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I am a “car guy”… I love old cars.
The question came up on the E-type mailing list this evening about the number of washers under the head bolts on early Jaguar 4.2L XK engines. Since I have one, I said I’d run and take some photos. So here they are.
Looks like just the one D-shaped thick washer Ben. Hope that helps.
The rest of you can just view this as more engine porn. =)
This engine, including it’s Kompressor were disassembled and on the bench when I photographed them. The light was low in that corner of the shop, but I hesitated to use the flash to avoid harsh shadows and exposures. The results were a tad underexposed and occasionally blurry. I hope you enjoy the photos.
I promised some photos of the engine of the Mercedes-Benz 540k Special Roadster a while back when it appeared as the “Car Photo of the Day”, and while digging I found all manner of photos I have of engines in various stages of undress. A light bulb went off over my head: “this is like porn for gearheads!” A new theme is born.
Much like the “Road Photo of the Day” theme I’ll write a bit and show some nice engines.
The above almost needs no explanation, as it is one of the iconic V-12s from Maranello. Enzo Ferrari always was an engine builder more than a car builder. To Enzo a car was merely a place-holder for his engines. He famously once said “Aerodynamics are for people who can’t build engines” but of course was forced to adopt them once his world-beating engines started losing to areo-equipped lesser machines.
Stay tuned for more!
I’m working from home today. Give me a chance to brew up a batch of BioDiesel, and maybe clean the last dirt off the Jaguar between emails and phone calls. Tomorrow I’m heading up to Vancouver BC for the All British Field Meet. I haven’t been in 3 years, and honestly wasn’t planning on it, but Nick asked if we could go. If any readers see us there, stop and say hello!
Above is a shot of the “wing” of a Triumph TR4A, seen at the Going To The Sun Rally in Montana. The photo was taken almost exactly in the same spot as the Allard photo from yesterday, just facing 180° the other way, and two years apart!
Work & life issues have kept me away from posting updates here the past few days. I wasn’t even able to do my usual pre-posting duties, that is setting up a post at night and setting my site software to have it go live at some point the following day. Apologies for that. So to make up I’ll post a few random car photos.
Here’s a good “name that car” post, though I’m pretty sure it has appeared here before:
Here is somebody doing a bit of boasting:
Here is something for the ‘Weird Seen’ category!
…and another:
Regular posting of updates should continue again soon.
Seen at my hometown car show, which is coming up again in exactly a month and a day.
Here’s the frontside:
I’m in the process of crafting a short “review” of the E-type. While I’m finding it difficult to condense a lot of history, and driving impressions down to ~800 words, it is fun to try and capture this bit of lightning it a bottle.
If you have a few moments have a look and tell me what you think.
I’m happy to scrap the whole thing and start over if need be.