Click “more” for the rest of today’s adventure…
The video above is merely from Lunch until the end of the day in Banff (with a side trip to Lake Louise)… we lost the morning’s footage when the laptop battery conked out. Oh well.
After a great night’s sleep in our very nice room, we get up, drop off our bags at the luggage truck and wander in for an excellent breakfast. We’re joined by Wayne & Graceia Golomb, who own a Ferrari, but are driving a Jaguar Mk2 owned by one of the rally organizers. The Ferrari had some mechanical issue that prevented it running the rally. Last night Shaun & I checked the big Jaguar’s tachometer for Wayne as he said it wasn’t working. Old Jaguar’s tachs run off a small generator on the back of the intake camshaft, and they have only a couple of failure modes. A simple test can determine what it wrong and Shaun & I took a moment after we were done photographing cars to hook up my voltmeter to the tach and test it. We confirmed that there wasn’t anything we could do, that it would have to be replaced or repaired. It isn’t anything that really hurts performance, so long as you don’t drive the car too hard.
We enjoy breakfast while Wayne peppers me with questions about Jaguar ownership. He really likes the torque of the XK motor and is interested in learning more about the marque. I offer him time behind the wheel of the 65E and he thinks he’s too tall to fit in the car. I tell him to have a ‘test sit” before determining that in any definitive manner. He’ll take me up on it later.
Breakfast consumed, we head out to the car and start out of town, but first, the Cats needs their breakfast too!
For a while this was an ALL JAGUAR petrol station. 😉
Shaun finds himself some cough drops (endless “Riiiiii-coooola!” jokes ensue) and I fill up the 65E surrounded shortly thereafter by XK 120s, XK-SS’, XK-150s, and a few E-types. A Cobra and a Corvette show up, but roar off looking for gasoline elsewhere.
As we’re heading into his native land Shaun takes the wheel and points us towards the Great White North, eh.
The drive up to the 49th Parallel is uneventful, and we arrive at the queue for the Rooseville border crossing with our passports in hand:
The queue is likely the most unusual one they have had here in a long time. One of the Canadian border guards steps out to take a photo of all the rally cars lined up…
…somehow I bet that this camera is not government property and this was not an official task. 😉
We cross with no issues and roll into Beautiful British Columbia. Just past the border is a long straight stretch of road and Shaun’s poky driving has several rally cars passing us…
A pair of Dolans pass us in a Cobra (replica), and a pair of Genge’s in a 280sl.
Further on I note a really nice Hoodoo cliff face with a bridge under it, and make a mental note to use it as a backdrop for shooting car photos upon our return. While we’re under it the Chrysler 300 convertible comes up behind us.
I honestly do not recall if they ever pass us because for a short while the traffic gets kind of thick. The route switches highways a couple of times, then Shaun informs me that the Jaguar XKSS cars were coming up behind us. I clamber up and assume my tail gunner photography position (somebody really should get a photo of me doing this sometime… it’ll scare the bejesus out of my wife and my mother!)
This is apparently a historic moment, as these are the last two, number 15 and number 16, of the sixteen XKSS cars built by Jaguar before the February 12, 1957 factory fire that destroyed all the tooling required to build them. Jaguar had planned on a run of 100 XKSS cars, but only 16 were made. In the above photo Number 15 is on the left, and Number 16 is on the right. Jerry & Kathy Nell are the current caretakers of #15, and Philippe & Francoise Reyns care and feed #16. The photograph above re-creates one taken in a few decades ago with the last two XKSS cars on a track together, side by side. Philippe says he’ll send me a scan of the famous photo and I’ll post it here.
The XKSS’ made a wonderful roar as they passed us, one after the other.
I met both of these couples last year on the 2006 GTTSR. Jerry & Kathy drove a red Series 3 E-type and Philippe & Francoise drove a black Series 1 E-type. It was wonderful to have them back and a real treat to have them bring both XKSS’!
Shortly after the parade of XKSS cars go by we’re passed by Les Rich and Phil Taxman in their Series 3 E-type:
Our destination for lunch is the Fairmont Hot Springs resort. Shaun parks the 65E next to the #16 XKSS and I capture a family portrait. Can you spot the genetic lineage?
We enjoy a nice buffet lunch (I had the lasagna) and return to the parking lot where I snap a few cars as they go by. The route book says this is a 1973 Porsche but it sure looks to me like an Alfa Romeo Giulia SS!
