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A sad day here in Goolsbee-land. I spoke with my father a bit ago on the phone and he informed me that the red 300sl that he and mom bought nine years ago has sold. That car will be missed. I only was able to drive it a few times but each moment at that wheel was magical. In many ways the 300sl was the very first “supercar” and to have any miles in one is a privilege. In that respect I am a very lucky man.
I’ve featured many of the amazing Jaguars in the collection of Philippe Reyns before, including his XK-SS and pre-war SS100, but I’ve rarely displayed the first car I met him in, his black Series 1, 3.8 E-type. Philippe and his wonderful wife Francoise attended the 2006 Going To The Sun Rally in this E-type. It is in much better condition than mine. We’ve become friends and now I always get together with them when they come to the Seattle area (except this past year when I was out of town when they were in!)
As for the functional beauty of the E-type’s louvered bonnet, it is clear from the D-type predecessor that the function is really required on the left (exhaust) side of the bonnet, but the right (intake) side was also louvered to balance the appearance. I may be wrong on this, so hard-core gearheads feel free to correct me. Of course it all went “banana-shaped” as the Brits say with the Series 3 E-type in 1971 when they had to put shielding under the louvers to keep rain off the cylinder heads of the wider-than-XK V-12 engine.
Regardless of all the above, it is beautiful, isn’t it?
There was an illustration in the brochure for the E-type Jaguar that just showed the bonnet, seemingly coming at the viewer at an angle like this… minus the rest of the car. While this photograph is not of an E-type, it has the same aesthetic about it. The focus here is all upon the wonderful curves, adornments, and reflections of this most shapely and beautiful bonnets.
I could stare into that gorgeous paint all day long…
Here are two shots of the black-on-black Big Healey that has graced the last few CPotD posts. It participated in the very first Going To The Sun Rally I was able to join in 2006. It was driven very hard every day, yet always looked and sounded great.
Bonus points for naming the cars in the backgrounds.
Oddly my first thought upon watching this is: Who wants to meet me down at Ivar’s for some clams?
My second thought is: Let’s see the simulation of the proposed tunnel filling up with seawater during a similar event.
(hat tip to my neighbor Bill Gilliam for the link)
This is another photo of the car that appeared in the last CPotD.
Sorry Reverend, there is no leopard skin dash here, but we do have a louvered hood to contemplate.
