Possible 340 3.8 found! Need help in ID please!

[555ttg]

Ok the story goes like this,
US guy buys 340/3.8 from Belgian owner/restorer, in late 90s,takes it to the States, sells it to a.n.other in early 2002. Now owner wants to move it on, but has difficulty in IDing the car.
This is what I know;
Car has 3.8 grille badge(big deal,could be anything)
Car has 340 & 3.8 boot badging(also nothing, can be done)
Car has leather seating(but w/picnic tables)
CWW,4 speed all synchro w/Overdrive
LHD with LUCAS EUROPEAN headlights with integral pilot(side)lights
240KPH speedo(LHD EUROPEAN CAR)
Supposedly a 3.8litre 'S'type engine(has the S type aircleaner,NOT the Mk2 flat type)
Numbers:(from the chassis plate on the bulkhead)
Chassis: 1J80125
Engine: 7J50715-8

That's all I can gleam before I jump on a plane to verify myself.

Now I know there are scant records,(if any), of these cars, other than the reference to the 9 supposed cars that were produced,(though the factory made no separate note of any "380's" in the production records)
Time and again I come across NT's record of these cars, and somewhere I think he wrote that the 1 and only known genuine car to exist, had an S type 3.8 engine, which was maroon in colour.

Questions:
1/ does the known car STILL exist, and are there any pictures of it to compare with what I have found?
2/ Were any of the 9 supposed to be, or KNOWN to be, European destined, LHD cars, with BELGIUM as a possible destination?

Any help from any fellow club members, or even non-members, will be greatly appreciated. I think it may be the real thing, but I want to try and gather any and all possible knowledge before I go any further with it.
Thanks
P

[555ttg]

Well, thanks to all who responded to my request for help in this regard, (no-one). I have ascertained the car's ID by dint of my own research.

If this is indicative of the sort of support JEC members, give other members, then we may as well re-name the club the JDC in this, it's 25th anniversary year!

[smiffy]

Dear P
I'm sorry you are brassed off with the forum. I have personally found Jag owners to be really helpful. I think you may have unrealistic expectations of the forum if you post an obscure request on 28 May and expect an answer before 1 June. You may have been better off to use the expert help available from Pete Bell or Nigel Thorley directly via the home page or the JEC office.
Don't think badly of us, most folk will help if they can, but we are mostly enthusiastic amateurs rather than experts.
Best wishes, David

[555ttg]

Dear Smiffy,(David),
I did actually contact Pete Bell, a couple of weeks back, and he VERY promptly replied, (no complaints with PB). He referred me to NIGEL THORLEY, and gave me his personal email address; which I was really grateful for, thinking that here is the "GURU" who could know better(?),I emailed him the next day............... I'm still waiting for his reply........

I probably did rant a little, and I probably did take out my frustrations on the forum as a whole, but really I was more interested in getting a point across to the 'powers that be', in pointing out the absurdly convoluted, and unecessarily complicated, site navigation, to get to ANY of these forums! No wonder the postings are few and far between. I am also on the XJ Series forum, where I am not alone, in wondering WHY these forums are so underutilised. Is it because there aren't enough computer-savvy members to use them,(hardly likely in 21st century), or is it so painstakingly tedious, in negotiating the layers of links to access them, and therefore most members don't bother??????

I have been a member of this club now for about 10 years, and before the recent re-vamping, of the website forums, think that access was a lot easier, and therefore the forums more readily, and regularly, populated.

Now, however, one only has to look at the forum BB to see the dates of the latest posts, to see the erstwhile, frequency of postings, and help between members, seems to have gone by the wayside.

In the re-vamping of the website, my user ID was lost in the shuffle, and try as I may, it is not retrievable, and so I had to conjure up a new ID, and yet my old password,(which one would think was also unretrievable), was accepted for the new ID....???????

Also, all my postings for the XJ-S forum, where I was a regular, along with my profile, showing all my cars, was lost, 'in the ether', and never to be found again.
(Please note; I cannot re-enter my cars details, as the system won't allow me)

However much money we, as members, are spending toward the website, and forum developers, is obviously woefully too little, or conversely, way too much! Any competent teenager, could probably do a better job!

Anyway, thank YOU, for at least taking the time to post a reply, David. I wish there were more like you out there!
Best regards
Phil Morgan
ex-Pat Brit, living in Canada, Jaguar owner for over 35 years, grew up on them, with Dad and 5 brothers all Jaguar owners.

[webman]

Hi Phil

You are, of course, entitled to express your opinion, but it does annoy me when facts are misrepresented or omitted.

As for, ‘the absurdly convoluted, and unecessarily complicated, site navigation, to get to ANY of these forums’: from the Member Zone you can visit and log-in to any of the 10 Forums with one click!

I think most people will agree that access is now much simpler.

You didn’t mention that your ‘user ID loss’ was caused by you entering the wrong Membership No on an earlier registration.

As for the ‘lost’ XJS Posts & Register entries, I certainly found a number of Posts from you under your previous Username ‘welshman15’ and your 6 entries in the Register are still there and accessible by you.

Incidently, you where forced to change your Username because of the MNo. Error on this Forum.

I do not contend that everything is perfect, but where there are problems, I try to resolve them quickly.

One general piece of advice to all, if you have a problem then contact me direct using the e-mail Form on the ‘Contacts’ page. If you PM me or post a comment on the BB, I might miss it, since although I visit all Forums daily I do so using the Member Zone links as PJF, NOT as webman.

webman

[555ttg]

Thanks for your eventual reply, perhaps when you visit the forums daily, in the capacity of webman, you should check your emails and posts under the designation that you have volunteered to carry, namely WEBMAN. Surely we are not supposed to have to second guess which method to contact the webmaster, it is normal practise to email the webmaster at the webmaster link to get a response. The webmaster is SUPPOSED to monitor the webpage that he is master of for just these enquiries.

As for losing my previous ID because of an error in membership no. I have the same membership # that I have always had, and still the system locked me out. YOU may be able to access my prior info using my earlier ID, but I certainly CANNOT. If I supposedly entered the wrong memb.# on an earlier registration then surely that registration would have been invalid, and I would not have been able to make or read posts?????? Unless the system is flawed that surely wouldn't be able to happen????????

[JAGAZ]

555ttg, calm down mate,no one is here to try to get up anyones nose and the web man has more in his life than just this place.Chill out ,nothing happens quick here but it does eventually happen.
Regarding the car info,your best bet is to apply for a Jaguar heritage certificate that will give you all the info on how the car left the factory.I would have posted sooner only i`ve been on my hols.Good luck with the jag,sounds interesting.