Yes - a blip of the throttle makes my hair stand on end.
Thanks for all the comments - I guess I am on honeymoon at the moment but long may it continue.
It's a late '95 registered 6 litre V12 - one of the last couple of hundred, I understand, and it's flamenco (dark metallic) red with the usual magnolia leather. Although it isn't a final 'Celebration' edition (I'm not sure there were any V12 versions) it has all the extra bits like the 20-spoke alloys, 'hand painted' coachlines, weird half-wooden steering wheel, etc. It has the 'American' four-headlamp conversion as well, which should make life a bit easier when the dip-beams have to be changed for the French 'controle technique' test. It also has a Jaguar-badged Alpine stereo with a CD changer that I haven't been able to work out yet because, of all the mountain of paperwork that came with the car, the instruction book is missing. Maybe I can download one, although from the small amount of surfing on the subject I've done so far, Alpine doesn't seem to be much liked.
My experience so far is that scuttle shake is absent, which is as it should be because it has a lot of extra cross-bracing underneath.
That's about it so far - the fun has come to a standstill for now because it's pouring with rain here - thank goodness it wasn't yesterday.
Not sure about the road accident location - the mobile wasn't very good and I thought he said Northampton, but maybe he was heading for Nuneaton. It certainly closed a motorway somewhere.
Oh yes, and SWMBO got her nose sunburned...
Edited by mike hannon on 05/06/2009 at 19:25
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So wonderful. My last 'ride' in a V12 Jaguar was in an E-Type of 1973 vintage crouched in the back bombing along the M4 between Heathrow and Windsor. I'll never forget it. I think this was in about 1983-4. Still the sexiest looking car on the planet.
Memories last longer than dreams.....................MD.
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Wonderful thread. Read it just after watching the recording I made of the D-Day ceremony broadcast Sat afternoon.
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Very interesting reading about your trip Mike, meeting so many interesting folk along the way, pity about the car though - a bit of a Dinosaur and a gas guzzler as well - give me an XK8 anyday!
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Autotrader shows 15 Jaguar XJS 5.3 litre convertibles at prices from £4,990 to £20,000.
The initial purchase at least, is affordable for many people.
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Dinosaur and a gas guzzler
What's wrong with dinosaurs? What's wrong with thirsty cars? They're the real thing. Even if mh's 6 litre V12 is only doing 20 mpg, that's still terrific. V12 V12 V12 V12 V12... have you no soul man?
give me an XK8 anyday!
Chacun a son gout matey. Don't much fancy those myself. Don't like the way they look - fussy little thing, too chic, too high off the ground - although some models may drive all right. XF looks a lot better though.
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Agreed Lud. I'm a fan of the XJ-S, or should I say XJS, threads. They're a real tonic.
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>>> What's wrong with dinosaurs? What's wrong with thirsty cars? They're the real thing. Even if mh's 6 litre V12 is only doing 20 mpg, that's still terrific. V12 V12 V12 V12 V12... have you no soul man? <<<
Well me Lud, dinosaurs were just too damn big - like V12 engines, and so died the death - like most V12 engines, and come on man - 20 MPG ... think of his foot prints of carbon!
... and oh! that colour, I may have felt more warmly towards it, if it had been in old inglisch white!
Chacun a son gout matey ... and there's no accounting for *taste*? mon ami.
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Yes, it's a dinosaur - and so am I. ;-)
20mpg isn't disastrous for the planet if I only take it out to play with at weekends and some people would have had five new cars during mine's lifetime so don't talk to me about carbon footprints.
I refuse to be browbeaten on environmental grounds when thousands of perfectly good and useable cars under 10 years old are now being broken up for scrap so manufacturers can carry on doing their own sort of damage to the planet.
I guess if this venture goes belly-up I could turn in the XJS and get 2.5k euros for it under the French scrappage scheme and drive away with a shiny new environmentally friendly Kia Soul.
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHH!
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Just out of interest, I 'found' what SWMBO wrote to her friends after the pre-June 6 ferry trip and, in the light of the above interest, I thought I would steal her copyright and put it on here...
