1. Overview of the E-type.

"But then, we know all that. If we won the lottery, we'd buy a pre-1967 XK-E roadster, bright red, bright enough to make Alfa owners go home and drown their sorrows in denominazione di origine controllata e garantita as the sound of six thumping cylinders roared across the echo chambers of the Santa Cruz mountains, shaking the acorns from the quercus agrifolia and the needles from the sequoia sempervirens, rustling the dew from innumerable lilies as the cams opened and closed in their aluminum womb beneath the long speedbumped bonnet straddled by ventilating louvers. The slim red taillights would wink late braking under the elms, the wishbones would play their camber game and keep the tires planted as torque pushed the slip angles to new and exciting heights. We'd have a car in which we could outdrag a jacked-up Camaro, out-corner a blacked-out 911, and spit pieces of halfshaft up through the floor of the passenger compartment, all in the same historic day."
(Scott Fisher)

"It's a dream of a lifetime. I drove a 71 XKE V12 from 1981 to 1985 everyday. Those were the best years of my life. I loved going to work. We even took the car on vacation on year. Not much room for luggage, we didn't go far or stay to long. Driving the car everyday is the best thing for it. It didn't leak, it didn't smell and it stayed in tune longer. As a matter of fact I decided to buy a XJS V12 so that I can recapture that memorable time in my life"
Jack Bednarski (jackb@epix.net)

"I for one purchased a '66 E Type Coupe in '72 for $2,000US, I still own the car and for the first 11 years of ownership drove it every day rain or shine (California Style) as well as on 800+ mile trips, the car NEVER let me down in all the 135,000 miles of driving. The pride of ownership and the continual thumbs up from admirers and on lookers far outweighs all the minor inconveniences that you encounter with the car.I have owned over 50 different cars during my life and I have to say that the E Type has been the most enjoyable, comfortable and fun ride I have encountered."
Ed (edf@studio.sgi.com)

2. Prelude to the E-Type: The Jaguar C and D-Types

Back in 1950, Jaguar engineers combined the drivetrain from an XK120 with a space frame chassis and a beautiful aluminium aircraft inspired aerodynamic body. With some aggressive tuning, the resulting car won the 24 hour of Le Man race in it's first year, linking Jaguar with the legendary Bently racecars of the decades before. Within the next year, the XK120C had been fitted with the first disk brakes and the C-type was the dominant car on the race circuits of 1953. However, the sun was soon to set on the C-type as the more advanced Ferrari and Mercedes 300 SLs appeared on the scene.

1954 saw the arrival of the D-type, Jaguar's first all-out racecar. The D-type chassis was a lightweight alloy monocoque with a low profile dry-sump high-compression XK engine. It was again victorious at Le Mans in 1955, after which the factory Jaguar race efforts were scaled back and finally closed down after the 1956 season. However, private race teams such as the Scottish Ecurie Ecosse, continued to successfully campaign the D-type for several more years. The peak of the D-type's career came in 1957 when it took the first four places at Le Mans. During this brief beautiful period, the Jaguar D-type was the dominant sports car for it's time.

From the instant of it's unveiling, the E-type was a sensation. The specially tuned press cars could attain true 150mph speeds while the sensuous curves and long reach were loved by the sylists. The E-type design evolved through three basic variations, gaining weight and niceties while losing performance and the purity of it's original style.

Thus, given it's background, when you want to emphasize the racing heritage of your XKE, call it an E-type and when you wish to connect it to the famous XK120, XK140 and XK150 sports cars, refer to it as an XKE.

SERIES I (1961-1967)

The powertrain was carried over from the XK-150 line: the superb 3.8L Jaguar XK overhead cam straight six engine matched with a non-syncro Moss four-speed transmission. With triple 2" SU carburators, this 265 hp E-type was capable of 6.9 sec 0-60mph times with top speeds near 150mph.

