The Jaguar

The Jaguar E-Type

Dad saw the frustrations and problems of completing the Avenger, and somehow picked up on my interest in the Jaguar XKE. I don't know how he did it, but he found one sitting in a field next to a house; grass grown up around it. We bought the car for $800 (I wish I had a photo of the car where it sat). Upon inspection, there was some water in the sunken floor pans from the leaky convertible top, but there didn't appear to be any major rust areas on the car. The car was red with a dark red leather
interior and black top; the odometer was at about 55K miles. Most unique of all was that it was an English right-hand drive car! We didn't even try
to start the car and I don't recall that we had working brakes, so we had it towed home. I was absolutely ecstatic to see this car in my driveway, but
Mom was "less than pleased" at my Dad for getting the car.

We spent the next 3-5 months going through the car; checking main engine bearing clearances; cleaning and rebuilding the brake calipers; overhead valve clearances, etc. We slapped an exhaust system on it, gave it a cheap paint job, and put an "incorrect" beige folding top on it. Mind you, this was before I joined the Jaguar Club of Houston, and I had little knowledge of what colors were correct for the model year. I have since learned that it came out of the Jaguar factory painted Warwick gray; red leather interior; and a French gray top.

It didn't matter and I didn't care; I was 21 with a Jaguar XKE. What more could a single-guy want or need? Well, maybe better looks. Needless to say, I had a lot of fun....maybe too much....but I became very attached to the car. I have not been able to trace the English plate that was on the car (LWB 60 D) to an actual registration number in the UK.

For a very short time, Dad had gone off into a British car "tear". He
had found (or was offered) a Series 2 E-Type, 2+2 model w/air and
auto transmission. He bought it for Mom, but she ultimately decided
that she didn't like the car, and it was eventually sold to someone in
the Jaguar Club of Houston (I was not a member at that time).

He also had the hots for a Rolls Royce. He found a Silver Cloud up in Dallas for $12K and it was in great condition. I flew up with him to drive it back, and we had a lot of fun playing "cat and mouse" with a couple of pink Mary Kay Cosmetics caddies. It was certainly "stately" looking, but this car was built like a Sherman tank and had the same weight approximation. He was never comfortable with the brakes, for even though it had a "power assist", it still took a lot of effort to get the car stopped. Panic stop? Forget it! Unlike the E-Types with 4-wheel disc that could stop on a dime, this beast had 4 huge drums. Before long, he moved out to the country and traded it in on an Oldsmobile station wagon. It is probably one of the few cars that I'm glad I didn't try to keep...not like that was an option for me anyway!

But before the "disbandment", I managed to get a shot of the two E-Types
and the Rolls in our garage. Again, a lousy, under-exposed Polaroid!

The Vietnam war was still raging and it weighed heavily on my mind for a number of reasons, but mainly because I had a low draft number and wasn't doing very well with business administration classes in college. I soon found a "greetings" letter from Uncle Sam informing me that I had been drafted. I chose Navy instead of Army, and soon found myself on a jet bound for boot camp in Orlando. I prepared the Jaguar for a long sitting period by
draining the fluids, putting the car up on blocks, and a thick coat of wax
on the paint. Looking back, the Navy was good experience for me. Being
well-disciplined, I never had a problem with chain-of-command. But
meeting a cross-section of other idiots from around the country really
made me appreciate the value of a good education. Thank God I never had to go to Vietnam or serve on-board a ship. I spent my years at the Naval Air Station in Alameda, California as an aviation electronics technician. While in California, I bought a Triumph Spitfire, and I have to say that it was one of the most reliable cars I had ever owned. I drove it back to Houston through the desert route and never had a problem. I sold it and picked up a used Chevrolet El Camino.

After returning from active duty, I commenced to get the Jaguar out of mothballs and back onto the street. Problems soon started to develop such as over-heating, a leaking master brake cylinder, shot interior, and the cheap paint job starting to show its true worth.
However, most alarming, I discovered the left lower frame rail had
become paper thin from corrosion, no doubt caused by years of acid
drips from the battery directly above. One of the bolts was gone and
there was a sizeable hole at the foot of the lower rail. This was not a safe
condition since this rail partly held the entire front section
of the car to the rest of the body. I tried welding a couple of pieces of angle iron to the lower rail, but it looked so bad, I abandoned that idea. To fix this problem, I would have to almost take everything off forward of the firewall... ...engine, suspension, brakes and lines, and bonnet. I was not about to go to that amount of work just to replace it with the frame rail with an ugly and questionable fix.

