The classic car thread

Fretwired

Let's chat about classic cars.

Jaguar Mark 2 3.4 Litre - my first girlfriend's dad had one of these and I can still remember the smell of the leather, the wood dash and the roar of the engine. He was an ex-US marine who came to work in the UK and he always wanted to own a Jag - I remember him getting it. Took it back to the States when they left in '76.

This is a great restoration .. love the look of this car.

Nitefly

@chillidoggy - do you still have that Lotus?

Funkfingers

My grandfather had a mk2 3.2 with overdrive. It had to go shortly after he retired from The Surrey Herald. 

stickyfiddle

Our wedding car was a Jag Mk2. My Dad thought it wasn't posh enough as he grew up with them being bank managers' cars, but it did just fine for us

He has an Austin Healey 3000 and an ex-works Escort mk1 rally car in the garage. I've ever had anything older than 1998, but can't help but feel affinity for anything vaguely "classic". Does a Porsche 993 count as classic yet?  

ROOG

stickyfiddle said:

Our wedding car was a Jag Mk2. My Dad thought it wasn't posh enough as he grew up with them being bank managers' cars, but it did just fine for us

He has an Austin Healey 3000 and an ex-works Escort mk1 rally car in the garage. I've ever had anything older than 1998, but can't help but feel affinity for anything vaguely "classic". Does a Porsche 993 count as classic yet?  

I remember my father saying that jags were popular as bank robbers cars!

drofluf

An ex-girlfriend's father had a nice collection of classic cars including, apparently, the former staff car of the head of German forces in occupied Germany.

On one occasion he asked me to deliver a convertible Alvis to him in Oslo. Had a great week using it as my "personal transport" at university before delivering it.

boogieman

I love the look of the Mk 2 but apparently they aren’t the most comfortable of cars or even that nice to drive. Legend has it that John Thaw hated driving the Morse Mk 2 with a vengeance. 

 

I have a big soft spot for Rovers, P4, 5 and 6. I ran a 3.5L P6 for a while and would love another one if I had the garage space. 

proggy

ROOG said:

stickyfiddle said:

Our wedding car was a Jag Mk2. My Dad thought it wasn't posh enough as he grew up with them being bank managers' cars, but it did just fine for us

He has an Austin Healey 3000 and an ex-works Escort mk1 rally car in the garage. I've ever had anything older than 1998, but can't help but feel affinity for anything vaguely "classic". Does a Porsche 993 count as classic yet?  

I remember my father saying that jags were popular as bank robbers cars!

They were on The Sweeney.

Kilgore

My grandad was a massive Jag fan. Saloons and a couple of E types, series 2 coupe and series 3 2+2.

 At the time my dad had an Alfa Montreal, they used to race up and down the M1. On paper the E type was faster but the Alfa left it in the dust. At 130+ mph the E type started turning into an aeroplane. 

TTony

I had this  for a few years back in the 1990s ...



3500 V8 auto.  Completely effortless to drive, but I eventually decided that classic cars are best appreciated from the outside rather than the driver's seat! 

It seemed to do everything in slo-mo compared to modern cars.  Acceleration was "leisurely", despite the V8, braking even more so.  

goldtop

If it's got to be a Jaguar, it has to be the XJ Coupe.

The correct answer to the thread, though, is Citroen DS.

ESBlonde

Our drummist is a classic car nut.

He has a mk 1 transit camper van and a Mk 2 Cortina Estate. His daily driver is a Mitsi Gallant Estate. he sometimes brings the transit or Cortina to our sunday rehearsal sessions just so they get a run out.

While the old motors bring back memories the stink of petrol as they pull away is less enticing.

ArchtopDave

A friend of mine back at Uni in the mid 60's had a love of older cars, and had a rather nice Jaguar XK for while ( in those days they were not considered collectors' items).

I still own the first car that I bought with my own money. My father bought me my first car - a Ford Anglia, which wasn't that good at handling wet roads, and I traded it in after owning it for a year and a half. I have a 1972 TR6, which I bought in 1977. I still have the original receipt - I paid £2450 for it (for reference, my annual salary, as a junior doctor, was something like £4000 at the time).

boogieman

TTony said:

I had this  for a few years back in the 1990s ...



