So, it's been about 15 months (and an additional 2000 miles logged since I acquired muh wee XKR (March 2012, year 2000 coupe in BRG found with 18k miles). That story, many pics, and some strange follow up, can be found here.

LINK. Found my XKR: www.jaguarforums.com/forum/xk8-xkr-17/i-seem-have-become-xk-r-owner-happened-so-fast-70772/

I've had a few repairs since then (big shock), but the car remains a dream.

So, I took it out to its first concours, hosted by Dave Hershey and the Susquehanna Jaguar Club.

Learned a great deal. Had a great time.

Recognizing quite a large batch of trophies were distributed, still I am happy with the outcome from my first event of this sort.




regards

david

 

Congratulations David. Glad they recognized a great car when they saw one.

Feels good, right?

 

Congratulations!

Are you going to keep it on the dash?

 

At the start. I hope to publish some video in couple weeks.



regards

davido

 

Congratulations David.

A tremendous result and even more so for a first concours.

Graham

 

Wow, a red ribbon on your first outing? Congrats!

Beautiful low-mileage BRG coupe, I'm not surprised!

 

Wow. Quite a car and showing. 2 weeks ago in Northern California the United British Sports Car Club had a Car Show with over 250 British Cars. It was a participant's choice judging (only those showing a car could vote) and to my suprise I won first place for XK8s. Most of the comments were that people liked the color (Sapphire Metallic) and loved my dog (big black labradoodle). It's fun to show your car regardless of its perfection or imperfections.

[

 

Congrats David, it was nice to meet you. Your car is an absolute gem you should enjoy for plenty of years to come.

Ben

 

One of my friends from a collectables hobby popped out to the show. He had a camera. The sun (or was it the BRG XK-150-S) had bowled me over...

 

Thanks

Hope we can go to more of these...

regards

d

 

Congrats! I have always wondered about these types of contests. I recall when my dad had a right hand drive 1953 Rolls Royce back in the 1980s he went to a few "classic car day" type events at Santa Anita racetrack. He never entered the car for judging but a lot of folks like him just came to park their car on the grounds. I always thought his car looked pretty decent for the age but then started browsing around at the cars that were actually in the competition. This was really nuts as the judging came down to things like alignment of screws and poking into areas that could not even be seen. It was apparent to me that those owners going to those lengths to win a trophy at events like that were probably owners who would not dare to actually drive the car.

Then on the other hand I have sometimes come across meets of newer cars. I recall one time, also back in the 1980s, when there was some Mercedes show and there were lines of cars (with their owners) of the recently redesigned SL. Naturally they all looked great but then again they were all essentially new cars--I never could quite get the point of that.

When I had my daily driver 1995 Corvette I would always get compliments for the pristine-like condition that it was in although I never really did anything special except clean it regularly and take care of small problems before they became big ones. It never occurred to me to enter the car in a contest but the guy who bought the car in 2008 entered the car in a contest where he worked (Lockheed). He said there were quite a number of cars there and he won best stock muscle car or something like that.

Similarly I keep the XKR in very nice condition and have gotten compliments from mechanics I have gone to but it still never occurs to me to actually enter the car in any contest. To my mind a car that is only 8 years old should look good so the only thing separating first from second place would have to be things like alignment of screws and having an undercarriage that you could eat off of. As **** as I am if anyone ever catches me polishing suspension components and lining up screws, please lock me up.


Doug