In praise of Peter Egan.

He seeks adventure and invites us along.

 He has been a contributing editor to Road and Track and Cycle World for so many years. His column "Sideglances" has enriched my life as an enthusiast, and I would bet that many others have had the same experience.

I have fallen into a pattern, updates on my the progress of my automotive fleet interspersed with postings of my memories, musings and ramblings. I actually have that line printed on my "social cards".

I would call them business cards if there was any money making business going on. They are more like the calling cards used in the Victorian period. You would exchange them with other folks you met and would like to get together and socialize with at a later date.  So if I discuss my blog with anyone and they express any interest I can lay a card on them!

Sometimes bad things happen!

Get Thee behind me stale watery gas!

Sometimes it's a poor choice that we make. Maybe were in a hurry or we try to cut a corner or procrastinate on a repair and a minor problem can lead to a major inconvenience. Sometimes  the results can be much more serious, even life threatening. Luckily for me both my mishaps were mostly a hassle.

The beginning of the next big chapter of my motorcycling life. The Harley Davidson years. It isn't that I owned so many different Harleys, I ended up owning these motorcycles for longer periods of time. one for over twenty years!

Looking back, I wish my bike had looked like this.

Harley Davidson motorcycles had always been a Holy Grail for me. 

Abandon Hope all who enter here: Part II.

                                photo source: discount garage door.com

It has taken a lot longer to clean out the garage than I thought. The way I had the garage set up gave one half to my wife for storage of her art supplies and "stuff". At least initially. By the time I'm finished I'll have the use of about two-thirds of a two car garage. We'll see if that is enough.

Happy Thanksgiving!

photo source history.com A turkey on the table, another in the driveway.

My Wife reads a very nice magazine entitled "Where Women Create". This is one of those fancy Stampington and Company  journal type magazines with high quality paper and photographs. 

Too many bikes. Every time I saved up a few hundred bucks I would upgrade my two wheeled machinery.
These were the Japanese years.

Mine looked like this without the lower fairing

When I decided to sell my 305 I made the mistake that many first time sellers do. 

My first real motorcycle.

No, not the Honda 450 "Black Bomber". The little motorcycle on the bottom, in the middle.

Getting down to business. Hobby car projects are like sharks, they either move forward , or they die. While I've had a lot of fun talking the talk it's time to walk the walk.

photo source: white shark diving.com

I'm going to be doing what I had advised against, renting a storage unit to get the junk out of my garage.

The big cat takes cover to ensure it's survival. A wild animal knows that when it is sick or injured the best strategy is to lay low. Even a king predator knows when it's best to hide out for awhile.

There are so many things going on at my house with my automotive fleet. 

This one not so much

I knew that I would eventually want to talk about my other internal combustion powered love affair. Motorcycles.

The Wild One starring Marlon Brando

My interest in motorcycles started well before I was even dreaming about getting my license. 

Jumping on the bandwagon, twenty years too late and many miles down the road.

Photo source: Wheels and Deals

I had resisted the lemming like stampede to SUVs, It seemed like hordes of middle class commuters embraced these tall wagons and assumed a smug perspective on traffic below them. This position has now been assumed by Prius drivers.

Special Discovery Channel edition!
Harley and the Davidsons. An intimate glimpse at the birth of Industrial America.

photo source: Discovery channel

I just caught this three part miniseries and I am very impressed. The period of innovation that existed as the 1880's was ending and the new Century was approaching is amazing. There was an explosion of new technology and new thinking that ultimately ushered in our Modern Era. There seemed to be so much opportunity for an individual to enter into these new industries and leave their mark. This series recreates an era that has largely been ignored by television and movies. The industrial birth of modern America. The important early years of manufacturing motorcycles at the dawn of the Twentieth Century. Not only is it fantastic to see these early motorcycles brought to life and in action racing across the countryside, it is fantastic to see the process of manufacturing brought to vivid life.

A little bit of this, A little bit of that.

Elvis in a hot rod. This pressed steel toy was one of the first vintage collectibles I bought. A little research revealed that the plastic Elvis head actually came from a liquor decanter from, I'm guessing the 70s. At some point someone stuck the thing on.

Collecting cool stuff is so much easier than having a bunch of cars. And this stuff doesn't leak oil in your driveway.