In late-1964, a number of improvements were made to the XKE. The more powerful 4.2L version of the XK engine replaced the 3.8L gaining low end torque at the expense of high end revs. With the 4.2L engine came the much improved sycromesh transmission and a number of other minor improvements.

1966 saw the release of the long wheel base 2+2 fixed head XKE. Jaguar fitted BW8 automatic transmissions to the 2+2 coupes, taking the first steps away from a true sports car and to a GT car.

SERIES I.5 AND II (1968-1969)

The series II was probably the most unloved of the three generations, lacking the fluid grace and style of the original SI body and the exotic V12 engine of the SIII.

SERIES III (1970-1975)

"Driving up the coast, loving life is a great plan. Exactly what it excels at. On the other hand, the engine is low compression and the head is a pitiful design. While it generally will be much more lively than an XJ-S due to a large weight difference and a 3.54 rear instead of the 2.88 in the XJ-S, don't overlook the fact that contemporary road tests showed the SWB XJ-6 and XJ-6C's performed and handled as well as the E-Type V-12. Don't embarrass yourself by dueling with Series 1 or 1 1/2 E-Types or any halfway sporty modern car. Either will eat your lunch. Drive carefully, it has tall, skinny, non-stick tires by today's standards. Mounting them on very flexible wire wheels makes it worse (but pretty!)"
Mike Cogswell (M.Cogswell@zds.com)

Performance vs Other British Sports Cars

Make     Model        Speed   0-60   30-70   50-70   MPG
AC       COBRA 289    138     5.5     5.1     4.1    15.1
TVR      350i         136     6.6     7.8     8.8    19.6
Lotus    Elan Sprint  121     6.7     7.5     7.0    22.2
Jaguar   E-Type 3.8   150     6.9     5.7     5.4    17.9
Lotus    7 Twin Cam   103     7.1     7.2     8.1    19.2
Triumph  TR8          130     7.1     6.2     8.0    20.0 
TVR      3000M        121     7.7     8.1     6.7    21.4
Triumph  TR6          119     8.2     8.0     10.5   19.8
Jaguar   MK2 3.8      125     8.5     8.5     8.6    15.7
AC       ACE          117     9.1     8.9     8.5    21.6
A-Healey 3000Mk11     121     9.8     9.4     7.9    20.3
Jaguar   XK120        120     9.9     10.4    7.9    16.2
Daimler  Dart SP-250  122     10.2            5.7    29.1
A-Healey 100/4        111     10.3    10.1    7.6    24.5
Austin   Cooper S     96      11.2    12.3    9.4    28.5
Triumph  TR3          102     12.5    12.9    12.5   24.9
MG       B            102     13.0    14.0    13.5   23.7
lotus    Cortina      107     13.6    14.4    8.9    20.8
Morris   Minor        73      24.8    N/A     N/A    31.2

4. The E-type as a daily driver

"Granted there were some inconveniences that would occur depending on weather, such as rainy days the windshield would tend to fog up along with the rest of the windows so I would have to keep them very clean, the footwells got extremely hot in the summer time so I would keep all windows and rear quarters open. I faithfully changed the oil and filter every 2,000 miles, checked all fluids weekly. Regarding maintenance I did everything myself, calipers, hydraulic clutch cylinder rebuild, fan motor replacement, carb sync, plugs, timing, dist rebuild, tachometer sender repair etc....lots of small items. Never had any major electrical problems with the car. I do sincerely believe that if you can keep your car out of the repair shops and do the work yourself you will never have as many problems related to electrical or mechanical. During the past 14 years the car has been used on weekends and is now nearing restoration completion to once again become a daily driver."
Ed (edf@studio.sgi.com)

"I drive a '69 2+2 for an everyday car during the summer months. It has 107,000 miles, and is running just fine. I do about 10K per year. The key is to keep the car in tip top shape at all times. If you let something go, it gets bad very quickly."
Mike Frank (mfrank@westnet.com)

What to look for when buying an E-type

"In the U.S., you need to do most repairs yourself-garage mechanics had a tough time with E-types when they were new, nowadays they just stare and shake their heads. I drove a Mark II in Scotland last year, and had an overheating problem on the road. I can tell you that your mechanics are more accustomed to Jaguar design, but no more anxious to get under the hood. After replacing a hose, one mechanic said to me, "One of these (Mark II's) is coming in for a valve job tommorrow. The boys are drawing straws to see who gets to NOT work on it." The good news is that the car is fairly rugged, especially considering it's age. I've never had to walk.