Since I had dissembled that far down, I reasoned I should just take
EVERYTHING off and completely restore the car from the ground up.
And that my friends, started many, many years ago.

The first order of business was to get everything off of the body and have it dipped in acid to stop any and all rust. I'm not sure that this was the right thing to do, but it made sense at the time. One thing is for sure; it created an awful lot of work for me. But the acid did its job and removed the rust around the rear wheel wells and other problem areas. However, I don't think the dipping tank itself was very clean for there was a white residue all over the body, which I assume was white paint pigment that had been laying on the bottom from previous jobs. I didn't know to ask if the tank was clean at the time, and I doubt they would have changed it for me anyway. (Just think of what an environmental nightmare it would now be to maintain such a tank!)

I used scotch-bright pads to remove the white residue (by hand),
followed by numerous wipe downs of surface cleaning solvent. When
I was sure that the surface was as clean as possible, I shot a two-part
bare metal primer to seal the metal surface from the atmosphere. It
was a transparent sealer of sorts, and hard as nails. I did this to every
body surface and panel, including the air ducts in the bonnet.

I then applied a couple of coats of 2-part gray epoxy primer to the
underside of the car, followed by 2 coats of body schultz (for noise
dampening), followed by a 2-part signal red acrylic paint. With the
bottom part completed, I reasoned that the body shop would only have to
deal with the remaining and more critical topside sections. I also primed and painted the front rails, the interior section, the boot (trunk) and the bonnet sections.

Having done all that I could, the body was placed on a small trailer for transport to a body shop.....and this my friends is where the nightmare begins. The first guy (and as much as I'd like to give names, I won't) took my down payment money; bought a sand blaster; used the free bags of sand on the firewall; and just totally stopped without even spraying any primer on the bare metal. I had no idea that he was going to sandblast the firewall, ruining all of that protection that was already there. He asked for more money to continue, and seeing that he was both incompetent and a bottomless monetary pit, I quickly got the car out of there with a complete replacement door as compensation.

I then took it to a second guy who said he could do the job. But after a few weeks, I went by his place and my body was sitting out in the rain and nothing had been done. When asked for an explanation, he said that he didn't have a spot welder and didn't have the money for one. "So why didn't you tell me that to begin with, you creep?!" So I pulled the car away from him as well, though no money had exchanged hands.

Twice bitten, the body sat in limbo for a long time, though I had
managed to buy a full-size trailer so I could attach the bonnet. I was
quite gun-shy and had little faith and trust in anyone's ability to do the
body work on my car. I just couldn't figure out the problem with these
guys. I wasn't asking for much. Everything was ready for work; no chrome or glass to take off, no engine to work around...I mean, just how easy could it have gotten? Maybe they didn't see enough profit in it. I guess many just want the car, a check for $40,000, and for you not to come around for a year or two. Sorry, not my style!

So I finally visit this 3rd guy's shop. There were Porsches, Ferraris, Jaguars, and other cars all over the place that he had done. All looked very nice. (For you local people, he was German guy and had a shop up in the NW part of town off of Kuykendhal and 1960). I was bothered by the fact that he didn't have a paint booth, but he assured me that the car would be done meticulously correct. Okay, I bit. First tip-off that something was wrong with this guy: the car sat inside for a full year without any work at all. Sound familiar? But money was tight, so the months just flew by. I finally confronted him on getting the body and paint work started and finished. Within a matter of weeks, it was done. Do you think he did ANY of the
work? Noooo, it was his minimum wage crew in the back. Actually, the
paint work looked gorgeous. Then he confronted me with cost
"over-runs" (right!) and proceeded to start crying right then and there
about some heart condition he or his wife had! Unbelievable! So, I paid a
little more than I should have, but again, I had to get this body out of his clutches for I had learned that he was going to put a lean on the car! Another incompetent and unethical creep! I really believe that I could have done just as good a job myself, if not better at a fraction of the cost. Anyway, progress was finally being made!

Now the body was safe in my garage. I had most all of the suspension
pieces re-plated in clear cadmium. I chose to have the upper and lower
fulcrum shafts plated in hard chromium due to their
propensity to rust.

There is not a single part, nut, or bolt that hasn't
been re-plated, repainted, or replaced with original. Some of the original
frame bolts were just too far gone to use again, so I reassembled with
stainless steel or L-9 grade.

