Jump to content

Thousand Dollar Supercar's 1988 Jaguar XJ-S 3.6


Recommended Posts

  • 2 months later...
  • 1 year later...

So you're probably wondering why I haven't updated this thread in 1.5 years.

It's because the Jaguar bit me. :(

IMG_0668.JPG.392c65874c8729eb8c1cf0d107ce6f33.JPG IMG_0670.JPG.edf7622081516dd5540eac45aa8b669c.JPG

IMG_0666.JPG.f82e18f10bcdb00abca055414a96c655.JPG IMG_0671.JPG.08287943b2b210c0866d6cc3595d5c22.JPG

I was driving home in about November 2020 and the engine was up to temp, so I decided to go for an onramp pull. It wasn't raining, I had new rear tyres, not much power, and I was only flooring it in a straight line, so nothing would go wrong.:rolleyes:

Unfortunately the road was still a bit wet, the onramp was downhill and quite narrow. For a few seconds I was accelerating with full traction, still well short of the speed limit, then maybe the auto shifted gear or I hit some water or hit VTEC, and the rear stepped out to the right. I tried to catch it with the steering but I think I lifted completely off the throttle (I'm not experienced with RWD), and the car snapped back the other way. The back left corner of the car hit the concrete wall on the left side of the onramp, sending the car across into the barrier on the right. I hit that barrier squarely with the entire right side of the car. My side curtain airbags failed to deploy in the barrier impact, so my head whacked the driver's door window (cabin is pretty small). I managed to stop the car rebounding into anything else and I drove it home.

I could not sleep at all for the entire night. :pale:

I kept imagining the police were watching their highway cameras and they'd turn up at my door to arrest me for toxic masculinity. I was very annoyed at myself for crashing another classic car (even one with unfriendly handling).

Now what? I had no insurance, and the car might be uneconomical to repair privately, particularly if I'd done any mechanical damage when the RF and RR wheels hit the barrier. So I took it to get the wheel alignment checked, and apparently it was all fine. Jolly solid car / that's why it's so heavy.

I parked the car up and started looking for parts. For the longest time, nobody was wrecking an XJS except the absolute worst of TradeMe sellers. I'm talking guys so lazy that actually buying anything off them is like solving a puzzle.  I had been starting the Jag every few months and moving it back and forward, but still the tyres got square and the leather got mouldy and the car got dusty etc. :( I was tempted to abandon it and buy a more modern vehicle, but I eventually managed to get the bare minimum of B-grade parts to allow me to take the Jag to a panelbeater. I was worried that if I didn't get it back on the road in a somewhat timely manner, it would start to rust and degrade mechanically. The plan was to get it WOFable rather than presentable, so I could resume driving it.

(continued)

Edited by Thousand Dollar Supercar
fixing the images
  • Like 4
  • Sad 14
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 4 months later...
  • 2 months later...
  • 4 months later...
  • 6 months later...
  • 3 weeks later...
  • 1 month later...

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...