Discussion
Bringing the thread back to life, we went to a classic meeting today. On returning to the car found the front N/S wing dented and scraped. Aren't people just lovely? No note of course. Back to Blighty for a bonnet respray I guess since the paint mix is special. If I get it over in October then we can go to the New Forest meeting on the 1st January and the Boxing Day meet at Wickham. Every cloud has a silver lining I guess.
A very personal choice this, but you ask for advice so here's my two cents worth.
An XJ13 is a very unusual car, far more so than even an XKSS. I suppose that to some extent the decision will be governed by your height, since at 5' 8" and shrinking the XKSS is quite snug even for me and taller friends get their thighs tangled up in the steering wheel. The cockpit of the XJ13 is bigger. so having decided that size really does matter we get onto other considerations and first of all I'll put fuel consumption on the back burner. This is after all, a man's toy and such considerations shouldn't come into it, but for what it's worth my car averages 16mpg on a run. To discuss the XJ13 in detail, contact Trevor Williams at TWR replicas and mention my name. He'll give you chapter and verse including the XKSS of which he's built a few.
The cars are of a different era and technology but both mythical. In midsummer you'll love the open air of an XKSS and regret the sauna that is the XJ13. Rather like a GT40 replica, they aren't designed to be very practical beasts. an XKSS has a luggage rack for a suitcase, but an XJ13 is a pure bred racing car, so prepare to travel light, very light. It's a while since I really though about it, and I don't know if there is any space under the "bonnet" though. The noise of twin side-exhaust 2" pipes versus that mellifluous silky sound that is the V12. Unlike my car in D-type form, both have luxuries such as wipers, screen and roof, so nothing in it there. Mind you, if the roof is up on the XKSS, prepare to go to limbo-dancing classes to get in and out! I don't use it except when parking up for the night since the rain mostly passes over the top anyway.
I could ramble on some more, but it is oh-so-personal a decision. When parking the car, an XKSS wins hands-down over the 13 by the way, if that counts. They are awkward cars to judge and quite wide too. For me, it is the XKSS of course, but if it is just going to be a toy and not used much either is fine. I just love open-air motoring, and that is more important than looks, handling and so on. Oh, in your email you asked about the race/rally engine I had built for it and yes it is a 4.2 but the cost ran to five figures ten years back, to give you an idea, but if grins per mile count, it was worth every penny! I think the car weighs in at 1.1 tons now, or so I would guess. She weighed 1.05 before we added a screen and hood etc.
An XJ13 is a very unusual car, far more so than even an XKSS. I suppose that to some extent the decision will be governed by your height, since at 5' 8" and shrinking the XKSS is quite snug even for me and taller friends get their thighs tangled up in the steering wheel. The cockpit of the XJ13 is bigger. so having decided that size really does matter we get onto other considerations and first of all I'll put fuel consumption on the back burner. This is after all, a man's toy and such considerations shouldn't come into it, but for what it's worth my car averages 16mpg on a run. To discuss the XJ13 in detail, contact Trevor Williams at TWR replicas and mention my name. He'll give you chapter and verse including the XKSS of which he's built a few.
The cars are of a different era and technology but both mythical. In midsummer you'll love the open air of an XKSS and regret the sauna that is the XJ13. Rather like a GT40 replica, they aren't designed to be very practical beasts. an XKSS has a luggage rack for a suitcase, but an XJ13 is a pure bred racing car, so prepare to travel light, very light. It's a while since I really though about it, and I don't know if there is any space under the "bonnet" though. The noise of twin side-exhaust 2" pipes versus that mellifluous silky sound that is the V12. Unlike my car in D-type form, both have luxuries such as wipers, screen and roof, so nothing in it there. Mind you, if the roof is up on the XKSS, prepare to go to limbo-dancing classes to get in and out! I don't use it except when parking up for the night since the rain mostly passes over the top anyway.
