Pulling Mike's V12

Today I helped Mike pull the V12 out of his accident damaged No.31 Last 100 XJ.

Ottawa Jaguar Club - Summer Drive - Fort Coulonge

Pretty small group but we had a lot of fun. Covered a little over 200miles on some fast back roads. Averaging about 60mph and a decent 14.5mpg in the XJ12.

Brake Light Switch

Over the weekend, I noticed that the brake lights were stuck on. Thanks to a post by Neville (NZ) on Jag-Lovers I found out how the brake light switch works and its location.


Really difficult to reach under there. But like many things on a British car, its pretty obvious once you stand on your head.

When I realigned and tightened up the switch, the lever binds and doesn't move easily. The switch needs to be a little loose. Obviously if its loose it'll move out of alignment again over time. Need to figure this our properly. But its such an annoying job. I think I'll just put up with calibrating it once every few years.

I'm going to need new tail light lenses. The ones on the car are really bad. They've fogged up and the left side has even partially melted. The lenses are not easy to find and not cheap either. But its definitely a safety issue that I will sort out as soon as possible.

2011 All British Car Day (ABCD)

This year's ABCD was probably the best turn out ever. With over 200 participants, there was everything from TVRs to Land Rovers.

2011 Ottawa Concours D'Elegance

I went to the Jaguar Concours today at the Aviation Museum. Sadly I wasn't able to take my Jag along. I had deferred getting the Jag ready for the season because I was rebuilding the 560. Eventually I gave in to compromise and sent the Jag out to have the starter changed. Had it changed but then found some sort of ignition problem. I am getting spark to the distributor cap but not to the spark plugs. Its probably just a bad rotor arm, but in any case I wasn't able to take my Jag to the show. Sad because there weren't any Series 1s or Series 2 XJs there.

Didn't really take many photos. E-Types bore me these days. There were a lot of things going on at the Aviation Museum other than the Concours. There was an air show, a general car show (MBCA had a few cars on show, and the entire Mustang club was there), and a few military vehicles. The Ottawa Jaguar dealer was there as usual.

That new XJ is really growing on me. The short wheel base has much better head room in the back. I got a chance to look over the white XJ the dealer brought over. I have only two gripes with it; 1) the interior is a bit tinsely - too much fake chrome 2) the instrument cluster is replaced with a hideous LCD screen. But if I had $90k to spend on a saloon, I'd buy a new XJ.

Two cars I particularly liked this year was a 1995 XJR6 and a Mark IX. Both in absolutely stunning condition. I'd love to have a Mark IX as a daily driver.

































One of the last 100 VDPs. Black cherry.