Haven't been around here for some time - I hope you and your cars all OK. I had been having a really lovely year with the S - had a rather costly service early on but it was going really well. Took it to Le Mans for the second time, where it got a lot of attention as well as appearing on French TV!
Alas, it was not to last. I took it out one Sunday at the beginning of last month, and to cut a long story short, an old chap didn't see me overtaking him on a dual carriage way and ended up pushing me into a crash barrier at about 50mph. Sadly my insurance company wrote the car off without a second thought and when I enquired about buying it back to repair it, they started umm-ing and ah-ing about how much they were going to give me for the car.
So it died I'm afraid
In some ways it was a blessing though - the paint job had begun to look a bit dodgy, the engine was smoking rather badly on start-up, the Air Con never worked properly since its restoration and the list went on. It has taught me a valuable lesson in Jaguar ownership: don't assume that a car has been restored properly just because it has a nice interior and new paint job!
Anyway, after a month of mourning I chanced upon an advert on Pistonheads for a 1987 3.6 manual with 16" lattice wheels, trip computer and cruise control, all factory options when new. It also has a louder exhaust and a lovely induction kit haha. All the big jobs had been done on a rolling basis and I did a deal on the spot.
Getting used to it is like learning to drive an entirely different car. It's as different to my old XJ-S as the XJ-40 was when I got that. But different in a good way - its condition is far better than its mileage of 89k would suggest!
So I'm back in an XJ-S and it's a lot better than the original one, even if I am now looking for a new set of double headlights and a veneered ski-slope!
Pictures of the new puddy tat are here:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=1 ... =724440427
Nice in black, eh?!