My wife bought me this painting a few years back for my birthday. I saw it in a local consignment store and was attracted to the dark moody appearance. I don't know what the artist was trying to convey but I thought it was whimsical that the two little bunnies are hiding in the camp when it looks like an entire army was out in the woods looking for them.

There's more to life than cars.

How about a painting featuring cars? This painting is hanging in my Den (Never refer to it as a Man Cave!) If you are familiar with Historic Downtown Los Angeles you might recognize the Angels Flight railway at the Third Street tunnel. I purchased this painting several years ago at the Pasadena Rose Bowl Flea Market. Besides being a huge Raymond Chandler fan, I am also a great fan of the city of Angels, as I worked their for a few years in the early 1980's. Michael Connelly, my current favorite author, wrote a thrilling novel simply titled  "Angel's Flight".

Paradigm shift: n. a fundamental change in approach or underlying assumptions.
(definition courtesy of the New Oxford American Dictionary)

Paradigm Shift, or How does the Heart cool in it's ardor? How do you start out loving old Cadillacs and end up loving old Jaguars? It is a long and winding road.

Photo source: E bay

I was a grammar school kid in Oakland Ca. in the mid 1960s. 

The brotherhood of gear heads, or I wouldn't want to belong to any club that would have me as a member.

                                                   image source: Honest Charley.com

At one time these club affiliation plaques were commonly found displayed in the rear window, mounted above the license plate, or hanging from chains from the rear bumper.

Abandon hope all who would enter here!

photo source: http://www.allinnews.org/home-improvement/how-properly-do-garage-cleanout/

                                     
Space, the final frontier.  Or most likely space can be the first obstacle. Such as in, "Where can I park my car to work on it?

It takes a village to raise a blog!

I am very excited to premiere my new Better Beaters logo. I had sketched out some ideas on paper, but it took the technical skills of my Daughter to make my vision a reality. Then she added the logo and byline to the top of my blog page. I like the idea of a logo, as it  gives my site a distinct identity. I plan on using my logo on business cards and making decals to go on my car's rear window.

Another symbol of my identity is the spoked wheel that makes up my avatar. I have used this image for many years to identify myself while posting on other sites.

                                                                                        

The urban farm truck.

A farm truck is an old beat up but running and useful pick up or flat bed seen parked alongside the barn. Or standing alone in a field. Nobody is too concerned about how clean it is, or how shabby the interior is, or the few dents and scratches it has. 

I would not be surprised if many younger car enthusiasts have never been to a wrecking yard. Especially if they are not a "hands on" kind of guy. If you are mostly involved with later model cars then parts are still readily available at your local auto parts store. For older cars sometimes the only readily available parts are used, either from an online listing. a swap meet, or a wrecking yard. Many refer to this venue as a junk yard, which is really a misnomer as that yard is full of gold, not junk.

These can be tragic places for the enthusiast. 

Today I went by my favorite consignment car lot, Wheels and Deals in Santa Clara. 

Hope springs eternal. but sometimes hope has to be rooted in reality. I filled up the transmission with fresh fluid and put it into gear. No change, Reverse still worked the same and there was a little more grip in Drive. I would rev it up and it would suddenly engage a bit with a bang. Gotta face it,  I'm no better off than i was before. My plan was to wait and save up some more money.

Well I'm always scanning the CL listings for Jag parts ans found an XJS tranny offered for 250.00. 

Road trips Part 2

Highway 20 in Oregon on the way to Newport.

Road trips. A term that brings to mind so many recollections, good and bad. Like most people of my generation, growing up in the 1960s, the term brings back memories of family vacations. 

Getting down and greasy, not exactly the kind of thing I enjoy the most anymore.

Well I've really been enjoying driving my "new" XJ6L. 

I drove it back from LA and I've been driving it to work every day. 

While I think that the XJS is a fantastic car, my example is a two seat version. This makes a lot of sense as the rear seat is replaced by a storage locker, with a luggage rack. It's not like anyone over the age of six could fit in the back anyway. I did manage to cram myself in the back of that H/E convertible when I was considering it. So this car is not going to be real practical but it does have a good sized trunk. The trunk is much bigger than that of my 1996 Mustang convertible, and it has a much bigger opening. There is plenty of room for luggage for two for an extended trip, but it is not for carrying cargo. My wife likes to go go to flea markets and antique shows looking for all kinds of little (or not) treasures to redo and resell. We used to deal a lot in furniture which meant I had to take my truck everywhere we went. Luckily for me she has decided to concentrate on smaller items. We have brought home some fairly large items in the backseat of the Mustang with the top down. My kid's favorite story concerns our 2007 Mustang coupe and a three ft. model ferris wheel that she bought in Camarillo. Somehow I rearranged all the luggage  and my kids had to ride in the back seat with it on the four hour ride home.

