Top Gear on E and DB

Which Honda was it they raced against again? A 2.4 VTEC I assume. Honda claims 0-60 in 7.9, which 'shouldn't' beat either car! I wonder how long the track is, perhaps 0-100 would be more appropriate.

Didn't watch the programme, as Jeremy is up there with ant powder as an irritant, but suspect that the Honda was being thrashed and the DB and XKE - weren't. After all, DBs and XKEs are worth real money and it'll /cost/ to fix 'em if you break something important, and who cares what happens to a Honda?

What annoyed me was him saying the Moss box on the E-Type was like stirring porridge. It's not - unless clapped out. It's a very positive gearbox, but you simply can't hurry it due to the ancient cone synchromesh.

I was once lucky enough, at Goodwood, to chat to a top racing driver from the 60s. He was completly unimpressed with the E-Type, much to my dismay as I was/am completely in love with it. He calimed that half way around a corner all four wheels were going in different directions.

But it wasn't a racing car. More a grand tourer. At least it had springs that moved - unlike many in those days. Remember just about all the others had live axles and cart springs.

The message from "Dave Plowman (News)" contains these words:

The E-Type arrived in 1961. The Lotus Elan in 1962. The Elan was quite softly sprung and I would have thought that the Elite (1957-63) was similar (and not a cart spring or live axle in sight). I very nearly bought an Elite, sight unseen and several 100 miles away, for £500 some time in the mid 70s and have been kicking myself periodically ever since for being too cautious.

My Dad tells of wonderfully cheap cars in the 70s - E-Types in particular - they weren't 'classics', just another car with high millage and a few oil leaks. As things move on, most of the cars that are going to be scrapped are, and what is left is looked after and restored (or put into barns for you to dream of finding).

I think the XJ-S is only just entering this phase. I also think it is gorgous (no, it is, it just took me 20 years to notice). There are loads of perfectly drivable ones about for =A32-3,000 and you get a lot of car (and a lot of bills obviously). In ten years all cheap ones will all have gone - either driven into the ground or looked after and kept as weekend playthings and not cheap anymore.

We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember "CML" saying something like:

Exactly. Especially immediately after the 70s oil shocks - I was offered an E-type and a Jensen Interceptor both for around 4-500quid. Nobody wanted big old cars then.

You can pick up a reasonably sound XJS that'd be suitable for laying up and doing some work on for considerably less than that.

Grimly Curmudgeon realised it was Tue, 28 Jun 2005 19:21:12 +0100 and decided it was time to write:

Not unlike today then. The prices of big old cars are hitting rock bottom now.

In news: snipped-for-privacy@newsfeed03.glasvezel.net, Yippee decided to enlighten our sheltered souls with a rant as follows

Hmm, our Interceptor III Convertible has been valued at £19k in April this year.

What something is valued at and what it will actually sell for are two completely different things. You'll have to put it to the test.

In news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com, Dean Dark decided to enlighten our sheltered souls with a rant as follows

I know this, I spent years in car sales.

Top priced ones I'm seeing advertised [1] are around £30k, average ones seem to be around £20k, I'm guessing ours is worth £12-15k in reality.

Don't think that falls into the definition of a big old car. That would be a 15 year old BMW 7 Series, etc.

In news: snipped-for-privacy@davenoise.co.uk, Dave Plowman (News) decided to enlighten our sheltered souls with a rant as follows

I know, but occasionally we have to be pedantic ;-)

I guess the thing is that XJSs are not cheap in terms of TCO. Unless you are prepared to pay a few 10s of grands to do the restoration that most E-Types have been through, the car is trundling inexorably towards the scrap heap.

Few people will pay that kind of money at the moment because you will never recoup it at sale time (as for any car). You will only spend that kind of money if you love the car and intend to keep it indefinitely.

Eventually such loved cars will make it on to the market and they will rightfully command decent prices.

IIRC it was a Civic. Mike.

Pete M ( snipped-for-privacy@blue-nopressedmeat-yonder.co.uk) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying :

Is that the one that's currently in several binbags with large pools of oil underneath and piles of spanners lying about it?

In news:Xns9684BCD16DE08adrianachapmanfreeis@204.153.244.170, Adrian decided to enlighten our sheltered souls with a rant as follows

You've seen it, obviously..

If not, you must be a previous owner of the bloody thing.

Pete M ( snipped-for-privacy@blue-nopressedmeat-yonder.co.uk) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying :

Just going by what you post here...