Slowly and methodically the front suspension was put back onto the car. And by the way, that left frame rail was replaced with a new one from Martin Robey out of England for $750.

While waiting for the body work, I decided to have the engine completely overhauled and renewed. Senseless not to do it as well. A well-known authority on Jaguar engine rebuilds in the area, Rick Simmons, took the engine down to the bare block and magnafluxed it for cracks. To my utter dismay, there was a tiny crack at the top of the block in an area that was just too thin for a proper repair. So rather than pursue a
probable exercise in futility, I agreed that another block would be the
proper course of action. I have, of course, saved the original block. So,
the engine rebuild cost more than expected...so what's new?! I have yet
to fire the engine up, but I'm confident that it will be fine. I periodically
fill the cylinders with oil and turn the crank.

The overhead camshaft covers, intake manifold, and SU carburetors have been polished to a bright shine. I've heard from some that their original appearance out of the factory was not gleaming bright, but just take a look at any 100 point concours car and you'll find them bright. Also, the carburetors that SU is selling these days is bright as well, so I doubt I'll get hit for this (or at least I'd better not!). All of the small carb parts were nickel plated, and linkage rods are stainless steel. The brake calipers are the original and have been re-sleeved in stainless steel from The Stainless Steel Brake Corp., the authority on stainless brakes. All hydraulic brake and clutch lines have been replaced with stainless. The master cylinder is NOS (new old stock). The clutch slave cylinder, brake assist cylinder, and the clutch master cylinder are either new or have been re-sleeved w/stainless. The complete exhaust system is
stainless steel and the exhaust headers have been re-porcelained. All
turn signal lenses are NOS, and the two front lamp assemblies are NOS
(thanks to EBay!). Every piece of chrome has been re-chromed, though
I'm beginning to doubt that I got triple-plate (copper, nickel, chrome) as
I had specified. It still cost quite a lot.

I've just finished installing a completely new wiring harnesses. Being a right-hand drive car, there's very little reference material on correct placement and hook-up. Same was true with the brake and clutch lines for they're on the right side as well. The tires are new "vintage" Dunlops that have the correct tread pattern for a 1966 E-Type, and the wheels are new from Dayton (including spare). I ordered stainless spokes and nipples since chrome plating removes quite a bit of tensile strength from the spokes (I read somewhere).

The rear-end was completely taken apart and rebuilt, though the rear-end unit was fine and hasn't been touched (except painted). The cage was painted with black Imron paint. All new bearings were installed in the swing arms as well as universal joints for the independent rear suspension. The 4 rear shocks are Koni (orange), and the two front are black Koni "Classics".

I'm now in the final stages of getting this beauty together for it has to be
ready for a Texas concours campaign in 2001, as well as the JCNA
"Championship Challenge" competition in Nashville. I am so close, but yet so far. At the time of this writing, I've purchased a complete re-trim kit from BAS Ltd, and I need to install all of the chrome, have the bonnet and doors aligned, align the front and rear suspension, and final paint touch up. Then after that, all mechanicals have got to work!!

The restoration of this 1966 Series 1, 4.2 Liter,
Right-Hand Drive, Roadster E-Type, chassis number
1E1445 (#445 out of only 1,182 ever produced) has
definitely been a labor of love. While in restoration, I
managed to get my college degree, launch my own
company, get married to a great woman, and have two
wonderful kids. There have been many times when the
car just sat
due to lack of funds (or lack of motivation), but I never once ever thought of selling the car. I'm going to see this project through, and hopefully, it will be considered among one of the finest in its class. Indeed, it's my duty to assure the preservation of this fine car.

UPDATE:

Since the last picture on the right, a great amount of work has been done on this car in order to get it ready for a 2001 concours campaign. For some reason, I had set my sights on showing it at the JCNA National concours in Franklin, TN on July 29th, 2001; known as the "Championship Challenge". This was supposed to be the "creme de' creme" of the JCNA Jaguars, and it truly lived up to the hype. (The best coverage of this event can be found at the S. Florida website www.southfloridajaguarclub.org/ ; click on the "JCNA Champ Challenge" in the "Past Events" box). When the hype was spreading through our club, I erroneously figured that at least 10 cars from Houston would be going. But one by one they dropped out until it was only myself and George Missetzis with his C-Type #34. Heck, I even bought a new Pace 24-foot enclosed trailer...thanks to my wonderful wife! There was no way I was going to carry my baby on an open trailer, especially after all of the work that had been done!

