...that I went mad and decided to shop for an XJ-S.
I've seen them priced in the low teens for cars built in the
mid-Eighties. This seems like a fabulous price for such an
automobile: V12 motor, loooooooong bonnet, modest rear seat for
the little 'uns, and a tradition of "Thundering Elegance." (Let's
see... 1951, 1953, 1954, 1955, 1957, 1986?, 1987? I'm not the
least bit certain about some of those dates, and I should be.)
Obviously this would not be the autocross car, though I've seen
one scaring the bejesus out of a bunch of innocent orange pylons
and I have to say that it certainly looked like a fun way to
waste a Sunday. There's a local autocross club who, not being
bound in the kind of devil's agreement that the SCCA has chosen
with new carmakers, keeps rules that make the MGB competitive
in a class full of other fun cars, so once the green car gets
back on its feet, so to speak, I'll have my nimble little open
car for zipping around the twisties.
But a Jaguar! (Actually I had a dream the other night that I
acquired a white '67 E Type coupe. Got it up to 140 mph in
the dream!) And that V12! It seems like a fine thing to have
a luxurious, fast coupe (there you go -- Luxurious British Coupe)
as well as a Little British Convertible. And while I would prefer
an E Type to an XJ-S, the XJ-S has the singular advantage of
being financeable.
So my questions involve special years, both good and bad; when
did they make the HE version with the Michael May-designed Fireball
head? I believe that 1982 is considered the great watershed year,
the year after which Jag component reliability takes a great leap
upward, yes? (A moot point, as my credit union won't lend on a
car more than 10 years old.) What kind of fuel injection did they
use on the S (I presume that the carbs had long since disappeared
by the mid-80s)? I ask this because it's Charlie "Fizzball Cars
Broken While-U-Wait" Rockwell's contention that the first thing
anyone should do after purchasing a car with Bosch FI is to replace
all the relays, just on general principles.
Other questions, of course, include the predictable ones -- like
who sells the Lister suspension mods for it, parts suppliers -- no,
the company's still in business, I can go to the *dealer*. Oh,
right, and will the Shelby club let me take one on track with them,
as they only accept Ford-powered cars? :-)
I guess what I want is for someone familiar with the XJ-S to write
the Jaguar-specific equivalent of the article that I wrote that made
Michael Sands buy his Caterham, or at least the articles that I write
every so often when someone says "I wanna buy an MGB, but why?" Who's
the resident Jag maniac on this list, anyway?
Oh yeah, and of course the one key question:
What are they like to drive?
--Scott "Rather have an Aston, but an XJ-S just might do" Fisher
|