Jon (carbking) said; "if there is a "perfect" six-cylinder, it would be the Jaguar 3.8 litre with three (3) Weber DCOE 2-barrel carbs. And IF I had been born independently wealthy, I would have at least two of them in my garage (currently, there is only a picture! wink )."
Jon, back in about '75 I had the good fortune to (while reading gas meters in a affluent part of town) spot a '62 Series 1 E-Type in a open sided car port. It was covered with about a 1/4 inch of dust. It took several attempts but I finally caught the owner home. Seems it was his daughters college car and it had quit running on the way home a couple years prior and hadn't been touched since the wrecker dropped it off.
Well, $2,000 later and after installing a new battery it was at my place. The generator had failed, a trip to the old guy electrical shop and it was good as new.
The wife and I put many thousands of miles on the little E-Type, luckley we had zero serious issues with it. It was a Joy to drive. I loved tilting the bonnet open and just looking at that dual overhead cam jewel of an engine. I used to point out to the the Vett snobs that my old car had disk brakes all the way around and would run 150 mph (130ish is all I ever saw). Old English cars and Jags in particular have a certain smell, don't know if it's the old leather, the old English Walnut or just the years working on the interior. But it's memorable and I like it.
The gear box whined, 1st gear wasn't synchronized, but the engine was perfect. Smooth, with sounds that I really can't describe. And the 3 SUs were not hard to work on or synchronize, contrary to what I read these days. Of course I'd already been driving a TR3 and TR 4A, having freshened up engines in both and been through the side draft SU's on both more than once.
I so very foolishly sold the Jaguar in the mid-90s for a few times more than we'd paid 20 years earlier. Today it'd be worth 6 figures. That said had I been smart and kept, it would't be for sale at any price.....well 7 figures and I'd have to think REAL hard.
It is still possible to pick up a pretty nice driver series 1 or 2 in the mid to high sub 100k range. Don't think of it as an extravagance but an investment that you can drive and enjoy for a few years. I doubt you'll have any regret
RonR
