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Thousand Dollar Supercar's 1988 Jaguar XJ-S 3.6


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19 minutes ago, fishtailfred said:

... constantly speeding and passing everyone on the left. I, of all people, struggled to keep up.

Yyyeah, I thought everyone else was going slowly but it was just that the Prince of Darkness had infected my speedometer. I need to pull out the instrument cluster to see if the speedo can be calibrated, and to fix the illumination to make it visible at night. The reason you struggled to keep up is that you were in a diesel Mondeo. :P

26 minutes ago, fishtailfred said:

Looks old fashioned from back, but super sweet from any other angle.

....something under the floor (ECU, perhaps?).

Good on you for ignoring literally everyone and doing this! :-)

The back is one of its many super sweet angles IMO. Looks old fashioned cos it came out 43 years ago. =)

I will investigate what's behind that passenger footwell footrest this weekend, because I need to find space to stash an amp.

I actually didn't have to ignore anyone on oldschool in buying this car. Threeonthetree / Neal and BDA780 / Karl put up with me harrassing them about the decision for probably the past year or two. Not once did they try to convince me to consider a 2ZZ. :thumbright:

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On 4/18/2018 at 23:14, Thousand Dollar Supercar said:

It would be. I thought all TWR cars were basically body kits and suspension, still fitted with automatics and with their engines essentially stock. Fortunately, some total XJS Barry has written this site that suggests a 6L manual car could have been a possibility: https://classicregister.com/id-guides/how-identify-1984-1988-jaguar-xjs-twr-enhanced

This one is owned by (and was built at TWR by) the crew chief of TWR's global ops of the time, who was in charge of the on-track operations of the XJS when they raced in the '80s.  I often catch up with him when I pop down to my folks' place, he's got some fascinating tales.

 

Here he is, on the right, when they came over and conquered Bathurst.

 

His XJR-S is a thing of beauty, and was the only one built to full-fat spec. Excluding some of the bonkers Lister creations, it's probably the ultimately spec'd XJS you will ever find.... certainly I reckon it's the most desirable factory XJS I've ever come across.

 

 

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  • 2 months later...

Looks like that car has the common problem of being British the windscreen wipers not parking, which I need to fix on my car at some point.

According to the XJ-S Barry Bible, by the time my car was made, both types of Lucas motor had been abandoned in favour of Electrolux. The wiper switch was still Lucas though, and because my wipers park in intermittent mode only, the switch is to blame. Barry Bible saves so much time. Thanks Barry! :study:

I wish my rear brake parts would hurry up and arrive from the UK so I don't feel bad about driving my Jag too much.

 

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13 hours ago, kws said:

I still pine for a facelift V12 or manual I6 one, to go with the Vitesse. Super cool cars. 

There's a maroon manual I6 one on TardMe at the moment for $20k. I went to look at it in Waikanae when it was for sale for about $11k, and based on my limited experience I felt it was almost a bit rough / rusty for the money. Now someone has bought it, moved it to Auckland and relisted it almost immediately for nearly twice as much. This is the fun game of buying an XJ-S. =\

I never considered a facelift car even though the XJ-S rule seems to be 'the newer, the better'. The facelift has the better electrics, 6.0l engine, better gearing and an extra speed in the auto, but the modernised dashboard and the airbag steering wheel say 'Other Projects thread'. Deal breaker. ;) 

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I feel you on the facelift, but the back looks so much more swish than the pre-facelift. Shame there isnt a crossover with FL exterior and PFL interior
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For something so "RARE!" there are a heck of a lot of manual ones on TM at the moment. All of them crazy money though.

I do want this one, but there is no way its worth that much. https://www.trademe.co.nz/motors/used-cars/jaguar/auction-1706246079.htm?rsqid=63692acff9274d92b20f725eb42e1cce

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2 hours ago, kws said:

I feel you on the facelift, but the back looks so much more swish than the pre-facelift. Shame there isnt a crossover with FL exterior and PFL interior
...