After purchasing the trailer, I took the car over to Austin to Jeff Snyder's shop "Jeff's Ressurections". Jeff is one of the Jaguar "gurus" in Texas, and I felt completely confident that he could accomplish the major work that I needed to have done. Unfortunately, everyone else from the Austin area that were going to the Challenge Championship were bringing their cars in as well! Due to this influx, I felt compelled to spend the weekends in Austin so that I could help get the car finished.

There were two or three "major" items on the list. First, I needed some minor body repairs and paint touch-ups on areas where I made boo-boos. Secondly, I needed the hood (folding top) and windshield installed...I wasn't about to attempt the top! Last but not least, I needed the 4 bumpers installed, the wiper motor to stop at its "park" position, and an attempt at aligning the bonnet.

We got most of this accomplished, and I certainly learned a lot of tricks from Jeff. However, when I brought the car back to Houston, there was still a bunch of "little" things to do....Jeff just took care of those things that were beyond what I could do in my garage.

Fast forward to Nashville, TN. The trip up wasn't too bad, especially since I had rented a Ford Excursion to pull the trailer. I had learned on the trips to Austin and back that my full-size Bronco just was not the tow vehicle I thought it was. Most severe was the trailer "sway"....very scary when an 18-wheeler passes you by! I took care of this problem after the Franklin show. But the Excursion drove as if there was no trailer attached...what a dream! I had my 11 year old Sean along with me on this road trip and George had his 11 year old. They spent most of the trip sprawled out in the Excursion.

We arrived on Tuesday evening. This gave me Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday to get the car put together. I still had headlight buckets, headlights, sugar scoops and glass lenses to mount. Still had door panels to install with chrome strips. Still had carpet, seats, radio console, and center console to install. Still had the air cleaner and mud shields to install. So basically, I finished the car in 3 days in the parking lot of the Marriot in Nashville. Even though I was working from 10am to midnight, there was no possible way I was going to finish had it not been for a group of Texans from the other Texas clubs who pitched in and helped me out. It was quite a site to see an army of guys and gals gettin' after it. I will be eternally grateful to them all (and you KNOW who you are!). For me, JCNA is not only about the cars, but far more importantly, it's all about the people and the friends you make along the way.

So on Saturday morning, I lined up with the rest of the E-Types for the 8 mile trip to Franklin. Dr. Mike Mueller's two very early side-latch E-Types were in front of me and behind me. Mike asked if my brakes worked...I told him "we'd find out soon enough!". The drive was quite a gas and I never had a problem with my car....wow, 8 miles! That's the farthest it's been under its own power in 20 years! YeeHaw!! So we pull into Franklin and there's a bit of a traffic jam as the cars up ahead are staged. In the meantime, the aluminum radiator in Mike's car ahead of me decides to blow-up, sending pulses of green coolant onto the street. He pulls out of line and parks....another one bites the dust (though it is an awfully fine car)!

Luckily, my car is staged very near to a Starbucks Coffee....I kept the caffiene coming all day. It rained a total of three times before judging started, so I didn't go too crazy in cleaning up after each shower. Heck, I was just glad to be there with my car on display! What I didn't like about this whole deal was that unless you had a chase vehicle bringing cleaning supplies, you were limited to what you could carry in your car. My Bronco was 8 miles away in Nashville! Oh well, it will probably be the last JCNA National concours I do (for a variety of reasons). Entered in C5 Champ Class; I got deductions for not having the little rubber booties on the stems of the plug connectors and those that cover the distributor wires. I got hit for a poor fitting bonnet; for having about 1 dozen Jubilee clamps (should have been Cheney) on various engine hoses; and for dirty wheels. (I protested the deducts for dirty wheels and lost the decision, but in hindsight, that was the right decision by the protest board). I received a 98.2 out of 100 points; really not very good....but I actually beat someone! And not bad at all considering that 24 hours earlier, the interior had not been installed. Funny thing, the judges missed the fact that I didn't have any bonnet beading on the car! They looked high and low for deductions and found plenty, but you'd think they would have said something about the open seams on both sides of the bonnet! Maybe they were just being "easy" on me?

