As an afterthought, I decided I'd write a bit about what got me to the situation of having 3 Jaguars, and doing work on the E-Type before I got too far into the process, so........... I'm Stuart Walker. I'm married to a beautiful and understanding (has to be with me!!) wife. We have 3 young children and I have 3 old cars - all Jaguars. (My wife also has a new Toyota Sienna, so at least we have one car that doesn't need "more than average" maintenance).
When I was a kid I was really into cars. I had, what seemed at the time (especially to my Mum who had to tidy them up after I'd been playing with them) like hundreds of toy cars. My favourites were a crimson E-Type Jag and both the silver and gold versions of the James Bond Aston Martin DB5 (good taste from an early age!). I could also name pretty much any car that we passed on the road.
My interest waned over the years, though, and, although I still kept abreast of current models, I didn't do much with them after I helped my Dad to lap the valves and replace the cylinder head gasket on my first car - an orange 1976 Mini 1000.
My cars since then have been a Mini 1275, 3 Vauxhall Astras - the last being a 16v GTE, which was really nice - and a Ford Mondeo, in England. My interest in the Vauxhalls came from the 3 models of Vauxhall Victor my Dad had during the 1970's and '80's, after he sold the Morris Oxford, which is the first family car I remember, although I think there was a yellow "something" before that.
I remember the registration of the first Vauxhall Victor we had - it was MHF 687. I'd be interested to know if this number plate still exists, and if it's still on that same car. (The last Victor we had was XKC 262 J. Again, I'd be interested to know if that's still around).
While still in England, I also had a Honda CBR600 motorbike, which was great fun, for a few years before I emigrated to Canada (to get married, of all things!). (Oh, and I also drove a Daewoo for 3 years in Nigeria).
Since being in Canada I've had a Pontiac Grand Am, a Toyota Celica, a 2004 Chevrolet Monte Carlo SS (a wonderful bright yellow vehicle), a 2008 Cadillac CTS, and now my daily driver is my 2001 Jaguar XJR.
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| My Monte Carlo - a wonderful (and bright!) car. |
My first foray into Classic Cars was in the late 90's in England when I bought a 1976 MGB GT V8. Unfortunately I didn't get the chance to enjoy this fully as I was out of the country for part of the time I owned it, and it was in the shop for repairs a lot of the rest of the time. I had to let it go when I moved to Canada, although under different circumstances, I would have loved to have taken it with me. I'd be interested to know if anyone knows if that car still exists - it's UK registration was ORF 976 P.
My time with Jags started in 2007, when I bought the XJR. It was on a bit of a whim; the Monte Carlo was my daily driver, and Liz, I think, had the Buick Rendezvous at the time, so we didn't really need another car. But, I felt I had too much money in the bank and needed to get rid of some (yeah, really - nothing to do with the fact I'd just made an emotional connection with an inanimate object), so we gained a third family car. (Apparently my Dad said to Liz that he couldn't believe I wanted to buy a Jag, when I took him with me to pick it up). So the XJR became my summer Sunday car, resting in the garage during the winter.
In 2011 I had to change the Monte Carlo, which was experiencing paint detachment problems that I didn't want to deal with, so I got the Cadillac CTS (with a manual gearbox!).
In 2012 I started looking at Jags again, this time at the XKR (I had, some might say foolishly, downloaded the "Auto Trader" app onto my phone, and kept looking, out of interest only, at used Jags for sale). I saw one advertised at a local garage, so went to take a look. It was a bit rough inside,as was the next one I saw, but at this second garage, there was a 1994 black XJS convertible. Just visually this exceeded any thoughts I had of the XKR, so I went home, talked to Liz (actually begged, but that doesn't sound as mature!) and the following day went back to buy the car. Imagine my disappointment to find that the same morning another customer had gone to the garage to view the car, and had paid for it and driven off in it within a couple of hours. Now, where was my Auto Trader app?
Luckily, shortly afterwards, I found an ad at another local garage for a 1994 black XJS convertable - virtually the same car. I went to see that one, quickly verified that it was in good condition and put a deposit down. I now owned 2 Jaguars.
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| My XJS - just about to be bought. |
Not long after this, we decided that 5 was probably too many cars for just 2 drivers in the house (the first of the kids won't be able to drive (legally on the road) until 2020) - we also had Liz's Mum's Buick Enclave on the drive so we sold the Enclave and I decided to let one of mine go; so which one to sell? I have to admit, I'd been disappointed with the CTS - maybe because it was the manual rather than an automatic - and I had nothing like the emotional connection with it that I had (and still have - be warned!) with the Jags. So the CTS was sold and the XJR has been my daily driver since (yes, during the winter as well - it's fun in a supercharged, rear-wheel drive car in the snow!).
Then .......... Steve and I took all our kids - 5 of them between us - to a car auction in Toronto ( not really the best place to take 5 kids between the ages of 5 and 9). While there I saw an XKR (not again, I hear you say!) in blue with matching blue interior. The auction not being the place for me to buy, I went back to that Auto Trader app - yes it was still on my phone - and found a blue one for sale in Toronto. When I went to see it, turned out to be the same one that was at the auction but hadn't sold (should have told me something!), so I went to take a look. I almost bought that one, but had got so carried away with it, that I realized that I hadn't discussed it with Liz, and we also had other financial commitments to cover at the time.
Anyway, some time later, I was browsing through the Auto Trader app again (I really should get rid of it before I get into serious trouble) and came across an E-Type for sale in Toronto. A bit unusual for this to be in the regular Auto Trader, rather than in the Classics, but I went to see it anyway ....... And that's how I ended up owning an E-Type to complete my set of 3. Maybe that's the end of my Jaguar acquisitions, but after I've got the E-Type to where I want it, I may start looking again........that app is still there!
There's more about how I acquired the E-Type to follow, as well as the story of how I'm "resuscitating" it. Hope you enjoy the reading.
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