Gas mileage is atrocious by modern standards. I get 14 mpg, with some performance enhancements. Oil consumption on the 4.2 is not too bad, and I have had remarkably little trouble with leakage. I use 5w-50 synthetic oil, which I change every 5,000 miles. Overheating has not been a problem, although this will probably change when I get the A/C hooked up. Once sorted out, the electrics will hold up for a good long while, but are definitely a weak spot.

Rust is the most serious concern. Start with a clean, straight car, avoid rain and snow. Here in the States, there is a lot of salt on the roads during winter, so I keep the cat in the garage once the first snow falls.

Parking is also a problem, particularly in urban areas. Those skinny bumpers just don't protect the car against modern-day battering rams. I plan my trips carefully, and always look for someplace that allows perpendicular parking.

The car is an attention grabber. I suspect that's why it never has been stolen-the cops would pick it up in no time.

The car is a delight to drive on the open highway. It can outperform most modern machinery, and has more style than anything else on the road. The 2+2 definitely gives up some handling to the SWB coupe. On the other hand, the extra space is handy for luggage, groceries, etc. City driving is a pain, as the long hood and non-power steering make New York traffic unbearable.

The heater and defroster are pitiful, but the driveline generates enough heat to keep the interior comfortable for mild winter days. I hope to have the air conditioning going by June, but I suspect that the cooling power will be a disappointment.

The collector value of the car is probably not going to diminish as a result of daily use. A ground-up restoration is always possible, provided you keep the rust under control. With the quality of spares and reproduction panels, even a well-used car can look new again.

6. Restoring an E-type

Rusty floor pans are VERY common in E-types -- especially OTS (roadsters). My car has a nice see-through hole to the highway on the driver side. I will replace the footwell section only as that is the only damaged part on my car. For that there is no fancy jig required. (Others here have done the job successfully.) In fact, I plan to Pop-rivet my new pan(s) in with stainless rivets, rust proof it and undercoat both sides. Any repairs needed later will be relatively simple. If a full floor pan is needed, have it done by a Jaguar restorer of demonstrated merit. A solid jig is required to keep the monocoque in alignment. As for the rockers and doors, a judgement call is needed -- repair or replace. Personally I would compare the repair estimates to the cost/value of a new "tub". Remember, this is the structural strength of the car.

Depending upon your "rush factor", consider rebuilding the original engine. My E-type does NOT have the original engine and it's value is diminished somewhat. The other advice that you have received concerning looking up the original numbers is good. I'd use it and find out if the other engine really is the correct engine.

Or, you could install the already-restored engine and restore the "original" engine at your leisure. YOu would then have a low(er) milage original engine to include in the deal if you chose to sell the car later. After all, they are investments as well as toys...

You should consider replacing any damaged tubular space frame(s) . SICP sells all these parts individually. IF the damage is minor perhaps all is well. I still wouldn't really "push" the car around too much. You might want to check the welds for cracks. You can strip the paint and wire brush the welds before inspection. The bolts that hold the space frame assembly together and to the body should be grade 8. Again, grade 5's would probably be okay unless you push it too much. But why take the risk?

Restore your XKE in stages (parts get lost and misplaced REALLY easily). Remember, the value of your car drops considerably once it is disassembled. There are many unfinished restoration projects that have cost their owners a bundle. I chose to rebuild the engine compartment first. From the firewall metal forward my car is like new -- or should I say, like original. I stripped all of the firewall and frames to bare metal, red oxide primered then and painted them with a paint made "brighter" by BASF. All of the bolts have been replaced, unpainted as original. The original bolts have all been saved in zip-lock bags. After all, they are the original Jaguar bolts.

