Well, this may not really belong here, but I do get a bit envious when I read about all you young guys ripping out engines and transmissions and tackling major projects. At 80+ I have to be happy with smaller tasks, like transmission and engine oil changes, a water pump here and there. Brakes, bearings and smaller stuff like that...... Oh, I did do the Green Shower thing too.

However, I was also young once. My first car was a French Dyna Panhard, straight from the junk yard.....


A crazy two cylinder boxer with a common torsion rod for both intake and outlet valves instead of valve springs. Low inertia and happy to rev.
Made one heck of a racket when the rod broke though! You can see the rod housing on top at the end of each cylinder


A drop tank from an old de Havilland Vampire or Venom cut into quarters became the fenders. A few pieces of
aluminum sheet filled the void in between


A coat of paint, probably sprayed out of the back end of a vacuum cleaner, completed the job. Eventually
it also got a wind shield - the rear window from a old Saab 96.

Those were days when we were just dreaming of owing a Jaguar. When all a car needed was air, fuel and spark to run.
Memories😊

 

Good memories!

 

Wow.... just Wow! Thanks for sharing!

 

Respect your elders!. 👍

 

mhminnich,

Some of us old Guys have been there and done that! Some of us are still doing it! With a little help!

Billy Clyde @ Cinco Ranch

 

Great Job!! Good prep for owning a Jag??
I settled for just punching holes in my first car, to make it sound better.

 

Very inventive. I wonder how much the Air Force paid for drop tanks. It was probably a very expensive car.

Sadly, in the near future all a car is going to need is a battery. I'm really not looking forward to that.

Graham

 

Nalle,

Those Drop Tanks worked out real well and I'll bet that darn thing would really go! How much did it weigh?

Billy Clyde

 

Wow nalle, that is very impressive! Beautiful!

I'm wondering if that car played any role in impressing whomever you ended up marrying, but I suppose it is impolite to ask.

Some further trivia is that the Jaguar X-Type's design was influenced by the infamous De Havilland Comet, the first commercial jet.

Fortunately, I never experienced catastrophic failure at 40,000 feet in my X-Types.

Rough shifting transmissions, and transfer case issues, yes.

 

Nah, it did not work that way. My girlfriend left because I spent too much time under the car. Sold it after a year and bought my 47 MG TC.

 

Likely a good trade(Girlfriend/car??).

 

I never heard that, but the S Type's design was influenced by the Spitfire.

https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/s...history-34069/

 

Interesting bit of history, but...... I loved the S-Type design, so I bought one in 2000. Had a constant flow of mx. problems with it from day one. Elect. windows stopping, usually down Told by dealer that Jag knew about the problem as a defect, but would only change windows when they failed. Fuel pump failure, w/s/ wipers failing...
Loved the looks, hated the operation.
I do understand that the dash on the XK is an exact duplicate of the Spitfire's wind??
So far, my '06 XK, 94K miles is more dependable that my S-Type.