See, the XJS can hold quite a bit. And there is still room behind the seats.

Time to move on. I guess I could be criticized for losing my commitment to my project Mustang. I have a buddy who says that I never stick to anything, that I’m always changing my mind, like I can’t decide on what I want. Maybe. This guy still has a truck he bought new in 1970 as well as a 1970 Chevelle that his wife inherited from her Dad who bought it new. Sometimes it’s good to hold onto things. That Chevelle just received quite a bit of restoration, paint , interior and whatever mechanical repairs it required. I guess I can see being sentimental about cars but it’s not the way I feel. I’m sentimental about people but not about things. After my Dad passed away I could have kept the 1975 Chevy truck that my Dad bought new but I didn’t. Why? Because I never liked that truck. I never liked driving that truck, the ergonomics and handling were just awful. I miss my Dad and think that he was a great guy who set a good example for me to live up to. But I don’t think that I would honor my Father’s memory by holding onto that truck.

Another thing is the matter of time. Time is an important consideration to me now. It is one factor that is no longer open ended any more. Not as limited as money, but money is pretty short also. My interests have changed over time and that’s not a bad thing.

What course of events brought me to the decision to buy my XJS? As I stated in an earlier post, certain high end, very sophisticated high performance cars of the Seventies and Eighties have depreciated to amazingly low levels. Porsche 928s, Jaguar XJS’ and XK8s, Mercedes SL and SEC coupes, BMW 6 series coupes are at give away prices. I mean the low values are almost embarrassing. These are amazing cars. Many are in very good cosmetic condition with clean interiors and even in pretty good running shape.  At the same time certain American Muscle and Pony car prices  have been jacked up through the stratosphere. Now opinions can vary, but these cars have very humble engineering origins. Unless a particular example was built with a lot of options they really aren’t anything special. My experience with my 70 Mustang just reaffirmed that.

I had taken a trip to trip to So Cal with my wife a couple of years ago and while she was busy at her artsy convention I visited a used book store in Orange Ca. I found a book about 1950’s European Grand Prix type racing by Ken Purdy. I also found a book containing a compilation of articles about the Jaguar XJS. The Jaguar XJS Gold Portfolio by Brooklands Books. I had always admired and been interested in these cars, much like I had admired the Jensen Interceptor and Jaguar E type. Of course in my youth these cars were way above my means and were just a passing thought, nothing more. As I read the book I mentioned to wife that these cars were just absurd, extremely complex and fast with appalling reliability. “Who would be stupid enough to want to buy one of these old turkeys?” Well I wasn’t aware of just how cheap these turkeys had become. So I started looking on Craigslist. Wow! These things are dirt cheap! Then I discovered the Jaguar forums. That lead me to the over 700 page book by Kirby Palm. I discovered that there was a large, crazy, but knowledgeable online group of guys that had accepted the challenge of maintaining and preserving these fabulous machines. Then I stumbled upon the car that I thought was the “one”.

It was listed on CL in my general area. It wasn’t just a convertible, that would make it rare enough. It was one of the early coachbuilt convertibles built by the famed American limousine builder, Hess and Eisenhardt. I went to see it and I was hooked. It was black with a red interior and genuine wire wheels. The seats had been recovered. The car was powered by the famed Jaguar HE V12. Overall the car had some real problems but I thought that it was amazing to find a car like this, a modern Classic for peanuts. I thought about all the stories I had read about collectors finding V16 Cadillacs and V12 Packards in barns and in old city garages after the Second World War. This was my opportunity to be part of that narrative. I particularly remember an old Cars and Parts magazine story. One of the Cadillac V16 touring cars that had crossed the Golden Gate Bridge on opening day had been found in 1958 in a junkyard. The collector had to shell out all of one hundred and thirty five dollars for that car. ( Which was actually a bit of money for a beat up old car at the time, regardless of history.) Now it was my chance at greatness.

