A barge with a mission...
Discussion
dbdb said:
Fabulous stuff - I enjoyed your blog as well.
The XJ40 is such a great car and not at all fragile, badly built and unreliable like so many seem to think! Is it still running cold? - It would have done more like 28 mpg with a new thremostat!
Do you plan to keep it?
David
Funnily enough, we had a new thermostat - in the glovebox! However it's amazing how much your enthusiasm for working under the bonnet dies off when you wake up in some unfamiliar city, it's minus ten outside, and you have a hangover. Still, we paid the price (literally) for our laziness through all the extra fuel we had to put in the tank...The XJ40 is such a great car and not at all fragile, badly built and unreliable like so many seem to think! Is it still running cold? - It would have done more like 28 mpg with a new thremostat!
Do you plan to keep it?
David
Unfortunately, the charismatic Jag is car number 4 on the drive, and I can't really justify keeping it - despite really wanting to, so it went up for sale this weekend. I'll be sad to see it go though, and am pretty sure it won't be the last big Jag i own - though for the next road trip we've already decided we need and old LHD Merc, so if anyone has one and cares for a swap, I'm all ears!
Completely agree in what a good car the XJ40 is by the way. We chose one for our little trip purely because we wanted to take something comfy and British, but were completely won over by the way it just kept going day after day, whatever the conditions, and always felt like it would happily keep purring around the Baltic until the end of time. A month ago, I didn't really 'get' Jaguars; now, the thought finding some excuse to get an LPG'd XJR seems to be cropping up almost daily...
Hey the 944 adventure through Africa is a great read http://www.bencoombs.net/adventures.html
scotty_d said:
I used to run a L reg xj40 3.2 in the same trim as yours for over 2 years and the best part of 45k it was a great car. Mine ran on lpg, seeing yours makes me miss mine 
And great to see it waft you 5000 easy miles .
I have a feeling I'll feel exactly the same when I've sold it; it's definitely a contender for being the best car I've ever owned. Really wish I could justify holding on to it but needs must. And great to see it waft you 5000 easy miles . Just been getting all nostalgic and going through some of the film we took on the trip around the Baltic. I'm going to put together a proper video of it in time, but until then, here's a few clips of the Jag on the Estonian ice roads if anyone's interested:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3nr6Q_z-Id8
(Must be due to the tags I entered, but it's somewhat ironic that when I play it, youtube's suggested videos are all about the MV Estonia ferry sinking in the Baltic! :-s)
what a great idea. bonkers in the best possible way.
strangely, most guys who have these cars would not dream of taking them out on a salty snowy road in Britain , let alone a frozen baltic sea.
personally for this trip i would have chosen a range rover classic as my British statesman of choice. but i have both of these cars, so am spoilt really.
this does sound like a good condition, low mileage car, but you can buy them much cheaper than £900, if you can put up with some rust. £500-£700 will buy you a half decent runabout, especially if you dont plan to keep it for good.
i have driven in sweden/ Norway too. fabulously beautiful scenery and very quiet country roads. would recommend it to anyone.
not been to estonian though myself.
the other question is, is this jag is one of the best cars you have had, and theres 4 others on the driveway, why not keep the jag and ditch one of the other "lesser" vehicle?
strangely, most guys who have these cars would not dream of taking them out on a salty snowy road in Britain , let alone a frozen baltic sea.
personally for this trip i would have chosen a range rover classic as my British statesman of choice. but i have both of these cars, so am spoilt really.
this does sound like a good condition, low mileage car, but you can buy them much cheaper than £900, if you can put up with some rust. £500-£700 will buy you a half decent runabout, especially if you dont plan to keep it for good.
i have driven in sweden/ Norway too. fabulously beautiful scenery and very quiet country roads. would recommend it to anyone.
not been to estonian though myself.
the other question is, is this jag is one of the best cars you have had, and theres 4 others on the driveway, why not keep the jag and ditch one of the other "lesser" vehicle?
also, i dont think i would have been brave enough (foolish enough!) to set off to an ice encrusted country with no working heater!
i recently fixed the heater on my sovereign, and it wasn't easy i have to say, long process of elimination, sunstitution and a few replaced parts, and a month later of scratching my head, but it was well worth it, or else its virtually unusable in winter imo.
i recently fixed the heater on my sovereign, and it wasn't easy i have to say, long process of elimination, sunstitution and a few replaced parts, and a month later of scratching my head, but it was well worth it, or else its virtually unusable in winter imo.