As with any concours, if you enter a car or if you judge, you completely miss the show altogether. There's no time to stroll around and see the other cars and visit with old friends. However, I did get a chance to walk up to the square to see the incredible collection of C-Types, D-Types, and XK-SS's. I just wished I had taken more photographs. Again, I was limited in what I could bring in the E-Type (not known for their spacious trunks!). So the day ended, and for a treat, Sean and I drove back with the top down.

After returning to Houston, I had about 2 months before the Texas shows started...I had plenty to fix! Upon closer inspection of my wheels, they were quite dirty and I would have deducted for them myself! I pulled each one off and cleaned each nook and cranny with a child's toothbrush. I fixed all of the problems encountered at Franklin, and yes, I installed the bonnet beads. But before I started the tear-down, a reporter and photographer from the Houston Chronicle came out and did a feature on my car. Pretty neat!!

(CLICK HERE FOR HOUSTON CHRONICLE ARTICLE.)

The first Texas show was up in Dallas/Ft.Worth by the Jaguar Owners Association of the Southwest. Of course, I got a late start out of Houston and found myself pulling a 24-foot trailer through the downtown streets of Fort Worth at night without a clue as to where I was going. I couldn't read the little map on their concours packet, and Main St. was not a through street...it ended abruptly in downtown. An hour later, I finally found my hotel and where to park the trailer. The next morning, I was in the trailer bolting things onto the car...I swore to myself "never again"! I think it was about 8:30am and people had already begun to stage their cars at the site. It was a nice area off the main street of the old Ft. Worth Stockyards part of town (and very near to "Billy Bob's"). The Dallas club had a great jazz trio performing in a nearby gazebo. It was a nice day for a car show!

I managed to get the car cleaned up and scored a 99.97! Certainly, a great score! I took second place in my class behind Mike Mueller who was showing his awesome 100-point E-Type Coupe. This would be a trend that followed throughout all of the Texas shows. The JOASW show was a lot of fun and I expect to show there again next year.

The next concours was a week later in San Antonio. This time, I was ready, and all I had to do was knock the dust off the car. We had a great meal on the Riverwalk, and I especially like the martini bar. The show was held in a country club and there were absolutely no spectators, which was kind of a disappointment to me...but the setting was very nice. The cars were judged and released by 1:30pm making it a very short day. The awards banquet was held in a nice country club atmosphere with cocktails over-looking the well-groomed golf courses and lakes. I managed a 99.96 at this show, another great score.

Two weeks later, I was at the Jaguar Club of Austin's show. A huge storm blew through that evening, up-rooting trees and scattering debris in the garage where many unprotected cars were parked. I'm glad mine was safe and snug in a trailer!

We parked the cars in a beautiful spot by the Marriott Hotel, but rain loomed on the horizon. After spending hours on cleaning the car, it started to rain. The judges decided to just go ahead and judge them where they were instead of trying to move all of the cars inside. At around 3:30pm, the awards were handed out, and I picked up second place with a 99.98! That evening everyone was treated to great bar-b-que and top flight entertainment at Dean and Doris Davis' fantastic house up in the Austin Hills. The view was breathtaking! The car on the right is Al and Lane Buschhorns' 1938 Jaguar SS from Austin. It was another immaculately restored Jaguar by Jeff Snyder.

Finally, last show of the season, the Jaguar Club of Houston Concours d'Elegance....home turf! We had a record number of cars...61 in all. To make a long story short, I picked up a 99.95, the lowest of the Texas shows, but a great score nonetheless!

So for 2001, my car placed 3rd in the national championship, and 1st for the region (8 states) (division C5)....not bad for my first time out!! Great cars and great people...nowhere else but Texas!

The 2002 Season

My first show for 2002 was at the "Wooden Keels & Classic Wheels" show at the Lakewood Yacht
Club on the first weekend in May. By far, this is one of the most prestigious classic and antique car
shows in the SW United States. Chairman Bob Fuller does an outstanding job year after year. With my E-Type finally in one piece, I was able to display at the Lakewood show. Just being on the field meant a lot to me. I did not pick up the Best of Class award due to the JCNA National Champ Series 3 E-Type also being there. That was okay as his car was clearly in better shape.

Throughout the spring and summer, I did a lot of work and spent lots of money to get the car in championship condition. This included completely disassembling the bonnet, striping all of the paint, having the internal sides re-sprayed, re-assembled, and fitted back onto the car. I hope I NEVER have to do that again!