I do want this one, but there is no way its worth that much. https://www.trademe.co.nz/motors/used-cars/jaguar/auction-1706246079.htm?rsqid=63692acff9274d92b20f725eb42e1cce

I don't think that the rear of the facelift cars is a big improvement, but it's not awful either. Ford/Jaguar probably had to change something because the car had been out for 15 years. The badges on facelift cars look like a bit of an afterthought - shrunk to fit the flattest area they could find and aligned with the curved chrome so the text isn't horizontal, but you can always take them off!

The facelift crossover is the wrong way around unfortunately - the airbag steering wheel came before the FL and the 5.3 engine was still in early FL cars.

I was keen on the car in the auction you posted too, but you're right - if it were a bargain it would have sold by now. I quite like the spoiler and oldschool fat balloon tyres with white writing. The maintenance done on the rear end etc is encouraging. It's a bit scruffy in places, I'd prefer it to either have sideskirts or no bodykit, the LF wing looks darker than the LH door, and worst is the dual headlights. I asked the seller and he said he's saving the original single headlights off this car for one of his other XJSs. Makes you wonder if he put together this hotrod out of a spare parts car to get rid of all the pieces he doesn't want. ;)

The glass for the single headlights is no longer available and fetches decent $$$. =(

 

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  • 4 weeks later...

Those rear brakes are a shit cunt to replace. Rear disc replacement is major involving removing rusty seized together exhaust joints, busted knuckles, prayers to multiple deitys, suicide and a lot of swearing.

IMHO you may as well drop.the whole subframe and give it a full rebuild. Do it once do it right. Perhaps even get a custom.bolt together exhaust made for it rather than stupid slip joints that seize or break.

Also those discs look kind of OK and I would not hesitate in rolling with them until I was feeling particularly masochistic. If anything just replace the hand brake pads because they are not too bad to replace if your car has the access panels under the rear seat. (not all of them do, weirdly/Jaguarly)

PS: Paul Walbran's is the best Jag Barry I know of up your way.

edit - http://mgparts.co.nz/what-we-do-and-meet-the-team/

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1 hour ago, KKtrips said:

IMHO you may as well drop.the whole subframe and give it a full rebuild. Do it once do it right. Perhaps even get a custom.bolt together exhaust made for it rather than stupid slip joints that seize or break.

The exhaust on the six cylinder cars merges into a single pipe after the headers, but splits back into two pipes to wind right through the rear suspension millimetres from the brakes just like in a V12. :rolleyes: I want to replace it with a side exit exhaust similar to this (except on the drivers side of the car, which is the exhaust side of the engine):

5b73428779836_JD-Classics-070(1).jpg.844816772d7d0d24832000494702006f.jpg

Sounds like maybe I should get that done now, before I get the brakes replaced..

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I went to see a garage that has been around since 1965, and spoke to their Barry who must have been there since 1965 too. They used to do a lot of Jag exhausts in the '70s and '80s. He wanted to steer me away from a side exit exhaust for various boring logical reasons -

  • the rules about proximity of the exhaust exit to the door aperture mean the exhaust tip would have to go quite close to the wheel
  • no matter the pipe diameter and angle, I'd still sometimes get the exhaust blowing into the cabin when stopped at the lights etc
  • you either put a muffler in the original spot near the rear suspension and double back the pipe to the exit point, or you lose ground clearance by positioning the mufflers somewhere else
  • either way, there's a bit of mucking around fabricating supports etc
  • it'd be kinda droney and loud (and TBH it might not be the best noise, given the engine and the auto transmission)

He also said that if making the original exhaust layout louder, fabricating the sections of exhaust which pass through the rear suspension is complex and there's not really space to increase the diameter there. His solution if it were his car would just be to swap mufflers and reuse the stock pipework near the brakes.

On the plus side, this garage are not afraid of the brake work and could do both tasks together.

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