We evidently have pretty similar taste in cars naki! I've also got a Range Rover classic (which a previous owner endowed with a pre serp TVR V8, custom exhaust, LPG, and a quite biblical soundtrack 
). We thought about taking said beast to the Baltic, but decided agaist it because of the weight, and the fact using a 4x4 for the trip would probably make it too easy. Also, not taking the Rangie gave the perfect excuse to buy & experience the Jag.
The heater came back to life in Berlin when the grille got gaffa-taped up to stop the engine overcooling, so we were toasty warm for most of the trip, and all the grit was cleaned off the car on our return, so hopefully - fingers crossed - we haven't caused any long term rust issues. As for keeping the Jag, don't tempt me! But i've currently got a diesel estate which i need for work, a TVR which i NEED for weekends, the epic Rangie which i need for... erm... yeah, all this snow we've had this year, and a half restored moneypit of a Mini - so despite it's all-round awesomeness, i'm afraid the Jag has to go, if only for the sanity of my bank balance. It will be missed, but that was the plan all along.
). We thought about taking said beast to the Baltic, but decided agaist it because of the weight, and the fact using a 4x4 for the trip would probably make it too easy. Also, not taking the Rangie gave the perfect excuse to buy & experience the Jag.The heater came back to life in Berlin when the grille got gaffa-taped up to stop the engine overcooling, so we were toasty warm for most of the trip, and all the grit was cleaned off the car on our return, so hopefully - fingers crossed - we haven't caused any long term rust issues. As for keeping the Jag, don't tempt me! But i've currently got a diesel estate which i need for work, a TVR which i NEED for weekends, the epic Rangie which i need for... erm... yeah, all this snow we've had this year, and a half restored moneypit of a Mini - so despite it's all-round awesomeness, i'm afraid the Jag has to go, if only for the sanity of my bank balance. It will be missed, but that was the plan all along.
Well, after succeeding in it's mission in fine style, the Jaguar went to it's new owner a few weeks ago - truly a sad day, and it will be missed greatly. However the space in the garage hasn't remained vacant for long, as to follow on from the Baltic Ice road trip, we've decided to spend the Queen's Jubilee weekend in June driving something quintessentially British up a Saharan sand dune, with God Save the Queen blasting out and Union Jack fluttering proudly in the wind - and this is obviously a fine excuse to get another unusual car. Hence, after a few speculative ebay bids on V12 Jags, XJRs and the like, I now have another barge, with another, somewhat warmer mission:
It's a 1975 Rover P6, with the 3.5l V8, auto box, and a lot of brown. It's MOTed until July, has 78k on the clock, and cost £800. The general plan is to jack up the suspension, fit underbody protection and a roof tent, and head out to explore the untarmaced bits of Morocco, and possibly Mauritania, in June.
But first, I've got to collect it and coax it the 200-odd miles home from London. Which could be interesting. If it makes it, I'll get some decent pics up in a few days. And if it doesn't; well there'll be interesting pictures then too!
It's a 1975 Rover P6, with the 3.5l V8, auto box, and a lot of brown. It's MOTed until July, has 78k on the clock, and cost £800. The general plan is to jack up the suspension, fit underbody protection and a roof tent, and head out to explore the untarmaced bits of Morocco, and possibly Mauritania, in June.
But first, I've got to collect it and coax it the 200-odd miles home from London. Which could be interesting. If it makes it, I'll get some decent pics up in a few days. And if it doesn't; well there'll be interesting pictures then too!
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