I could ramble on some more, but it is oh-so-personal a decision. When parking the car, an XKSS wins hands-down over the 13 by the way, if that counts. They are awkward cars to judge and quite wide too. For me, it is the XKSS of course, but if it is just going to be a toy and not used much either is fine. I just love open-air motoring, and that is more important than looks, handling and so on. Oh, in your email you asked about the race/rally engine I had built for it and yes it is a 4.2 but the cost ran to five figures ten years back, to give you an idea, but if grins per mile count, it was worth every penny! I think the car weighs in at 1.1 tons now, or so I would guess. She weighed 1.05 before we added a screen and hood etc.
Edited by lowdrag on Wednesday 4th September 09:13
I watched the Leno video and cringed. The "expert" saying the body was only part alloy, Leno saying the engine was all alloy, and so on. The Plessy brake pump which no one thought to mention was driven by the gearbox is another example. I feel very let down by Leno always having thought him to be a real enthusiast. And if that car is $25 million, can I sell them back the bumpers from that car which are now on mine? I'll take a cool million for them.
julian64 said:
wow is that the highest money ever paid for a kit car?
Perhaps I shouldn't bite, but a riveted monocoque alloy body I class a bit above a "kit car", but at the same time it is an exceptional price for a company that was well known and respected and who made superb copies. Once the name of the new owner become public it may well enhance the value of the marque too, but I am not at liberty to disclose. Suffice to say that it is not the American Chord Overstreet whose name was bandied about.I think that a Pur Sang would be a cut above a Lynx, since the latter is based around an E-type with IRS etc. but AFAIK the Pur Sang cars are proper copies? Old racing Car Company have an FIA-papered real D-type copy on sale but I think the price is about £425,000 (not sure though) and given the cost of the parts is better value than the Lynx. There again, David Duffy and Jerry Booen built a full-on XKSS for Dr. James Hull (now of course the property of Jaguar) and that was about £425,000 IIRC a few years back. So yes, the Lynx was a tad overpriced I feel, but then what do I know? But when the new owner's name is revealed it will add to the brand I am sure. Here's a photo of the XKSS car mentioned above:-
Well, since he has apparently been talking about CKL and his new acquisition on the morning show there is no harm in confirming the truth therein.
ETA: and as regards "bargain basement" XKSS replicas, the very last of the Adrian Cocking fibreglass kits is being built up and will be on the market at £85,000. They are making no more. Three years back a friend's widow sent his to auction and it didn't meet the reserve of £35,000. Seems your car is also an "investment".
ETA: and as regards "bargain basement" XKSS replicas, the very last of the Adrian Cocking fibreglass kits is being built up and will be on the market at £85,000. They are making no more. Three years back a friend's widow sent his to auction and it didn't meet the reserve of £35,000. Seems your car is also an "investment".
Edited by lowdrag on Thursday 25th September 13:25
£350,000 would come in rather handy at the moment!Mine was owned by Michael Palin, but I am not selling it for a few goldfish and cotton buds. Frankly I don't really care about who buys what, but if the last sale sets the standard for the price of a car that means mine will go. I have it as a fun car, but at my financial level £350,000 is no longer fun. Can't see me throwing it up Prescott or round Goodwood or the Val de Viennes again.
ETA:- It took two to get that high and if anyone want to put the underbidder in touch with me.................
ETA:- It took two to get that high and if anyone want to put the underbidder in touch with me.................
Edited by lowdrag on Saturday 27th September 17:27
You can buy a new Lynx XKSS for £100,000 cheaper! Possibly you didn't know they are back in production again, and they are made in Czechoslovakia now. This is the prototype:-
Bonnet shape is all wrong as is the wheel arch, but all that is being fixed. I accept that the car is still the same car, but as a percentage of my overall worth my two cars are now approaching a very uncomfortable percentage. I've lived for my cars, sacrificing a lot that other people wouldn't dream of going without. I am wondering, as my favourite birthday is immanent (69
) whether a cruise on the SS Alzheimer is now in order with her indoors. I can't afford to rally her (the car, fools!) any more since the financial crisis, in fact the petrol costs forbid much use at all, and yes, I do love her, but do I love her £350,000 much? That is the question.
