A local Jag

Those of you who know me will know about my other passion: cars.  I've spent almost all of my career working for OEMs and it is something I love to be involved with as a job.  As I've got older, my appreciation for classics has grown much stronger, especially for European makes.

 So it was with some pleasure that I found this Jaguar XKE (E Type) parked only a couple streets away from my house.  This one, a Series III V12, is the last of the E Types and was probably manufactured in the early 1970s (the plate surround suggests 1974 - so a very late build).  It features Jaguar's powerful, but troublesome 5.3L V12 engine, a wider stance and is usually seen with spoked wheels.  This model is the least collectable of the E Types - a very nice Series 1 with the enclosed headlamps and 3.8L six cylinder engine (from the early-mid 1960s) is worth well over $100,000 in today's market.

Though I am not at all a perfectionist, there were some things about this car that annoyed me.  The cheap 'Racing' stripes (barely visible in the pics) looked very tacky on a car like, the new exhaust look like a boy racer's wet dream, and the mud flaps not only interrupted the car's graceful lines, it looked like they were off grandpa's old sedan (but admittedly did match the awful whitewall tires).  

However, the car had its good points - the lovely dark blue paint looked very good, as did the chrome and the interior.

All in all, a beautiful car that a little work could return to its former glory.