I keep on being told, of course by non jaguar owners, that these cars are
unreliable, that I’m facing serious expenses, and that my “dream” of being
able to drive it like any other car is a complete utopy.
Utter nonsense!
I acknowledge that
I don’t have the time all you guys seem to have, but the passion, the
interest and the awe every time i open my garage, are still there.
That’s the first step…admitting that you have the disease.
So
everyone understands my feeling, but is it realistic for me, a young civil
eng. with working hours, to expect to be able to repair it sufficiently
(up
scratch I should say) so I can go visit that goddamn beautiful country?
Yes…but you are going to have to learn about the car, get to know it to
live with it, and be aware, like any truly world class car that it is
expensive to a certain extent, to keep one of these cars in top shape.
Do
you think Jags can be driven in all sorts of places (the other night I
read
the whole chapter on headlights from Kirby’s book) and actually trust then
monster under the bonnet/hood ?
Oh, you bet! I had a '76 XJ-6L that I bought when it was fifteen years old,
had a 100K on it, had a blown head gasket, and the DPM was a total moron
unqualified to work on a Lawn-Boy.
I rebuilt pretty much everything under the hood, did the brakes, front
suspension, shocks and springs in the back, exhaust, CD player, A/C,
etc…
And I got pretty strange with the engine and changed the trans to an older,
stronger unit.
I know that my car wasn’t a Series I but I had a tri-carb HD-8 setup and ran
a points and condenser distributor like a Series I would have. My trans was
a Model 12 Borg-Warner like the Series I.
Here’s a link to the basic pictues…
http://www.jag-lovers.org/snaps/snap_view.php3?id=991683312
My wife used it as her daily driver.
You must get it all sorted out before you put it into daily service, though,
or it will make you nuts.
How long have you guys with S1’s been at it (of course I realise it also
depends on how deep your pockets are, and how well you can find the
cheapest
AND best parts), and do you have other cars?
We drove ours for three and a half years and 35,000 miles as our main car
and did pretty much nothing to it.
Maybe I’m completely fooling
myself with that dream of driving (say in 1.5 months) from Durban to
Paris,
but I don’t think so. For instance, have any of you done say New York -
San
Fransisco (like in that Prolong advert - by the way is it all bull**** or
does it really enhance performance?) or some noticeable distance on the
face
of this earth ?
Well, I didn’t go cross country, but we traveled from here in central Pa to
Orlando Florida down and back in one day each and that’s about 800
miles…grew no moss…
We took it there three years in a row and it was HOT and humid there in the
end of September…no problems…
It also gets down in the single digits here in Pa in the dead of winter and
I never had any trouble with it under those conditions either.
I remember there were some french guys who drove around the world I think
on
old Citroen cars. The mechanics of which probably were land rover or
something similarly strong, but what would you think about doing that with
a
“new” S1 ? eh eh eh, food for thought!
Be a damn sight more comfortable and safe in the Jag…
Think about it…is there any reason that you would hesitate to do this in
a 2001 XJ-8? Of course not! It’s one of the finest cars in the world.
Jaguars always have been. Yours was one of the finest cars in the world when
it was new, a pristine Series I XJ-6 is a darn fine car now. But as with any
high end car, you will have to do some major work to it at some point to
bring it back to its original grandeur.
A friend of mine and I have been working on his '85 500 SEL and we have been
doing the same stuff to that car that we are doing here to XJ-6s…he’ll
have a good car when we’re done, but it needed all the usual stuff to bring
it back to a point where it is reliable, drives as it should and all the
amenities are back on line.
please share your dreams
I want another Series II XJ-6L…
Cheers,
JebFrom: “Guillaume Patricot”
===================================================
The archives and FAQ will answer many queries on the XJ series…
FAQs: http://www.jag-lovers.org/xjlovers/xjfaq/xjfaq.html
Archives: Jag-lovers Forums - Jag-lovers
To remove yourself from this list, go to Jag-lovers Forums - Jag-lovers.