I wanted his XK140 so bad it wasn't funny. The car was very solid, all
original, and could have gone a while with just a good freshening.
Unfortunately, I was newly married, a starving student, and an apartment
dweller. And had no money.
My Dad had a friend back in the day who did a lot of SCCA racing. He took my
Dad for a ride in an XK140 that ended up with them outrunning the police
Dan
Sent from my iPhone
On Jan 11, 2012, at 11:18 PM, Rich Thomas
richthomas79td...@constructivity.net wrote:
I like those XJs too.
My neighbor had a 56 XK140MC, all original black with red interior, missing
only the driver's inner door panel (which he had taken out to fix something,
leaned it against a garbage can in the garage, and the garbage men took it
along with the trash in the barrel). He parked it in his garage in 1963 and
about 1993 or so pumped up the tires and had it brought to the house next
door where he was living with the woman (our neighbor). He was too old to
deal with it, offered it to me for $10k which at the time was a good deal, he
really wanted me to have it but needed some cash too.Alas other things
got in the way but I lusted after that car, he sold it for $12k. He had
fitted luggage he had made for it too, it all fit in the boot very nicely. A
bit of cleaning up and some rubber bits and it would have been ready to go.
We washed it one day and the paint actually looked quite good for having sat
for 30yr, a bit of wax would have done wonders for it but I didn't want to
fool with it more.
He said it would do over 100mph quite easily, probably 120 or so and maybe a
bit more. I loved that rounded styling of the coupe.
--R
On 1/11/12 10:04 PM, Dan Penoff wrote:
The guy I worked for at the time was a Jag nut, and had 7-8 Jags at any
given time.
A typical count would be:
195x XK140 (all original, needed restoration)
2 - late 50s/early 60s Mark IVs
1967 XKE 4.2 litre
2 - mid 70s XJ6s
1978 XJ12
The nice thing about this was that I got to drive any of them I wanted home
in the evenings or on the weekends, if they were at the shop. I was in my
late teens at the time - can you imagine being 18-19 years old and driving
an XKE or an XJ12?
The XKE was a bit of a beater, so I usually drove the XJ12 when I could.
Only bad thing about that car was the lousy fuel mileage. I seem to recall
it having some really archaic transmission in it, like a Ford FMX, that
shifted out of first gear at about 7 mph.
The XJ12 was a real beauty, and I probably spent most of my time keeping it
up. Since it was normally aspirated, keeping the carbs balanced and the
engine tuned was a full time job. It was shoehorned in the engine
compartment so tightly you could barely stick your hand in between the
engine and side of the compartment.
I remember putting a water pump on it once - I recall that we had to
disassemble the front clip to get to it.
The one thing that was really amazing about that car was the ability to go
down the road at 80 or 100 mph, and you would swear you were doing 30 mph,
it rode so nicely.
Dan
On Jan 11, 2012, at 9:05 PM, M G wrote:
I don't think you would like a V-12, that is unless you can strip off all
the anti pollution junk on it. It is a nightmare to work on.
As far as 8 hours for a valve adjustment, could be book time but I remember
doing a complete valve job on my 63 3.8l e-type. Started right after work
at 5 and got done about 2 AM. Drove it home slept and was back at work at 7
the next morning. Course trip time was only about 10 min. Was only about 23
at the time so had a lot more energy and didn't run down as fast as now.
AH! Those were the days.
Manfred
Date: Wed, 11 Jan 2012 10:48:11 -0500
From: Rich Thomasrichthomas79td...@constructivity.net
To: Mercedes Discussion Listmercedes@okiebenz.com
Subject: Re: [MBZ] Mercedes-Benz SL Returns to Its Lightweight Roots
I liked those 70s Ford Granadas, just like a Mercedes!
I would take a nice E-Type, maybe a V12
--R
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