A Cool Blue Cat

when i was in high school, in the early 80s, i learned that i could legally distill alcohol for automotive use. i researched it thoroughly, but decided not to pursue it. it required licensing, and the still of course, which had to pass strict guidelines which were no problem, the problem was lack of funds.....it was pretty expensive.
I knew that racers used alcohol, i knew the military used it to cool aircraft engines and add power on take off and at altitude.....what i didn't know was the effect it has on carbs and fuel lines. with the advent of gas station ethanol, i learned just what it does. we are lucky here in washington state, you can buy ethanol free fuel, but its pretty expensive. if you've read my posts before, you know i dont drive my car too much in the winter, so it sits for a while when its snowy.so, this spring, with fresh fuel in the tanks, and a fully charged battery, car ran like sh*t.
tracking down a carb kit was a nightmare because the tag with the carb number on it is long gone. so i had to guess and hope i got the right kit. no returns if opened.... i knew id use some of the stuff, and at 25 bucks, i took the chance. i didnt take any pictures of the disassembly, i didnt think of it at the time...i just wanted it running the way it should.
taking the top cover off, (its a rochester quadrajet), i was shocked at the amount of damage caused by the alcohol in the fuel. ive been hearing horror stories for a while now, but since my heap ran as well it did, i gave it no thought. but, after sitting all winter and some of the spring, (rotten tires) it was pretty bad inside the carb. after i was done cleaning poking and scraping, i had a spray paint cap half full of detritus
from inside the float bowl and chambers. it looked like the aluminium was being eaten away. and it has been. while this particular carb doesnt leak, its not the best either. at first it wouldnt idle at all after the carb heated up.. so i just kept running it letting it do what ever it wanted, and now 2 months later, its almost as smooth as ever, but still not quite right. ive noticed gas from my early car days was a bit oily, todays gas is not. so i started putting some 2 cycle oil in the gas, not enough to be smoky or foul the plugs, just enough to make it oily.3 ounces or so to ten gallons of fuel i guess...i do it by eye.
but ive learned now that ethanol is hard on rubber fuel lines.... jags have some long fuel hoses....o how i want fuel injection.......

I sit here, thinking about an up-coming road trip in october, and caught my self thinking, 'why jaguar'? at 17/18 i knew what jaguars were, didn't know a lot about them, just knew they were awesome motorcars.
I've said it here before, but, i was drawn to the xjs first, (i love the long low lines), and the xkss. In 1985 i could have bought a 1954 xk140 that had seen a pretty big obstacle on its left front for 3,000.....the engine and trans were fresh, and waiting to go back in the car.....the top and interior were just trashed. I passed it up, not having the required vehicle to tow it away with. 5 years earlier, i used to see an old xk 120 (in an open front) shed on the route we took to school. didnt know what sort of jag, found out later), but i knew it was an old jag. its fate was the shed collapsed on it destroying it.
I went there one day to ask about it, if they still had it out back, no it was gone. that's when i leaned what it was. So, for me, it was the classic good looks these cars, and all jags, possess, but as a young man, i was drawn to the 2 door cars. i wanted an xj6c for years. and you know what? they're cheap still.........

every year around this time, (it was 6 days ago, i know), i think about the lemans tragedy that happened in 1955......

Well today (even though the weather was'nt ideal), i re-licesenced the cool blue cat and gassed it up and drove it out for a while. that ventures total
cost was close to 150usd....gas is 1.65 a gallon, not bad, but they will be taxing it again, so it will be 2.50 or more by summer... the license was 100usd alone....they added taxes to that too. maybe i should start a gas rebellion...no no, im kidding! just kidding, really!
any way, i hav'nt had the car out since last september, (i've stopped driving
it in winter unless its absolutley necessary), and i had to gat a new battery too...i did that a few weeks ago, knowing i'll need it. but yesterday, my mother calls me, says help! my car is dead! it was the alternator....
which is 150 or so, but since i cant find a place to re-build them anymore, and mom has a limited income, i got it from my friendly dismantlers.
45usd sure beats 150! and while its not new or even re-built, it has a 6 month warrenty. Today was not a day i wanted to be working on any car,
but for my mom how can i say no, right? So shes happy, im always happy when i can drive the jag anyways, even though i got it stuck whilst turning around.. lol...but i did discover i have a limited-slip differential, which explains a few things from when i first got this car....I had been driving
a honda civic for years, and being front drive, i had sort of forgotten how
rear wheel drive is, (except for burn-outs...heheh, i don't do burn outs in this car, it will quite easily, but i don't), and when i realized it wasn't moving foward, i got out to see how deep it was. Iit was'nt bad so i got some gravel and put it ahead of the right rear tire, thinking it is the main driving tire, and in most cases, it is, but it still would'nt go. so i looked at both sides, and realized both tires were spinning, i added gravel to both sides, and floored it in low gear..took a few seconds, but it worked, and when i hit the pavement, both tires were grabbin asphalt. of course i didnt let it rip, tires are way too spendy to just ruin by being silly. and it was as smooth as ever before.
As I said, it explains a few things that occured in bad weather driving. It can and will grab and go for sure. it never ceases to amaze me.
Best car i ever had!!

