Today the 29th Annual Father’s Day All British Car and Motorcycle picnic was held Beacon Hill Park.
We had the privilege of debuting the 1976 Jaguar XJ6C Coupe which we completed in conjunction with Jetstream Custom Auto. We also ran into a highly original 10,000 mile Morgan which was recently puchased by David Mass. More to come from that one.
John Slauenwhite was one of the predominant Healey collectors here on the peninsula. He came in the shop occasionally and kindly offered up any assistance for them. He was also part of a consortium with John Bumpass and Earl Kagna to supply Healey parts to the regional area.
Upon his passing away 10 years ago, both these exceptional Healeys were being restored by John. Now they are both reunited and ready for the road, at the same time and in the same shop.
RIP.
Cleaning. That’s basis for any cosmetic restoration and our XJ6C was no exception. This particular model is pretty heavily laden with an inordinate amount of pieces which make it even more time consuming than your average E-Type restoration.
With power steering, air conditioning, exhaust gas recirculation, secondary air injection and pneumatic climate control systems, the series 2 XJ6 should not restored on a whim.
To exemplify our argument, we present three corners of the engine bay with before and after photos. I don’t know what possessed the Jaguar engineers to use white butt connectors and clear slip on connectors, but they took considerable time to clean.
Whereever possible the original CAD-plated bolts were retained, as well as the clear harness holders, green washer lines, white braided wire sheathing and correct rubber. After we get the car back from the trimmer, we can reveal the engine bay in its entirety.
Some of the finest cars in Victoria.
Austin Healey BJ8, MG A Coupe, Jaguar Series II Coupe, Triumph TR3.
This week a gentleman dropped by with special Jaguar that is a very rare sight in North America. What he had was an XJ-S with modifications by Tom Walkinshaw Racing (TWR) who was responsible for developing the Jaguar Sport Group A racecar. The project was fairly atypical of other cars in Group A in that the XJ-S was more a luxurious grand tourer than anything else. None the less, Tom Walkinshaw won the driver’s championship in 1984 and the coveted 24-Hours of SPA in the same.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c5jtf83eKGs&fs=1&hl=en_US]
Capitalizing on these victories, TWR offered a compressive program to tune XJ-S far above its intended performance potential. The Basic package included TWR wheels with Goodyear NCT tires, a comprehensive suspension kit that lowered the car, a race-inspired steering wheel, a new power steering valve that lowered the power steering effect and a purposeful body kit. For those wanted even more, TWR could retrim the interior and recoat all the chrome in black or body color.
Exclusive to the V12 XJ-S program was an ‘Engine Efficiency Kit’ which included a high-flow intake and exhaust. The automatic gearbox could also be fitted with a quick shift kit and a new lever. For even more serious customers with deep pockets, a 5-Speed Manual could be fitted and a 6.0-liter engine conversion not too far off the racing program was available which produced 380 bhp.
The car which dropped by appeared to have many of the upgrades including a two-tone paint scheme that was typical of these cars. The owner didn’t know the extent of the TWR modifications, but he just completed a epic drive from Manitoba to the west coast of Canada. It showed typical signs of 224000 kms.
