Classic Car Magazine Compact Jaguar "Shootout"

[sweller]

This month's Classic Car Magazine has an article comparing various compact Jags (Mk1, Mk2 3.8, S Type, Daimler V8, 240, 420).

http://www.classiccarsmagazine.co.uk/

I don't normally but classic car mags of any description but bought this one based on the Jaguars. I also like the concept of comparing contemporary cars - similar to the recent articles in the club magazine putting various Jags against similar competitors (Humber Super Snipe etc).

Not sure why I bothered with this magazine though. It's an interesting approach comparing the various Compact, er, variants but they don't make a particularly good job of it.

They have a number of interesting cars which turn out to be fairly fundamentally modified (rack steering, breathed on engines) then compare them - what's the point of that?

So, nice idea shame about the execution.

[ecosselynx]

Hi Simon

Bit off the subject. Take it you got home alright from your trip to France!

[sweller]

Take it you got home alright from your trip to France!

Yes, no further cooling problems.

Whilst we were there I drained the coolant and back flushed the radiator a couple of times. It appeared clean but afterwards the car didn't run as hot - kept to a less nervy 75 degrees at normal road speed (80ish). However on some of the hills it started to climb so I had to back off. Fortunately Northern France was not as hot.

Made for a quicker run but the radiator will need some professional attention - maybe some form of industrial "boiler wash-out" or a recore (not expecting that to be cheap). Reminds me, I need to put some antifreeze in the coolant in the next couple of days.

27 mpg is still astonishing! Safe to say it didn't manage that on the way back after I'd fixed the radiator.

[ecosselynx]

Hi Simon

I'd better apologise. Sorry didn't mean to high-jack your post, I should have put my question in the correct section.

[jackois]

back on track, then...

I bought this issue yesterday, as reading material on a train journey from Manchester... This is one of the magazines I buy occasionally, as it has a good spread of classic cars and events. I wasn't expecting a great deal from this paticular article and wasn't disappointed. It was in a vein that is common throughout the classic car magazine industry as it's probably quite easy to find reference material from previous issues on the general history of the car & good contacts with a marque specialist such as JD classics will pull together a representative sample of models to test drive.
As for the modifications on the models used, I think this is also representative of the Compact saloon scene, with a lot of posts on here & the other saloon forums covering things like this. At least it's an honest article mentioning each of the mods...

To that end, someone with an enthusiastic knowledge of this set of cars, compact saloons, such as an owner won't get a lot out of it, but it may help someone who fancies buying one and still subscribes to the myth that these are prohibitively priced models... it was a similar article that swung it for myself in buying my S-type and I've not regretted buying it since...

Other than that, there's a decent amount of interesting reading through the rest of the issue to make it worth buying should you fancy a classic magazine to peruse. It was also packaged witht he latest issue of Car magazine, which I would never normally read, so I'll have a chance to catch up on the totally baffling modern car world before retreating back to the steadier waters of the old Jags world!