I’m not sure how realistic this version is–need to do a cost guesstimate and then recoil in horror, I imagine. It’s “smaller” and more “zoned” than the prior effort, but with the complication that my office and Allie’s darkroom need to be housed out here, due to a smaller house. That means the cut floor space is added back in more expensive form. Sigh.
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Consider: This car was $69,000 new in 1996 (in today’s dollars, that’s about $90,000). I’m paying almost exactly 5% of the 1996 price for this car, in 2008. That depreciation is absolutely mind-boggling; in constant dollars, the car essentially lost 97% of its value in a bit more than a decade. Much as I love Jaguars, I cannot imagine buying one new unless I had chests of gold doubloons.

This Vanden Plas is not absolutely perfect, but it is in very nice condition, with 84,000 miles. I think it’s “Kingfisher Blue,” which is a darkish blue-green, depending on the light. The inside has all the usual excess, including lambswool over-rugs and picnic tables for those carefree afternoons picnicking in wine country gorging on gut bombs at the drive-in. It’s also the long-wheelbase version, which means the rear doors are about ten feet long.

After visiting the air museum (see the post prior to this one) we took a jaunt to the 2008 All British Field Meet. We arrived as things were winding down a bit, a few cars were leaving…still plenty to see!
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Paul Allen, of Microsoft fame, has opened a museum–The Flying Heritage Collection–featuring a collection of World War II fighter aircraft in Everett, Washington, not very far at all from Rusty Heaps HQ. It’s tremendous. And the best part? They are all in flying condition, and are flown!
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I enjoy how-to videos like this, even if I don’t have the skills to actually “how-to,” in this case. (The subject seems appropriate, though.)

To me, videos like this are a bit like the old joke about how to carve a horse from a solid block of marble: Just remove everything that doesn’t look like a horse.

Some photos taken at Pacific Raceways in Kent, Washington July 5, 2008. I didn’t take any notes and I’m not a compulsive photo snapper…so the selections are pretty random, and without captions, for the most part!
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Just have the front badge and the opening part of the hood to bolt back on, and of course getting the linkage for the governor sorted out.
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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.

I took Goldie and the “half-mine” trailer over to Lake Stevens today to help my friend Paul pick up a non-running 1963 Jaguar XKE Fixed Head Coupe (Paul owns the other half of the trailer–I think mine is the right half).
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My friend Jeff was kind enough to donate a period license plate frame from Seattle BMC, the local MG dealer when this car was new. It is now mounted on Reg the 1963 MGB, as you can see. It adds a nice period touch–even if my car was sold new in San Diego.

I removed the license plate mount assembly to make the job easier, and it seems that when this car was last painted (cheaply in Tijuana, Mexico, in 1973–no kidding) they didn’t remove the plate; it’s still the factory color back there! This is two philips-head screws, mind. When I finally get around to the bodywork, I’ll be repainting the car its original Old English White, which is much mellower and “of the time” than the appliance white that’s on there now.

Note the lichen collection. We have a pair of robins who have been trying to build a nest on the pillar for the carport–it falls down every day, and every day they try again. It’s been more than a month now…the insult “bird brain” has its genesis with creatures like this!