'' The ferry itself was an amazing experience. With the 65th anniversary of D Day being on Saturday, the survivors were out in force. There were dozens of coaches full of veterans and their wives (and in some cases their wheelchairs) and there was also a parachute regiment squadron aboard - you couldn't see the bar for camouflage outfits. One old chap near me commented disparagingly to his friend: 'they don't have to blanco their belts or polish their brass - and they don't even clean their shoes!' He was also sharply critical of the fact that officers no longer have batmen...
I've never seen a ferry so crowded - nor full of such constant, animated talk - it was quite delightful. The old boy next to me produced a snap of himself in uniform at 19 - the year after D Day. 'I took the King's shilling at 17,' he said. Behind me somebody was criticising the poor bombing - 'Nowhere near where they should have been,' - and someone else was describing how he dodged across the beach. Up on deck some of the modern 'men of war' were sitting round listening to the reminiscences of a veteran on crutches, his chest emblazoned with medals (as were all the ex-servicemen - in some instances also, on the right side of their coats, wearing a dead comrade's medals).
Also on board were lots of WWII military vehicles, the jeeps, ambulances, etc were genuine, but driven by middle-aged enthusiasts. And when we arrived at the hotel in Ouistreham, there were two jeep and trailers parked - flying the Swiss flag (I thought they were neutral?). No joke driving all the way from Switzerland in an open vehicle that can't do more than a respectable crawl - not much fun for the wives and two dogs, that is...
It's obviously going to be a great event, even for those who don't see Obama etc, and rightly so, since not many of them will be around for the 70th anniversary.
The car is lovely. On a fine day, it's like a mobile sun lounger - but don't tell Mike that, he's absolutely besotted with it.''
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But there's a hidden value here - the joy the car brings to others when being used. There's no joy in seeing a Kia Pride being mimsed down the road - but any decent Frenchman/lady will appreciate MH's choice, and raise a smile, as will I.
As Toad would say Toot-Toot!
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OK Mike - take it easy man ... I'm a car fanatic like most (if not all ) on HJ - apart from Lud and his Escort that is (hehe!) well - I must be having owned nigh on 40 cars in 39 years!
I have worked on the V12 cats - even when they had 4 of those devious devices with rubber diaphrgms where you put oil in the top :)
I've never had the fancy for a car with 3 engines though - not when 2 will suffice but, as the man says - Chacun a son gout matey!
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owned nigh on 40 cars in 39 years!
Sounds a bit restless to me... haven't you found one you really like yet perro?
And a bit less sneering at my Escort if you don't mind. A very stylish motor in its filthy, rust-spotted, vandalised exterior and perfectly sound internals, in London traffic both invisible and intimidating, just what you want unless you are a ponce. I always liked the thing (apart from its roly-poly looks really) but what really made me fall in love with it was our leader naming it as the archetypal chav car. Now that is true style.
Smirk.
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>>- like most V12 engines and come on man - 20 MPG... think of his foot prints of carbon!
carbon foot print....hmm, now how poorly stated has that comment become in recent times.
you'd have more success in properly lagging your home etc and/or not flying anywhere if you were serious about that subject..... driving a well maintained Jag V12 on the odd sunny day, for the joy of it, will make sod all difference in the big scheme of things
moaning about someone driving a classic V12 is coming from an entirely wrong angle: how about moaning about the manager making someone commute in their diesel Focus, instead of staying at home and using a laptop...or asking for our taxes to go on: subsided rail fares; making inner city traffic actually flow, so it's not constant stop/start; put big, safe, free car parks at railway/tube/bus stations, so car drivers will want to use public transport; how about some eco warriors slashing the roof tiles on properties where all the heat goes out through the roof because the occupants can't be bothered to sort it out..or does the politics of envy come into it?
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>>Sounds a bit restless to me... haven't you found one you really like yet perro? <<
Yup! all 38 of em ... I even like the Kia Soul - something different to the common or garden hatchback.
>>And a bit less sneering at my Escort if you don't mind<< ... I am truely sorry.
>>A very stylish motor << Now I know you're having a larf!
>>Smirk.<< smile a'la Blears.
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