| To: Tom Clarke who wrote (15) | 4/24/2024 12:35:45 PM | | From: miraje | | | | The unfortunate Cash for Clunkers program took a lot of perfectly good cars off the road.
Yes, that was incredibly stupid and wasteful. On a brighter note, check out this neat '65 Mercury camper, one of about 50 produced..
hemmings.com
It's Not Just A 1965 Mercury, It's A Great Dale House Car!
One part car, one part RV, completely eye-catching |
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| From: OldAIMGuy | 4/26/2024 11:21:59 AM | | | | | | In a former life I spent some time racing old English cars I owned.
This photo was taken at the last turn before the Start/Finish straight at Mid-Ohio around 1992. That's a 1953 Jaguar XK 120C that I bought for $900 (and overpaid!). I raced it until around 2003.
Best wishes,
OAG |
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| To: OldAIMGuy who wrote (18) | 4/26/2024 12:10:40 PM | | From: miraje | | | | Overpaid? LOL! What would it be worth now? I'll bet that was a kick to toss around the track. Lucas electricals? :-)
I drove a friend's MGA years ago. Reminded me of driving a go kart, seat practically on the floor. Big fun.. |
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| To: miraje who wrote (19) | 4/26/2024 12:49:06 PM | | From: OldAIMGuy | | | | Yep, I bought it in 1973 for $900. It was running, so was probably worth it. I drove it home and got there in one piece! Here's what it looked like when I bought it:
I took it all the way apart in the '70s, had kids in the '80s and neglected it and in '89 rebuilt it as a Vintage Race car. Here's a shot of it in its debut in late '89. Our first race was on Grand Bahama Island in January of 1990.
Lots of fond memories. It was reasonably fast - faster than the brakes liked! In a 10 Lap race I had to think and plan for the brakes. Too fast at the first 5 laps and I had to coast the last 5!!!
Best wishes,
OAG Tom |
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| To: miraje who wrote (21) | 4/26/2024 5:05:19 PM | | From: OldAIMGuy | | | | Hi M, Re: 1967 XK-E Type..........
It was a sweetheart of mine for around 3 years. My cousin owned it and sadly drove it through salty Northern winters. It was originally painted black. When I got it I repaired the rusty stuff and painted it charcoal gray metallic. It still looked wicked good at night in that color and really sparkled in the sun. I put a lot of time and effort into that car and learned a lot about Jag engines, electrics and performance. It gave me the confidence to tackle the XK 120 project.
After the E-Type shut off after running through a puddle, I decided to tame the ignition. I bought a "Capacitive Discharge Ignition" kit from Radio Shack and soldered it together. (BTW they could be assembled for either positive or negative ground!) Where I used to get ~5000 miles on a new set of points and questionable ignition any time the humidity got above 50%, adding the electronic ignition to the E-Type made it run like Mr. Lucas had never been born!! I drove it another ~25,000 miles with it and never again changed the points. It also never again shut off in a downpour. So many things got better with that Radio Shack kit! Better battery life with quicker starts, Rain Proof, etc. The Capacitive Discharge jumped the spark plug voltage from around 8K cranking and around 12K running to around 20K cranking up to around 35K running. What a difference!
Today one can buy a drop-in Pertronix for old cars and do away with the points and condenser. They work great. But, I'm still proud of my kit assembly and what it did for that old E-Jag. Pertronix is a must for anyone with an old English sports car. Or for any old U.S. car for that matter. There may be other drop in Points replacement electronic ignitions like theirs, as I've been away from such things for a while.
Have a great weekend,
OAG Tom
pertronixbrands.com |
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| To: OldAIMGuy who wrote (22) | 4/26/2024 7:03:17 PM | | From: miraje | | | | Today one can buy a drop-in Pertronix for old cars and do away with the points and condenser.
Hi Tom,
I'm with you 100% on that. Although I like to keep old classics as stock as possible, an electronic ignition upgrade makes tuning and running them so much easier. Had a condenser go bad on my '67 Chevy and I had a hard time diagnosing the problem. Engine running rough and crapping out.
I never bothered with a timing light, either. Just kept advancing the distributor until it started to ping on test drives, then backed it down a hair, tightened it up and off we go.
I'm not much of a mechanic (all thumbs), but I like to play with the simple stuff.. :-)
Great weekend for you, too.
Regards, James
PS: Were your old Jags full synchro or did you have to play with some double clutching? I learned about that the hard way as a teenager, but that's another story.. |
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| To: miraje who wrote (23) | 4/26/2024 9:53:36 PM | | From: OldAIMGuy | | | | Hi James,
the '67 E-Type was full synchro but the '53 had a crummy crash box. No synchro on 1st and nothing very good on 2nd or 3rd. We changed out the box for a more modern box which was full synchro a d much stronger.
On the track, even in more modern cars with stick shift, I still double clutch on downshifting. That's to keep the rear tires from losing traction while under heavy braking while setting up for the approaching corner.
OAG Tom |
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