Most classic car enthusiasts have fantasies of finding a rare car while poking around the countryside–perhaps a Deusenberg sitting on four flat tires in a barn, or a “fuelie” Corvette waiting to be rescued in a carport. Heck, if we’re going to dream, maybe even finding one of the factory Jaguar E-Type Lightweight race cars in a suburban garage under a pile of boxes–but who am I kidding, that’s preposterous.

What I tend to find are cars like this decaying Biscayne, discovered in the woods on a piece of property we were considering a few years ago. (Needless to say, it’s still there.) The Biscayne was the bottom-of-the-line full-size sedan in Chevrolet’s 1959 line-up, though they aren’t often seen these days for that very reason. What struck me about this car was how very complete it is, glass aside. There are a couple of minor bits of trim missing, but otherwise it looks like it was driven to its current resting place–mind you, probably about 1979!

xkedata.com (another of my empire of non-money-making web sites–a proud Roger tradition) is selling 2009 calendars featuring either XK120, XK140 and XK150 Jaguars or E-Type Jaguars. The monies raised (I get a slice off the top of the purchase price) help pay for hosting–I don’t typically sell many, but every one helps.

You can see all of the images selected (above is the January image on the XK calendar) on xkedata, or you can buy them from Cafe Press.

Note: To see the item below, you have to have the photosynth plugin installed. You may be out of luck on a non-Windows machine, too, sorry about that–I’m just fooling around, here.

This was automagically stitched by photosynth, a Microsoft Live technology. I uploaded the photos from my visit to the flight museum, and it was able to put a few together. When it works it’s pretty neat, but some of the failures leave me scratching my head…not that software like this isn’t insanely complex, and it’s neat it’s available at all. But there are a few examples where the photos would seemingly be easy to stitch, and yet they’re not.

Anyway, if you can see it, enjoy.

Being just a tad mental, I cruise craigslist almost every day to check out what might be for sale in their “ye olde English clunker” section. With gas prices what they are, copywriters are getting quite imaginative in their descriptions.

I have owned a number of MGBs, some good, some crummy, some with twin carbs, some with single Weber DGVs, and I have never, ever gotten much more than 27 MPG–on the highway. I’ll concede that a nicely tuned, overdrive-equipped car with a gentle driver could possible get somewhere in the low 30’s–again, on the highway. However, I now see ads touting 35, 40 and even 45 MPG from the Abingdon product, which is ridiculous. Heck, 40 MPG would be stretching it from a Mini 850 or an early Midget.

There’s an ad for a Jaguar XJR similar to the one I owned that suggests it’s “a powerful gas-saver.” Uh, sure. I got in the mid-teens from mine around town and no more than the low 20’s on the highway. I suppose compared to my F250 (about 10 MPG no matter what) that’s saving, but…c’mon. Are we all so used to driving giant SUVs that anything above 12 MPG is considered frugal?

Of course, the same folks who make up MPG figures like this also believe everything written in the laughable NADA Price Guides, which exist solely so state departments of licensing can rip you off when it’s time to transfer the title on your car. Hint: take the values in NADA and divide by two–that’s a good start; go down from there.

An older car whose surprising mileage claims you can believe (a little!) are 88-94 XJ6 (XJ40) sedans. They’re kinda crummy around town (17 MPG) but on the highway I achieved over 30 MPG on a very fast trip from Seattle to Eugene, Oregon. For a big, heavy luxury sedan, that’s pretty reasonable.

Thanks to cobalt123 for the use of the photo.

What is the guy in the Jaguar doing? How many miles did he drive cross-country (with his five-inch ground clearance) to reach the lad he’s talking to? Did people really herd cattle in traditional dress through the 1960s? Where is this left-hand-drive car supposed to be? Africa? The Indian sub-continent? The Steppes? Argentina?

(If you look carefully at the car, it’s clear not all press cars were carefully vetted. The door fit is questionable, as is the bonnet. Makes it quite clear that most E-Types that are “show quality” are much better now than they were when new!)

(Forgive the pun!) My friend Paul and I travelled to Olympia today to look at a Frogeye Sprite and a Mini “Cooper” that a gentleman down there has. His shop was absolutely stuffed with 2-stroke Saabs, some of them quite rare these days.
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Chuck brings up in the comments on my “disconnect” article that I could (possibly) have bought a $120,000 car based on the money flushed down the toilet paid for the cars listed in the column at page right. Is it true?
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I saw this car at 2007’s All British Fuel Leak Field Meet in Vancouver B.C., long before I bought my car from my friend and neighbor. I took a number of photos at the show–mostly of oddball stuff–and you can see them here in “slideshow” format.

I’m editing the layout to make it a bit wider and going back and removing my old photos and replacing them with larger versions, now hosted on flickr. There really isn’t an easy, good photo manager for Wordpress, so I’m going with Big Brother.

Ford pulled the plug on the Cafe Press store I use (used?) to sell fund-raising merchandise for “xkedata.com”. They claim I am infringing on their trademarked material–which is ironic, as I took great pains to not include the word “Jaguar”, the Jaguar logotype, or the “leaping kitty” trademark on any material I had in the store.

I just don’t have time or money to fight this, so they’ll probably win. Congratulations, Ford (and their stalwart partners at Howard, Phillips & Andersen, LLC, in Salt Lake City, Utah)–you guys have shut down a real racket! $500 less a year of nicely designed reminders of Jaguar’s classic heritage will not find buyers!

Chuck has his say.