The Jag engine you mentioned indeed looked like a V12, but unless your dad found an old V12 of another brand somewhere, it was a dual overhead cam six cylinder. The "V" atop the engine for the overhead cams fooled many in those days, and I even recall such reaction to a 4.2L DOHC six in my 1965 XKE.

You indeed appear to have been a fortunate young man. My father thought negatively about cars. They strictly were a means to get from point A to point B. He serviced them only on a whim; never to schedule. In his later years I do not know how the "slant-six" engine in a 1980s Dodge pickup survived. Didn't matter if it were 10 degrees or 100F, when it fired he floor-boarded it for what, to a motorhead as was I, seemed an eternity. Often I just stood back in case it blew up. Engine would NOT quit. I still have it stored in the back of a garage on an engine stand I have. Pickup itself is in another garage here with a 5.7 Hemi halfway in.

I suppose, with my mother a school teacher, they thought "gentleman" would never "take" on me. So, I grew up in a little dirtball West Texas town where everyone trusted everybody else and door locks were never used on vehicles or homes.

Enjoyed your note, Adam!
jhc