Bonnet shape is all wrong as is the wheel arch, but all that is being fixed. I accept that the car is still the same car, but as a percentage of my overall worth my two cars are now approaching a very uncomfortable percentage. I've lived for my cars, sacrificing a lot that other people wouldn't dream of going without. I am wondering, as my favourite birthday is immanent (69
) whether a cruise on the SS Alzheimer is now in order with her indoors. I can't afford to rally her (the car, fools!) any more since the financial crisis, in fact the petrol costs forbid much use at all, and yes, I do love her, but do I love her £350,000 much? That is the question.RichB said:
lowdrag said:
Mine was owned by Michael Palin...
Picking up on that, I can't imagine Palin in a D-Type. He doesn't strike me as the least bit interested in cars, the opposite in fact. I thought he is a bit of an eco/warrior.Edited by RichB on Saturday 27th September 18:10
It'll do exactly the same as it did to the value of the lightweights when they increased the number by one third - sweet FA. The originals are the originals, the new ones will wear the chassis numbers of those lost in the fire of February 1957. Jaguar allocated the numbers XKSS 728 and it was built, then there is a gap to XKSS 754 which is the next actual car produced and sold. Except, as I've always said, the maths doesn't work. Like Ferrari, Jaguar cheated and built 701, 704, 707, 710 and so on to get quickly to the 50 cars needed for homologation for the SCCA series in the USA. So "ten cars were built" but actually only four. Now, if you continue 731, 734, 737, 740, 743, 746, 749, 752 then the next actual car built, 754, is one number out of sequence. Never mind, they did exist in Lofty's mind's eye and that's all that matters. And according to Jaguar, they can be road registered here since they aren't continuations but originals rebuilt. No seat belts, no emissions controls, no IVA.
I don't think so, but then I am no expert on the pre-war cars such as the SS100 but one of the rarest must be the SS90. I wonder how many unallocated chassis numbers there might be there? Then of course there were E1A and E2A so shall we see E3A, 4A etc? No I think that Jaguar has shot it's bolt after these nine.
I think most people are of that opinion Rich, but since they started it like that, it would be hard to go back on what they did all those years ago since the chassis numbers weren't "allocated" at the time, which is why they are only building the nine "lost" cars. I really don't understand, or perhaps am too old to comprehend, what logic there is in any of this - except money of course. I've been doing some phoning around to the big Jaguar specialists, those who could build you a "proper" car and in some cases even have bucks of the originals. Do remember that the first of the latest six lightweights, of which paradoxically there are seven, wears the chassis 00 and remains in Jaguar's possession, but it was built by RS Panels, then Jaguar built the rest; and of course they all have a Crosthwaite & Gardner engine in them. But back to the point. If these new nine cars are costing, as reputed, £2 million each then a specialist will build an identical car for about £450,000. Now that is over £1.5 million just for a chassis number. And of course Jaguar themselves do own a replica XKSS that came with the James Hull collection.
Edited by lowdrag on Friday 25th March 11:05
Resurrecting an old thread, but since the dear DVLA withdrew my registration and demanded that it be reregistered as a kit car under IVA rules, I have had to reconsider my position. So, say goodbye to my English XKSS:-
And say hello to my new French one:-
So now I can run around the UK with impunity and don't need any of that IVA gubbins. France, once the most intransigent of authorities where replicas were concerned, have now changed completely and as long as there is proof that the car is 30 years old it is plain sailing to register here. Daft, isn't it? And moreover, the insurance here is any driver with a licence for more than a year and no age limits young or old, nor any mileage restriction.
And say hello to my new French one:-
So now I can run around the UK with impunity and don't need any of that IVA gubbins. France, once the most intransigent of authorities where replicas were concerned, have now changed completely and as long as there is proof that the car is 30 years old it is plain sailing to register here. Daft, isn't it? And moreover, the insurance here is any driver with a licence for more than a year and no age limits young or old, nor any mileage restriction.
Edited by lowdrag on Monday 22 April 12:03
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