Well, we’re back from our sojourn on Martha’s Vineyard, and since I appear
to be the first one awake I’ll start the story.
The weekend began for Rick Holland and myself at 2 PM on Thursday, when he
arrived at my house. Rick and I have known each other for over a decade; we
live 5 miles apart, we belong to the same motorcycle club, we each own
XK120s, and we host the annual Jag-Lovers picnic and the First Tuesday
meetings. In spite of that, I had to give him directions since he had never
been to my house before. Some day I’ll have to visit his house, if he ever
gives me the directions.
We threw our bags in the back seat of my '72 Series 3 E-Type and headed
north. My XK120, although running, is not quite up to an interstate trip,
and the E-Type is an excellent grand touring car. However, five miles down
the road I noticed that the temperature gauge had swung past the normal
range and had buried itself on the far side of the big H. On an XK120, that
would be the equivalent of having a water temperature reading of 60 PSI on
the oil pressure sector. But the XK120 has a mechanical gauge, and you can
usually trust it; the E-Type has an electrical gauge, and the sensor is
always the first suspect. We stopped the car and opened the bonnet. Both
banks of the V12 seemed equally hot, but not overly so, and the fans were
cycling normally. We decided that the sensor had packed it in, but for my
peace of mind disconnected it so the gauge would read cold instead of hot.
We piled back in and resumed our northbound odyssey.
The first leg of the journey brought us to Klaus and Cathy Nielsen’s house,
near Danbury, CT. They had invited us to stay there overnight so we would
be closer to Martha’s Vineyard and not have as far to go on Friday. (As it
was, we would still have to leave at 5:00 AM the next morning). Ernie “Mad
Ludvig” Wagner had just arrived, and we were all introduced to Klaus’ lovely
wife Cathy and also to his Carmine Red '56 OTS XK140MC. Klaus is a regular
attendee of the New Jersey First Tuesday Jag-Lovers meetings (5 hours
round-trip!), but we had never seen his car before. It is a truly
spectacular show car which he drives. To keep busy he has acquired a white
FHC that he is working on. Amazingly, he hopes to have it done by next
year, which is an incentive for those of us who are lagging behind on our
restorations.
The upper story of Klaus’ house is set up like a bed-and-breakfast. Ernie,
Rick and I settled into the guest rooms and then joined Klaus and Cathy for
drinks on the veranda, a sumptuous meal, and good conversation. We had to
cut the evening short in order to make it to the ferry on time the next
morning, so we set our alarm clocks for 4 AM and turned in, thus ending the
first of a weekend full of great Jag-Lover days.
Mike Eck
Smiths clock electronic upgrade
Jag-Lovers Picnic at http://www.jag-lovers.org/events/event_view.php3?id=286