Category: Cars

I am a “car guy”… I love old cars.

Jay Leno’s Garage, Jaguar XK 120

(Giving a long-distance “Good bye” to my dad’s Jaguar XK 120 today… the eBay deal is wrapping up as we speak, so here is a good XK 120 link:)

Jay Leno’s Garage, Jaguar XK 120

Have a look at Jay Leno’s website about cars. Especially the two Jaguar videos about the XK 120, with Jay talking and driving the Jag, and Bernard Juchli, Leno’s Mechanic, talking about the Jaguar’s mechanical aspects.

Some observations:

Jay & I think alike about one thing, the wonderful sound of the XK engine! “The car has a radio, but why listen to it when you can listen to that?” I agree. Sir William’s Sixth Symphony is such a joy to the ear of any car guy. You cannot really capture it with recording equipment. It must be experienced first hand. Sure there is the baritone rumble of the exhaust, but what you can’t hear except in the physical presence of the machine are the more subtle sections of the orchestra: The rustling of the cams. The XK’s chain-driven, flat-tappet, twin-cam head makes a wonderful synchronous rattle that adds a sort of woodwind to the thunderous exhaust note. Speaking of wind, there is also a distinct whistle to the air intake system. I can even here my alternator now and then. It all adds up to a very pleasing experience to the ear of the driver. To me that “road music” is a fundamental part of the vintage Jaguar sports car experience. I love it that (mostly) Jay just shuts up and lets that sound through. 😉 Not that I don’t enjoy hearing him talk now and then… especially about cars, but in this instance, the sound is more important than his words.

I also like that he rightly declared the XK as the English equivalent of the small-block Chevy engine to create a frame of historical reference for American car guys. It was a truly remarkable machine that powered an amazing range of vehicles through SIX DECADES of production. Starting in the 40s and finishing in the 90s, it powered race cars, limousines, sports cars, luxo-barges, sedans, saloons… even Armored Personnel Carriers and Tanks! A legendary engine, with very little known about it here in the US, despite the hundreds of thousands of them sold here. I’m always amazed at the wonder people express when I open the bonnet at a car show, or where ever… It is so unlike the squat V-config archetype of “engine” that most car guys have in their heads.

It is fitting today to find this link. My Dad’s old XK 120 will be on its way to Denmark soon, heading to its new home and caretaker. It will be missed.

Zagato at it again: Maserati GS Zagato – Autoblog

Zagato at it again: Maserati GS Zagato – Autoblog

There is a term in the Design world called “Zeitgeist”, which is a German word roughly translated as “Spirit of the Time”. I saw the photograph of the custom Zagato-bodied Maserati on Autoblog and I first thought it was a new Jaguar XK, or maybe an Aston-Martin. Both of the latter were designed by Ian McCallum, not Zagato.

Then I remembered Zeitgeist.

Think back to the any era in automobiles and there are thematic elements that strongly identify the cars from that era. Spats, Fins, Curves, Wedges. There, I just defined the 40s, 50s, 60s and 70s for you. 😉

Picasso said it so well, “Bad artists copy, and good artists steal.” Artists and Designers have been copying and stealing from each other since the dawn of time, so the ‘alikeness’ of some things is to be expected. Only rarely do objects appear that are BOTH revolutionary in appearance AND immediately appreciated. Usually when confronted with the revolutionary we reflexively reject it, as it is TOO different. This is true of all avenues of human expression, art, music, cars, movies, fashion, etc.

Think about that old Jaguar I have in the barn. It appeared in 1961 and literally caused a sensation. There was a lot about it that seemed “revolutionary” at the time, but in reality it was just an evolutionary step that was logical in nature. Disc brakes everywhere, independent rear suspension, “supercar” performance at a reasonable price… and of course the styling… all had been previewed before in bits, just never rolled into a mass-produced package. You can see the influence of the very successful D-type Jaguar race cars in the lines of the E-type. It was just smoothed out into something less pugnacious and more elegant. The result was stunning.

You can see its influence (or as Picasso would say, its felonious reappearance) across a broad spectrum of machines that all appeared within two years of the E-type’s debut in Geneva. They span the range from the Ferrari 250 GTO, to the Chevrolet Corvette. You could even say it became such an iconic shape as to have echoes a decade later, with such machines as the Datsun 240Z.

So I expect that the comment whiners all over the Web will complain about the sameness of this design (which by the way the SECOND time I looked at it seem to me to have paternal lineage in the Aston/Jag camp, and maternal links to the new Alfa Romeo 8C) but not realize that this was a one-off, for a customer, who shelled out big bucks, er… Euros, for it. As such it was built to meet HIS needs, not yours. People don’t buy revolutions, they buy comfort.

Does it remind me of other cars? Of course! Does that bother me? Nope.

Car Photo Of The Day.

That’s the Glace brothers, in an XK 140 MC FHC (IIRC… heh, sorry couldn’t resist that temptation) in the 2001 Forza Amelia Vintage Rally. Yours truly is in the foreground, enjoying my first ever ride in a 300sl as we depart Amelia Island for St. Augustine.

Somehow Highway 1A1 up the east coast lacks a certain je ne sai quois, of the equivalent routes here on the west coast. Go figure.