The car had a few problems, some by design and some with it’s condition. The were some rather crude conversion methods. The first was that the windshield header was just a portion of the front edge of the roof that had been trimmed back. The latches secured the top header were the largest, ugliest and worst engineered devices I had ever seen. They had numerous sharp edges and were just inches from your forehead. I could easily imagine smashing my forehead into them in a frontal collision. I figured that I could adapt a more conventional modern latching arrangement later on. The top had a soft vinyl rear window but a huge plus was that the top folded down flush with the rear deck, which was very attractive. The factory top sits up several inches taller in the proper British tradition. This low top caused another problem. To give the top space to fold, the original fuel tank was changed to a split upper- lower tank arrangement. There were now a total of four fuel pumps and for some insane reason, a pump moved fuel from the lower tank up to the upper tank where another pump moved it to the sump tank. To make things even “safer” a three inch rubber elbow joined the upper tank to the lower tank. In the event of a leak, the entire upper tank would try to drain out while it is simultaneously being refilled by the lower tank! Didn’t the DOT think this might be a problem?

As you might imagine, this might lead to a catastrophic fire if the hoses ever sprung a leak. It is believed that some fires may have occurred. Well, according to Jaguar lore, the factory decided that this was just too much liability to live with. Anytime an owner called a dealer with a fuel tank leak, a tow truck was dispatched to their location and a sizeable check was issued to the owner. The car was removed to an undisclosed location and destroyed. Whether or not this is true, not many of these cars have survived. Current owners are scrupulous with their maintenance or have converted their cars to a different tank or fuel cell.

Still it was “coach built” and that means a lot to a lot of folks. This particular car probably had the “dropped valve seat syndrome.” The motor started up but with a steady clatter , like an old Chevy with bad lifters. When these cars are severely overheated then stopped, the valve seat inserts can drop out and bounce around causing a lot of noise and a huge repair bill. Still, the car was rare and coachbuilt and was straight and clean. And it had wire wheels! I decided to make a low ball offer. If he accepted it, then it was fate, if not, well, keep on looking. The original asking price was 2,500 dollars. The seller really needed to sell and said he would take 2,000 dollars or even less. We had been hinting around at a price of 1,500 dollars. I decided that I would offer a flat 1,000 dollars, nothing more. If he accepted the offer I would take the car.  I couldn’t reach the seller until the next day. When I finally spoke to him he informed me that he had just accepted an offer from another buyer and that the car was sold. In reality I was lucky. I was off the hook. I wasn’t finished looking,

Why did I want this car, or any XJS for that matter? To badly paraphrase Shakespeare, “The fault lies not in the cars (stars) but in ourselves.”

I had my Sixtieth birthday last year, I have been a car guy for my whole life. Since I got my driver’s license I’ve had many interesting cars and motorcycles that I have thoroughly enjoyed driving and riding. Throughout the responsibilities of work and family I have always tried to have a car or motorcycle that I liked and enjoyed. I tried to find things that were attainable and affordable, and to be perfectly honest, I have been pretty successful. I never believed that a car guy should wait until he reaches retirement to have a little vehicular fun. I have arrived at the stage where many enthusiasts my age are finally in the position to buy that certain special car that they had dreamed about for years. I am not quite at that financial position- yet, but I think that I will eventually get my chance. Still I don’t want to wait forever, as if I had “forever” ahead of me. I decided to take advantage of the time I have left. I wanted to get a car that reflects the depth of my automotive enthusiasm and is a reflection of the accumulated experience of my life. I wanted to own something special, something fantastic, something legendary. The Jaguar XJS was built to be the heir of a proud racing pedigree with a heritage of exquisite beauty and craftsmanship. Powered by the most successful V12 motor ever put into a true production car. Winner at Le Mans and of the European touring car Champion series. This car was the equal of the best from Modena or Stuttgart or even Newport Pagnell. This is a car that doesn’t need any excuses. It was never meant to be the successor to the beloved E type, it earned it’s own stature and achievements but it’s value has been overlooked for years. This has resulted in it’s current amazing affordability and accessibility. This period may be drawing to an end. Get yours now, I did.

It seems that I never really have enough money on hand to fix up a car right away. 

My original plan was to sell the '70 Mustang immediately and proceed with the "sorting out"of the Jaguar.

Happy New Year. On the twenty ninth of this month it will two years since I bought my Mustang.

The first year it absorbed all my time , money and attention.