To my wife's surprise. No fire,I even took two extinguishers with us so I didn't have to drive her Mazda 3. 400 miles of sweet running, temp gauge was not even registering a temp on the highway. In town it was hardly moving,maybe going up half way to the N on the word normal in the centre of the gauge.
Up here it is running so sweet,must be the cold or higher altitude.Never had it idle so smooth or accelerate like it is today,maybe just a good 5 hours running at 70-80 mph helped. Pity the heater doesn't work(4c below driving down last night).
12.8 l/100km, WOW....this baby was sucking 21 l/100km 6 months ago. And I was ok with that because I was driving what I wanted,not what I should be driving.(even my Jeep only manages 17/100)
Went touring the local area today,14.6 l/100km...still cheap motoring in my book,and it got the mother in laws approval. Usually have to drive around here in her dirty old BMW 120i ,shouldn't complain,I did choose it for her to replace her 2003 3l X-type in 2009.She hates my Jeep,and now thinks I should sell it because I have a "new" car.
Locked the keys in the car today(1st time in 31 years of driving),I probably could have broken in myself but the pub we parked outside had a roaring fire and I don't pay for gold level roadside assist for nothing. The early 20's mechanic was a country boy and quite excited,"I never broke into Jaguar before". He had to fill out a disclaimer before he attempted to break into my car in case he damaged it,"how do you spell Jaguar' He asked,lol.
Well took him all of 30 seconds to bend his wire and wriggle it through the quarter window and flick the lock open,miss spent youth I guess.

 

SWEET.

Happy wife happy life, is that right.

Now if you empty that boot, the l/100 will be better.

That temp is tooooooo cold, even at 4 below. I reckon the stat is stuck partly open.

 

Stat was my thoughts all the way down,only got slightly warm when stuck behind
b-doubles or doing 50kp/h through town. In Brisbane and around it runs up around centre of gauge in town and just below the "n" on normal on highway.
Happy wife thinks she might take the wheel for a bit going home.
Just offload the 10 l of coolant,oil,trans fluid tools etc etc...and 2 extinguishers,(no joke).She would not leave home without me taking the Garage one too.
I'll just go get a pic for you. Always got the camera ready.
Don't worry about the books,wifey is librarian,we saw these old books in a book store in Uralla today and for $3 each,librarian!
Don't know why that wine box is in my boot,lol

 

Looks like I've stepped into the middle of this adventure Clarke. I can see your in NSW somewhere,and it looks familiar.

 

Yep,The pics are in Armiadale(UNE) and Uralla,New England.
Cold old hole my wife's mother lives in.
Finally after 24 years she says I have a winner, I bought my own Jag instead of driving hers.

 

We did a loop from Armidale to Narrabri,then north to Mooree and back to Armidale today(427 miles,688km).Temperature ranged from 0-14c and the pic is the highest the temperature gauge registered.
Found a nice piece of road on the Newell highway,cruised at 90 mp/h without having to back off once for 55 miles ,then got stuck behind a roadtrain for an hour. It was too windy to attempt to pass ,the trailers were swinging all over the road.

 

Brilliant car!

 

Clarke,

Good run that one.

That temp is still too low, but you know why.

Passing road trains out there, OOPS, thats where ya need a V12 my boy, INSTANT 200KPH from any road speed. A V12 at "full cry" is a shiver up the spine, even for me, after all these years with that beast.

 

Can't do much about the temp until I get home.(at least it's not overheating)
Since I'm a long term XJ Cherokee owner I always have one eye on the temp gauge.
Had the speed to pass the road train but its last trailer was drifting a couple feet over the centre line so decided to sit behind it.

 

OH YEH, smart move with that sucker.

They dont drift, its just what they do, "wagging the tail" is what we used to call it when I had mine.

Used to catch many a "P" plater out that little move.

 

He was clipping along at a fair rate anyway, just above 70 mp/h.
Just spoiled the view a bit,if you can call 200 km of cotton and wheat fields a view.
Long drive today to end where we started,now time to relax.Drive 320 miles home tomorrow.

 

Home without delving into the boot for supplies or tools(except a couple of bottles of Cab/Sav.)
1,222 miles in 4 days, average fuel consumption of 13.2 L/100km. I'm stoked with that figure. Wife loved the ride,but still didn't get her in the drivers seat.
This XK4.2 has got to be the smoothest straight 6 I have owned and I have had a few,from Chev dippers to blue flames,Holden(GM) 179,186 and 202 CI,ford 250 crossflows,valiant AP5 slant six,hemi(Jeep) and an Austin Kimberly front wheel drive straight 6.
Checked fluids when car had cooled after getting home,had to top up 500 mls of coolant,traced the leak to the little hole at the base of the water pump,just got to find out now if I replace it or if it can be rebuilt with new seals.No big deal either way.
This cat is digging it's claws in deeper,I think it wants to stay.

Back to the garage to get the Jeep out of the workshop so the XJ6 can have water pump surgery.

 

I love reading your exploits, Clarke. Thanks for sharing them.

 

Yep,Not many threads about cars that didn't have a problem. Although I did do a water pump but that's an easy fix,and I still get to drive it every day until I fix/replace it.

 

I keep looking at the pictures of your car. It's really beautiful. Very clean and rustfree...!

inspires me to start working on mine even more. You happen to have some pictures of your interior?

 

Hi Wilfred,from what I have seen of your car you don't need any inspiration. I have followed your AJ6 thread since day one.
I have rust, a couple of spots the size of a finger nail(lol).
As for interior pics,I only have the ones from the add I bought the car from,I have million of the outside and engine bay.The interior is pretty disappointing,Leather dash and door trims(original I think) and cloth/vynal seats with leather backs on the front seats.
The last 2 are the only pics I have taken of the inside,after I fitted a radio/cd

 

From what I read here, Clarke, you had a Very good trip! I'm glad everything went well and you didn't need any of your emergency tools/supplies.

Also, although I've seen photos of your car before, it's always fun to see members' cars 'out and about' when they're tripping.

I need to get into the habit of taking my camera along when I go places. Most people I know just shoot things with their smart phone. I have a dumb phone lacking that feature.
(';')

 

You need to enroll your phone in a technical college. We need more threads of people OUT enjoying their cars rather than in the shop working on them!

Not that I need more motivation, but it certainly does help to keep the candle lit.

 

That is a very beautiful car! After the thread about your car catching fire, the title of this thread made me laugh.

 

Your exploits make me smile Clarke, I have a suggestion on your emergency kit. If you switch from Red to White wine, perhaps a nice Sauvignon Blanc, then if you need to use it for coolant then it won't stain when it boils over.
Worked in an old Triumph in the Mojave desert.