Don't forget to take 10,000 pictures of EVERYTHING. The less significant it seems the more likely there won't be info around for reassembly. It sound silly but remember, bolts can go in from both sides, washers can go on different sides, lockwashers were used in some places and not in others -- just to mention a few potential confusion points. IT usually doesn't matter for performance but it DOES matter for resale value!

I would strip the trim (carefully, it costs a none-too-small fortune) and have the car chemical striped (or perhaps bead blasted) but don't allow anyone to "sand" blast it as all of the panel jointery is done with lead which can be destroyed or badly distorted by sand blasting.

Have the car primered after the strip and bring it home. The primer will protect it while you continue your work. I wouldn't paint it in advance of complete reassembly. It's just TOO easy to drop wrenches, etc. and end up having to respray. (Pronounce this a "spend another $5000"). As you rebuild you can paint as needed. I painted my frames and firewall in the garage. It doesn't take much investment in supplies. Do remember, most paints and reducers are DEADLY. Many use cyanide. I also repainted the inside of the boot (while restoring the fuel system) leaving the major work for the pros.

A cleaning and "gauging" of the gearbox and diff may be all that is needed. If work is needed you will already have done the hard work. While the engine is out, replace the clutch. It's a real pain to change later is you have a problem.

7. E-Type Stories from the Jag-lovers group

"As I am fast approaching 50 this July, I told my wife last Christmas that I was having a mid-life crisis and either needed to have an affair or buy a Jag! She asked me what kind of Jag I wanted! After a little searching here in town, we found a British car shop that had a basket-case 70 E-Type roadster. They were going to restore it but after restoring a 71, they could not justify the time or expense until the 71 got sold. I didn't really want it but my wife kept telling me that I would only kick myself for the next 15 years if I passed it up. Needless to say, with that kind of support, the E now resides in my garage. I was truly fortunate in that after I got it stripped down, there was very little rust. The floorpans had rusted out where they had accumulated water during storage but that was all I could find. It is an Arizona car with only 56K miles on it. The down side is that during the 5 years it sat at the car place, they misplaced many small items as they were starting the restoration. I have spent about $1,500 on new and used bits and pieces and I believe that I now have about 98% of the car. I am close to painting it and reassembling it and hope to be able to take my wife for a spin it it by this Christmas. I'll keep you posted on my progress." George W. Cohn (gwcohn@azstarnet.com)

"Some time ago, I had a SII E Type OTS that I was doing body work on in a night class & I drove it to school & back on a regular basis. One night, it rained & after going through a particularly large mud puddle, the car died & wouldn't start again. Turned out to be a wet distributor & all was well again the next day after I got everything dried out. My boss at the time had the real explanation for the Jag's propensity for failure to operate properly in wet conditions - "EVERYONE knows that cats don't like water!" Ever since then, I don't aim for mud puddles when driving a Jaguar with an XK engine & its low-mounted distributor." Steve A. (SteveAv@aol.com)

"A friend of mine was looking at the Jag this afternoon. "With all those switches on the dashboard, how can you tell them apart at night?" he asked. "No problem", I replied, "those are Lucas switches. No matter which one you hit, nothing happens." Michael Frank (mfrank@westnet.com)