I don’t need the route book to spot this car, it is Gary & Deborah Anderson’s 1967 GT 350…
While I’m admiring the lineup of Jaguars, Shaun starts banging away on my laptop in an attempt to figure out why our “JagCam” keeps eating footage instead of saving it. Both Shaun & I are IT Professionals so you’d think between the two of us we could make this rig work properly! Overhearing us speak in tencho-jargon Francoise Reyns comes over and makes a technical support request:
I’m pretty sure Shaun was able to answer her question… I try not to think about work-related things while I’m on vacation. Shaun, being Canadian, is too polite to not be helpful. 😉
The JagCam is fixed, and the cars are all leaving. I take the wheel of the 65E and point us north on Highway 95. We’re in the heart of the Canadian Rockies Tourista Zone, on the last official day of Summer, so the traffic is pretty thick. We’re low on oil and I haven’t been able to find my usual brand or weight anywhere so far. We pull over in a Husky station in Radium Hot Springs and Shaun sits in the car while I search some out. The gas station is PACKED with cars, trucks, SUVs and motorhomes all queueing up for fuel. I go in and look for 20W-50 and come up empty-handed. I tell Shaun that I’m going across the highway to the PetroCanada station to try there…
I should have gone by car, as doing so by foot was tough. Here I am standing in what is surely the busiest Intersection in all of Western Canada, trying to get across the street without benefit of a crosswalk! It was like a Frogger game from the 1980s! Finally one of the rally cars sees me and stops to allow me to cross. They hang a left behind me and follow me into the PetroCanada station. It is the Golumb’s in the Mk2 and they are in a panic due to a strong smell of gasoline in the cabin of the big saloon car. I take a look under the car and sure enough there is a puddle of petrol and a tell-tale drip from a fuel line union. I don’t have my tools in my pocket, so I tell them to pull over into the Husky station across the street and we’ll tackle the problem ASAP. They head over and I grab all the remaining 20W-50 oil from the PetroCanada store, along with some Colorful Canadian Cash from the ATM. I nimbly jump between the cars, over the logs, lilly pads and alligators to get back to the car. Shaun & I take care of the Mk2 and I top off the E-type’s oil supply.
It takes us a while to get everything sorted out, and the Rally Mechanics show up right at the end in one of the sweep trucks. We’re pretty confident we have the situation sorted with the Mk2, and the presence of the mechanic with truck and trailer is a comfort. We pull over and wait for the Golumb’s to fill up the big Jag and follow them into Kootenay National Park on Hwy 93. After a while Wayne gives us the “thumbs up” sign, indicating that the gasoline smell is gone from the Mk2 so we relax and enjoy the run through the park. Well… we enjoy MOST of it. I got stuck behind a Ford Taurus that putted along slowly, never pulled over to allow me to pass, for what seemed like miles. You can see the car I’m talking about from 3:55 until 3:46 on the timelapse. I declined the opportunity to pass it on a passing lane as I was being courteous and conservative in my driving in the National Park. As I come off the accelerator and allow it to merge left in front of me Shaun says “You’re going to regret that!” and he is right. The Taurus driver rides his brakes and putts around so slowly that it is maddening! I finally pass it on the right (something I never do in ordinary circumstances!) on a turn/merge lane. As I pull away I see the long line of cars it is holding up all pile in behind it and smile knowing that I’m free from this particular moron.
We eventually catch up to the Golombs and where Hwy 93 meets Hwy 1 we pull over and offer them to accompany us up to Lake Louise for a side trip. They accept and we head north together, fill up on fuel and take a walk to the lake to soak in the view.
Above Shaun Redmond at Lake Louise.
Above: Lake Louise without any annoying tourists blocking the view. I had climb off the boardwalk, onto the rocks, and hold my camera out over the water to get this shot. By the way: Moraine Lake is actually far more scenic than Lake Louise. I suggest a trip over there to anyone heading to the Parks.
Above: Wayne Golumb and Shaun listen to Graceia Golumb. Note her Automobilia Canadiana T-shirt.
Above: Shaun didn’t like being tagged as a Washingtonian, so he modified his nametag.
We depart Lake Louise and take the alternative route of 1A, aka The Bow Valley Parkway down to Banff. It is blissfully traffic-free, with just a handful of cars on it. We’re very late to arrive at our hotel, the famous Banff Springs Hotel, a former Canadian Pacific landmark, constructed almost entirely in stone. It is a labyrinth and our special check-in area has been abandoned, so we have to make our way to the main reception desk and get our room. It is at the end of a very, very long hallway.
At dinner we learn that the #15 XKSS, the Nell’s car has blown a head gasket. The rally mechanics plan to trailer it into Calgary and replace it tomorrow, our rest day. All they need is a standard 3.8 liter XK engine gasket. I put out the call to the Jag-Lovers.org E-type group, knowing that if anyone can find one, they can. I get plenty of leads and pass them on to the Rally Mechanics, Greg Lerback and Don Dean via Shaun and his Canadian cell phone (mine isn’t working very well and Verizon has international roaming charges that are usurious.) We also hear that the Draper Ferrari, a ’67 330 GTS has broken its transaxle. Ugh what a bad day for expensive cars!
We plan on heading up to Jasper on our “rest day” and the Reyns agree to tag along in their XKSS. We head to bed with no idea what is in store for us tomorrow.