3500 V8 auto.  Completely effortless to drive, but I eventually decided that classic cars are best appreciated from the outside rather than the driver's seat! 

It seemed to do everything in slo-mo compared to modern cars.  Acceleration was "leisurely", despite the V8, braking even more so.  

That’s what I had too, except mine was white with a brown vinyl roof ... and orange seats and baby poo coloured carpets. I’d love to know what drugs the BL design team were taking in the 70s. 

Agreed on the lazy performance, although the v8 was massively undertuned in the P6 and only chucked out about 130bhp I think. The brakes on mine were really good though. Mine unfortunately didn’t have power steering, it was great fun parking the thing, I developed biceps like Popeye.  

SteveRobinson

TTony said:

I had this  for a few years back in the 1990s ...



3500 V8 auto.  Completely effortless to drive, but I eventually decided that classic cars are best appreciated from the outside rather than the driver's seat! 

It seemed to do everything in slo-mo compared to modern cars.  Acceleration was "leisurely", despite the V8, braking even more so.  

If you think yours was slow, my Dad had the 2.2l version (same colour). I think the engine was the same as a Land Rover!

Hurling_Fruitmig

proggy said:

ROOG said:

stickyfiddle said:

Our wedding car was a Jag Mk2. My Dad thought it wasn't posh enough as he grew up with them being bank managers' cars, but it did just fine for us

He has an Austin Healey 3000 and an ex-works Escort mk1 rally car in the garage. I've ever had anything older than 1998, but can't help but feel affinity for anything vaguely "classic". Does a Porsche 993 count as classic yet?  

I remember my father saying that jags were popular as bank robbers cars!

They were on The Sweeney.

I seem to remember some documentary about cars on TV shows where they implied that Morse's Mk 2 was a subliminal statement from the producers about the police always being one step behind the bad guys. He drove a 2.4l where in reality bank robbers preferred the much faster 3.8l. History doesn't record Jack Reagan's thoughts on this theory.

Hurling_Fruitmig

George the Morris Minor 1000 was our daily driver for years and didn't do too badly, although breaking down 40 minutes into a drive from North Yorkshire to Devon was a bit of a low point. He looks pretty good in black and white, but in reality he's about five different shades of Trafalgar blue. We've still go him awaiting a bit (quite a lot) of TLC.

EricTheWeary

I had a band mate who’s day job was doing up classic cars. He would turn up in the odd unusual vehicle - Jags, Pontiacs- and his own car was a 1970s Range Rover. Just a big box on wheels, he used to show us his spanner and screwdriver and said there wasn’t anything he couldn’t fix on it with just those. 

proggy

SteveRobinson said:

TTony said:

I had this  for a few years back in the 1990s ...



3500 V8 auto.  Completely effortless to drive, but I eventually decided that classic cars are best appreciated from the outside rather than the driver's seat! 

It seemed to do everything in slo-mo compared to modern cars.  Acceleration was "leisurely", despite the V8, braking even more so.  

If you think yours was slow, my Dad had the 2.2l version (same colour). I think the engine was the same as a Land Rover!

I also had the 2.2tc version in the mid 80s, although it was listed as being 'Luna Grey' it was actually a horrid washed out green colour and did 0 to 60 eventually.....

I can remember driving home from Hertfordshire on the A10 one Sunday afternoon and the engine dropped a valve, It limped all the way back to London at 20 mph. I took it to a mechanic the following day, and when he told me the cost of the repair I sold it as a non-runner for a few quid.

I bought a Triumph TR7 after that, which was also a heap of junk.

not_the_dj

My dad had a Morris Marina, and then an Ital. 

I don’t think I’ll ever forgive him. 

boogieman

not_the_dj said:

My dad had a Morris Marina, and then an Ital. 

I don’t think I’ll ever forgive him. 

My dad had an Ital as a company car, a sickly kind of apricot colour with a shite brown velour interior. For some unknown reason he actually bought it off the company when he retired.