"Speaking of e-type stories, I had a very frightening experience about 15 years ago. I had a 63 E-type roadster that was in beautiful condition. It was summer time here in Utah and I was returning home late one night (2-3 AM) and driving through my little town of 600 people. I decided to open up the car in second gear on the main road through town before retiring for the night (I was much less concerned about police and bodily injury back then). I opened up the throttle and pushed real hard on the pedal. To my amazement, the throttle stuck wide open. I was rather shocked and had no real contingency plan for this type of occurance. As I approached what I considered 300 MPH (an optical illusion surely), I panicked and pushed in the clutch. The engine revved up to about 7000 RPM before I got enough of a thought to turn the key off. I was totally amazed to find out that no damage to the engine was apparent. The cause: the throttle linkage had gone over-center and stuck wide open. I had a similar situation happen in a much more powerful car with an automatic and the earlier experience taught me what not to do. Here, I calmly pushed HARD on the brake and turned the key off. Not even a drop of sweat this time." Jim Cantrell (jimc@sysdiv.sdl.USU.edu)

"When I was a young stud of 21, my very first car was a 64 E-Type roadster. One evening while going home after visiting my parents, I came upon a Porche while crossing some mountains. He decided to race me and we went at it neck-to-neck at speeds up to 90 mph over this two-lane twisty mountain road. I was finally getting the best of him when I blew a freeze plug out of the engine! Needles to say, this put me out of the race at once. I hitch hiked some 30 miles back to town where my father helped me find a freeze plug and we came back and installed it in the dark by the side of the road. After refilling the water, I continued on home. This incident never seemed to have caused me any adverse problems and I finally sold the car in 1973 for a princely $1,500 when I bought my new Datsun 240Z. Had I known then what I know now, I would have been much better off to just store the car for the last 23 years. Ah 20-20 hindsight." George W. Cohn (gwcohn@azstarnet.com)

"One of my first jobs was to change the oil filter on my E-Type 2+2. This is not a modern spin-on type but consists of a cartridge inside a cover with a central bolt which pulls the cover onto an O-ring in a groove. I changed the O-ring and thought it was in the groove, even though working through the hand hole in the undertray it was impossible to see all round the groove even with a mirror. But it wasn't in the groove... Although dark, I eagerly went for a test drive round my usual circuit which involves about a mile of warm-up followed by blasting up a long hill to allow glorious use of full power. As I reached the top, doing about 90, I routinely scanned the oil pressure: ZERO! I switched off and coasted to a rapid halt. Oil everywhere, on the undertray, under the car, on the rear wheel. Sump empty. I walked to the nearest petrol station, bought 2 gal of oil, poured it in and started the engine. To my utter relief, oil pressure appeared. I set off for home, switching off between short bursts and coasting down the long hill.
At the bottom I had to brake to turn off and as I did so - the whole bonnet (hood) swung up, completely obscuring the way ahead. I had to stop quickly or I'd hit something but any decel caused the front to drop and scrape the fender on the road. Ugggh. With all the excitement and in the dark I had omitted to latch the bonnet and the PO had removed the safety catch. The next day, in the light, I retraced my journey. The oil trail ran clearly all the way to the bottom of the hill, then completely stopped. I can therefore only assume the car did at least half a mile on mostly full power with no oil pressure. Amazing. And no after effects - plenty of oil pressure afterwards and no bearing problems. What oil? Castrol GTX. Two merciful escapes in one night. Much to be thankful for." Chris Longrigg (chris@zodiac.win-uk.net)

"Being the proud owner of a 1966 E-Type Coupe for over 25 years, I would like to share a story about an encounter that took place in 1989:

It was a sunny Saturday morning around 7:30AM when I was driving down a freeway on-ramp on my way to work (yep on a Saturday no less). As I entered the freeway at 50mph a brand new redder than red Ferrari Testarosa sporting those bug-antenna like side mirrors and paper license plate blew by me doing around 70mph, needless to say it startled me cause I was in kind of a daze with the morning and all. He passed so close that he actually buffeted my car. Instant adrenalin - and I took off after him and sat beside him in a heart beat, still doing around 70 (I am guessing on these speeds due to the fact that my speedo cable was not hooked up). He was an older fellow (about my age) wearing a chrome white driving suit with gloves and glasses that wrapped around his entire head. Casualy he looked over at me on his left and almost snickered as he eyeballed my white coupe with dark grey patches of primer here and there that sort of resembled a four legged creature that munches grass out in the fields. Anyhow, he decided to leave this primered beast and move on, as he nailed that beautiful red Ferrari, he didn't even bother to shift, well I did and yep I blew right by him, and only after he realized that he was being had, did he down shift and try to catch me, well since we both were going the same direction we had to negotiate a somewhat small freeway interchange, and let me tell you he was on my butt as we went through the S curve and back out onto the flat, and this time he tried to pass me on my left, so I redlined (yep my tachometer worked), and once again I was walking away from him by a couple of mph which is quite a bit at speed.

