With the year coming to a close it felt like a good idea to do a 2021 fleet update. A bit of a summary of any issues I had with each car, how much I used it and any future plans. I don’t own a modern car, so these cars not only get used as a hobby, but as everyday transport – regardless of weather or traffic. My wife does own a 2007 car, but I only use that car when the whole family is going somewhere. The cars are listed in the order of how much I used them […]
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Today we are used to E-Types being coveted sports cars which are treated with care by their owners. Few of them ever even see a drop of rain on their paintwork. However, for many years they were just old sportscars that were not treated with the same reverence. This is the story of my E-Type before it settled into its post-restoration life. I had never really thought of owning an E-Type until I lived in the USA for four years. Certainly, I had seen them at car shows and always admired the model. However, in Australia they felt out […] I was obviously very keen to attend the JDCA 60th Anniversary of the E-Type celebration. My only problem was a few minor electrical issues with my car. My rear tail lights were not working (but the brake lights did work), and my right headlight intermittently didn’t work on low beam. For a day trip this wasn’t fatal, but I could have easily found myself driving at night on the way home. I started to investigate the problem myself. I noticed that the number plate lights were also not working, and that they shared a fuse with the tail lights. That […] In March 1961, the Jaguar E-Type was unveiled to the world at the Geneva Auto Show. Few other automotive launches have captivated the public as much as the E-Type did. Enzo Ferrari even dubbed it the most beautiful car ever made. The E-Type would stay in production until 1975 across three different series and three major body styles. Sixty years later, the E-Type still turns heads and is a much in demand classic car. The Jaguar Drivers club ran an event today to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the Jaguar E-Type. The goal was to get at least 60 E-Types […] I recently changed the fuel pump and rear fuel hoses on my Jaguar E-Type. In doing this change I learned a few things. Firstly, the old pump had not been delivering enough fuel, as the car was significantly more responsive. Secondly, fuel had obviously been leaking for a while as the paint had been eaten away in the spare tyre well. For both these reasons I wanted to take the car in to be checked my by mechanic. Now the engine was getting enough fuel I wanted to make sure the tune was right. I also wanted to repair the […] While I was replacing the fuel pump on my E-Type I noticed some hairline cracks in the fuel hoses. This was obviously a problem waiting to happen so I ordered a new set to replace them. It is probably cheaper to buy the raw hose and adapt the original fittings, but SNG Barratt sell a kit with new hoses complete with fittings that is much easier to fit. Postage is quite slow at the moment, so it was a few weeks before I finally got the hoses. The cracks opened up even more as I removed them, so it was […] A couple of months back, I noticed a bad fuel smell from my E-Type. I was able to trace the problem to a leaking E-Type fuel pump. The car still had the original points type SU pump, which are rebuildable. After speaking to a few people, and doing some research, I decided to purchase a new pump. The new SU pumps are a solid state version, so no points inside. I’ll keep the original pump with the car in case I ever sell it and somebody wants the original. As can be seen from the picture above, the new […] I took my E-Type out for a couple of drives this week. The state of NSW has been in lockdown due to COVID19 since March. Until last week, it was illegal to be out and about without a valid excuse. This precluded the use of the E-Type as unlike some of the more modern cars it isn’t so suitable to use to do a shopping run. For starters the boot is minute and the car doesn’t like stop/go traffic very much. On the first drive, I noticed a bit of a fuel smell. It seemed like it was coming from […] I changed the differential ratio of my E-Type about two years ago. My car was first delivered in the USA, so it came standard with 3.54 ratio. Most of the 4.2 cars were standard with 3.07. When the car was restored in the 90’s, it was converted to 3.07. However, the previous owner converted it back to 3.54. My conversion put it to 3.07 again. The car still has its original speedometer, which means both the speed and odometer were incorrect. This page lists the different Jaguar E-Type differential ratios. There are generally two ways of accounting for the differential […] My E-Type has a habit of eating batteries. I seem to get about 2-3 years out of them before they struggle to start the car when cold. You might be thinking that these batteries are left discharged all the time – but not so! The E-Type is connected to a trickle charger when not in use and is parked indoors in a moderate climate. I think there are a few reasons for this. Firstly, the battery is quite small, and like many things on the E-Type is under specified for the car. The series 1 radiator fan is the classic […] | |||||
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