This last summer there was a cycle kart meeting in the not too far off town of tieton washington....I didnt know about it until a week ago though..
Now, i've been interested in building a cycle kart for quite awhile now, and
watching the tieton video, (on youtube), i thought hey!! no jaguars!!
so....hmmm....that got me thinking.....people do the bimmers, fiats, bugattis, and all sorts of neat stuff, but i've never seen a jag at all.
And believe me, i've looked at a ton of kart photos over the years,
let me tell you! ( i think there is or was a cycle kart registry around here some where..although i didnt dig too deeply, it was right in 'front' the last time i made a posting. any how back to the thinking part...
An ss100 or a swallow would be ideal as a kart, if i had the money to
do a c type, or a d type, in aluminium, i would! Cycle karts have the engine
in the rear, but i see no reason with some careful planning, why it couldnt be mid-ships, a la xj-13......hmmmmm.. now that would be a kart to see!!
peace all happy late new year!!!

a few days ago, i was visiting with some friends that live about 45 minutes away from me. (thats not the meat of this post though), I left in the early afternoon, and traffic wasn't too bad, just cars bunched up together here and there. now, i dislike that, alot. i found that most people here are jerks when it comes to driving, but most are anyway. thats not the meat of this post either. After i left my friends house, and was within 10 minutes of my home, (you have to exit the freeway, and merge to another hi-way),
I noticed a jerk (for the lack of a nicer word), very close behind me as i approched the exit.
Now this particular exit consists of an ess, first section goes left, second goes right. the speed is a stately 40 mph thru this ess. at its end, it enters a hiway, which is immediatly 55 mph. and just after that is where i turn off to home.
Now as i said, someone was following really close, (which i also dislike),
and i decided to put the jaguar racing heritage into play right then.
now, with 100 more horsepower and 100 ft pnds of tourqe on tap than stock,
its really easy to go very fast very quickly..I suppose the people in the following car figured , oh look, its an old beater! hah! the jokes' on them isnt it?
well, at the the first section of ess, i went half throttle at once, i could really feel the car working, which is something i havnt done really with this car, and it felt really really good. as i exited the left hand section, and entered the right hand section, (and these esses are long too), i looked behind, and boy racer or who ever they were, was not there....now i already said the speed limit in this section is 40, and theres no way i'll do over that in the rain or snow, but it was nice and dry this time. i let the car do what it wanted, and then i had to slow for my left turn home. there was traffic coming, so i had to sit, and i looked behind me , still no 'follower'. i turned giving no more thought to that, waiting my turn, , the followers pulled in behind me, and got out of the car. uh oh....well it wasnt bad, because they said hey, i like this car, i think i know this car, did you buy it from so and so?
i sais thank you, and no , from vancouver wn. oh, i thought it was our old car.
how fast were you going around that corner they asked, and i said 'are you the police'?
i figured if they were i was in trouble because i had been going more than double the posted limit on the exit down at the end of the esses,
i was going almost 90. no fuss, no muss, no tire sqeal, no sliding, (which amazed me really..cos my tires arent the best they could be).
And so the point of all this is this: i love the fast smoothness of this car, and the way it feels doing what its meant to do. it just gets better and better everytime i drive it. Postscript:: i dont want everyone to think i beat this car to death, i don't. i usually baby it. but that racing heritage come out and said go!
so i did and it felt oh so good!!