Abruptly he slowed down and took an off ramp, didn't know if that was indeed his destination or he just wanted to find a place to get out and kick is car. My exit came so I got off and pulled into the company parking lot, jumped out of my coupe and walked around until my legs stopped shaking and my back unknotted. I know by now all of you reading this story are saying yeah-in your dreams, no way an E can blow off a Testarosa, but let me tell you it is true, and in the Testarosa owners eyes he was thoroughly beaten by a Jaguar XKE. Anyhow as I walked around the car I noticed a little water drizzle coming out from under the car, so I tilted up the bonnet and identified the problem to be the water hose clamp on the top of my small block LT-1 lump, it needed to be tightened a half turn." Ed Freige (edf@borrego.studio.sgi.com)

"In about 1985 F.R.W.(Lofty) England visited Australia .In Melbourne,the JCCV organised a tour of members garages to look at restoration projects. One member had built a shed in his back yard and had an E type body on a rotisserie and with a mig welder was indeed a serious restorer. He gave a talk, how it was a US import and how he had replaced almost all the body panels because of rust. The grand man looked thoughtful,put his hand on his chin "Rust prevention!"he said "when we built these,you know we never painted anywhere you couldn't see." And as any E Type restorer will tell you he was right." Don Tracey (dont@echuca.net.au)

"#1 Right after I got the car I was demonstrating it to the wife. She was somewhat of a skeptic about spending $13,000 for a 23 year old car. I was proudly exclaming how modern it was since it had air conditioning. The outside temp that day was 105F. As we cruised smugly down a very heavily trafficed street in town, smiling proudly at the pedestrians as they admired it, suddenly there was the sound of a 12 guage shotgun going off. Scared the bejeuses out of me. White smoke began pouring from every louver in the hood, out from under the wheel wells and any other place it could find its way out. I pulled quickly to the side of the road and poped the bonnet. It was imediately obvious that the AC hose ran too close to the exhaust manifold and had exploded spraying freon onto the manifold generating the white smoke. I immediately slammed the bonnet down and drove off to the utter amazement of the spectators who had gathered. They couldnt believe that it was still able to drive away.

#2 A week later I was cruising (if you can call 120MPH cruising) down a familiar country road where I knew there would be no police officers. I was wrong. As I came around a corner to enter the freeway there was a trooper looking right at me through the sights of his radar gun. I hit the brakes and slowed to about 80-90 by the time I got to him, but he had caught me at 120 and I knew it. The limit was 55! As I got to him a big smile spread across his face as he droped the gun to his side and just waved as I blew past. Sometimes it pays to be driving an exotic. If I had been in the Seville I would have paid dearly for that indescression.

#3 This one realy scared me. I was driving a twisty back country road late at night at about 80mph when I reached down to turn off the interior light. Hit the wrong switch and extinguished both the headlights and dash lights. All those damned switches (they wouldnt pass DOT now days) feel the same in the dark and I couldn't find the one for the headlights! I just started slowing down as fast as I could and relied on my memory of what I had seen before the lights went out to guide the car. Luckily I got it stoped on the side of the road and then found the correct switch." James A. Isbell (JISBELLJR@mail.utexas.edu)

