 miles began impressively. There were a number of failures that called journeys to a halt, only once requiring outside assistance, but several times requiring spanners at the roadside. Faults included a shattered rotor arm, a cheap and underspecified alternator, a fuel pump, a blocked filler drain hose, cheap lucar connectors, poorly fitted tyres and a variety of niggles that should have been sorted by the most recent PO, a business selling E-Types. But once these initial problems had been sorted, the miles racked up with little bother from matters mechanical. Quite long journeys were contemplated and completed without issue. The result of this is limited to a marginally increased consumption, or loss of, oil; and persistent appetite for coolant, the cause of which has never been identified; and an engine which I can never tune to be efficient enough to better 24 mpg. I’m sure this run of good fortune may have an end, I hope it is not yet.
Whilst the bulk of the 60,000 miles has been without breakdown, it hasn’t been completely trouble free. The trouble with a car this old, over 50 years, is that there are a number of things that happen that modern cars are free from. This summer I had to replace the distributor cap and rotor arm. The service interval for these items is 30,000 miles. I think they had been on the car for a little longer than that. Also this summer I experienced a complete collapse of the steering column bushes. The lower bush suddenly wore through in a matter of a few days leaving me with a very wobbly steering wheel. Fixing things such as these is part and parcel of owning an older classic car. It’s one of the reasons I own my E-Type.
Today, the car sits alone in my garage. It is waiting for its annual winter fettling. This winter I will be concentrating on the suspension. Every bush, bearing and joint will be checked, and if found wanting, replaced or rebuilt. I will check both ends of the tie rods at both ends of the steering rack. The wheels will be re-trued and re-balanced. The engine gearbox and axle will receive a complete set of fluid changes, as will all the hydraulics. Winter fettling also includes a wheel arch clean and a full re-application of waxoyl to inner and outer panels and all the box sections. With fresh oil and coolant the engine will be re-tuned, ignition will be checked, the carbs mechanically re-adjusted and then tuned. And the whole car will be cleaned and polished, probably several times before it makes its next journey onto salt free roads.
Next year’s outings are already being planned. There will be days out, weekends away and maybe one or two week tours, perhaps organised, perhaps impromptu. I’m not sure I will do this for another 15 years and 7 months. I’m not even sure we may be allowed to drive old cars in 15 years and 7 months time. If personal transport survives, it is likely to be quite different from today. Or we may be in some dystopia or other where such choice has been removed.