"When I purchased my E-Type, the body was rusted but the driveline had been carefully and expensively refurbished. The transmisison was so new it didn't even have dust on it. The head had been removed, but I didn't know what all had been done inside. The PO was the traditional "Little old man" and had died.
But every time I turned right, the car would stagger, stumble, miss and die. At first the problem felt like a carburator float malfunction, but after experimenting a bit I noticed it would run if I jerked the wheel to the left, then quit when I turned back to the right.
So I started looking at electrical solutions. No oil leaking from the coil, nothing abnormal with the distributer. So when I pulled the bonnet off to clean and repaint I followed the wireing carefully.
Sure enough, the low voltage wire on the coil was barely connected. When I turned right it would pull off far enough to disconnect. Going straight or turning left it made contact. Six inches of new wire and a connector at each end made for the cheapest fix one could hope for." LLoyd (3030P%NAVPGS.BitNet@pucc.PRINCETON.EDU)

"I guess the pain has subsided enough that I can share the story of my car, the one that got away.
I live in Monterey Ca. One day I saw an ad for a '70 Jaguar XKE Convertable, best offer. I said, sure, but not in my price range, so I didn't call. A week went by and the ad was still in there. What the heck, so I called.
Turned out it ran and the owner drove it into the garage, a warm, dry, heated garage in a residential area. They were turning the garage into a den and need- ed the space. It sat there three years. They had just sold it a few minutes ago but thanks for calling. I asked if they would tell me how much they got for it. Five thousand dollars, they said.
I asked if I could come over and look at it. They said OK, so off I went. It was beautiful. Almost perfect black leather interior, british racing green, wires in great shape, and not a spot of rust could I find. The only thing wrong was a cracked windshield.
I don't awaken at night crying any more, but then again I haven't told anyone about it either. I haven't seen it around town, the new owner is probably laughing so hard he can't steer." LLoyd (3030P%NAVPGS.BITNET@pucc.PRINCETON.EDU)

"At the risk of these E-type stories getting old I'll keep it short! I took my Dan '69 E-type series II OTS down to the local coin-op car wash to give it a good cleaning (I like using the foam engine degreaser they have in those guns). I was done cleaning my cat and pushed it over to a parking stall to dry the distributor cap and the rest of the car. 8-) I pushed it around the corner and parked it right next to a guy in his series III coupe. It was silver with red interior and one of the nicest looking coupes I've ever seen. After talking with him for a little while I learned that he was just finishing up a ground up restoration and had already sold the car to Ferrari of Los Gatos (northern CA). After we'd both finished drying everything we could find under the bonnet (so the engines would run) he fired it up. WOW!, talk about music! The combination of a freshly rebuilt V12 and the resonators he had on the car made for some beautiful sounds. He asked if I wanted to go for a spin so I thought about it for about a millisecond and got in the car. The reason I said that he was "finishing" up the restoration was because he hadn't received the windshield gasket that he'd ordered so he was driving it around without a windshield. We were both in our twenties and thought we were cool so we took off down the nearby expressway.
Picture this! A bright sunny day with two idiots flying down an expressway in a silver E-type coupe at about 100mph, no windshield, hot air coming out of the engine compartment cooling vents and both guys looking sideways out the front attempting to see. IT WAS GREAT!!
I gave him a ride in my car when we got back but that was boring. 8-)" Dan Graves

"Some thirty years ago as I was driving my E OTS down the road in a sweltering 115 degree day in July with the top down. I hit a small bump and the wipers came on! Not a cloud in the sky and here's this idiot with three wipers swishing back and forth! The wiper switch wasn't on and I couldn't make them stop! I finally pulled over to the side of the road and raised the blades off the glass so as not to scratch it. After I got home, I found that the wiper parking switch part of the mechanism had shorted out. (I don't know why I didn't think of the fuse at the time).
Want to know why there are no famous English astronauts? They got in their first space vehicle, saw all the controls were marked "Made by Lucas" and ran screaming from the launch pad! :-)" George W. Cohn (gwcohn@azstarnet.com)

From: Michael Frank 
Subject: XKE Story: how not to buy a Jag