The Texas JCNA concours began in October and my car was as ready as it was ever going to get. At the Dallas/Ft. Worth show, I picked up my first ever perfect 100-point score, and Best of Show to boot. I was truly humbled by the experience. Then in San Antonio, I received another 100-points and Best of Show again! This was way cool! I have these beautiful trophies proudly on display. The Austin show came around 2 weeks later, and again, another perfect 100-point score. With this being the third, the National title was clinched! Last but not least, the Houston show. Unfortunately, it rained off and on, and I was just too busy to spend a lot of time on the car. But someone found something, and I got a 99.99 score...still a super score!

To have clinched the National title was a dream come true. I just wished my Mom and Dad had been around to see it. Mike Cook of the "Jaguar Journal" asked me for some pictures and a short paragraph on my car. Never in my wildest dreams would I think a shot of my engine compartment would show up on the cover!

The 2003 Season

The first show of the year was quickly approaching; the fabulous "Classic Wheels and Wooden Keels" Concours d'Elegance at the Lakewood Yacht Club on May 1st and 2nd. This year, I was hoping to get one of the high-prized "Best of Class" awards; a beautiful etched-glass trophy.

Admittedly, after the Houston show, I had to immediately turn my attention to both business and home affairs as I had let my quest for nat'l champ take up most of my time the previous summer. Luckily I have a great wife that allows me to participate in many Jaguar events and shows. The car had sat covered for a couple of months in my garage. I finally opened the bonnet to take a look and discovered sheer terror: My block had rusted in some places, and a majority of the plated metal (hose clamps, brackets, etc) were badly corroded! Only one source could have done this...the battery.

Not only is leaving a lead-acid battery in a covered car a bad idea, leaving a battery that is slightly cracked is unforgivable! I recalled an incident just before the Houston show where I had inadvertently slipped while trying to place the Lucas battery in the car. The battery fell only a very short distance and appeared to be okay, however I didn't know that it had developed a tiny hairline crack in the bottom. So as a result of the gasses from this battery, the cad plating on many items was ruined.

I ended up removing 67 individual pieces from the engine compartment for re-plating. But getting to the block to take care of the rust was another. Removing the exhaust manifolds was pretty easy, and it gave me good access to to that side of the engine. However, the intake side was another thing. I ended up removing all three carburetors and the intake manifold just to get clear access to the block. After cleaning up the areas and removing the rust, I put on 2 coats of POR-15 black high-temp engine paint and it looks great! I had the two cam covers professionally re-polished, and I buffed up the intake manifold and carb dashpots on my own buffing wheel. After I got my pieces back from the plater (Del's Plating), reassembly went smoothly and quickly.

Having won National, I decided to make a change the original cooling fan over to a hi-tech and powerful fan to pull more air through the radiator. Although I was not experiencing any cooling problems, it was early in the year and the mid-90's temperature were not yet here. (I did make a decision to drive this car much more than in previous years just for the sake of keeping seals lubricated and to break in the engine [and to have a little fun!]). A new type of fan had just hit the market, known as the "Cool Cat" fan. What I liked about this unit is that it fits into the existing mount where the old unit came from, and used the existing wiring. With other fans costing $350 or so, you had to push little plastic tabs through the radiator to hold it down, and if mounted to the front of the radiator, you had to remove the rock screen. Totally uncool. But the Cool Cat works like a champ and you have to look very closely to see that it's not original. However, if I decide to compete again this year, I'll simply re-install the original.

So with the car in top shape, I entered it in the Wheels and Keels concours and took Best of Class (E-Types)! I'm only thankful that I didn't have to compete against the XK-120's that were on the field as they were immaculate! Another Houston member Mike Cook brought 2 wonderful Series-3 E-Types, as well as a very original early 1961 owned by David Littlefield, and a great Series-II 2+2 XKE owned by John Walker.

Being the glutton for punishment, I placed my car in back-to-back local car shows a few weeks after Lakewood. Wife said it was okay, so I was out the door!

The first one was a somewhat screwy car show that was put on by the oldies FM station, 107.5. It was held on the brick walkway in front of Harbor House at Pier 21; a familiar place for car shows. The biggest problem was that there were no car guys in charge; just whacked-out disc-jockeys. There were a few nice cars, but only 40 in total. I received "Best Import", my only competition coming from a VW Beetle and a "Thing" (truly, a perfect name for that car). Best of show went to a Camaro, and of course, a buxom vivacious blonde accepted the award.....no wonder.

Someone had dropped a flyer in the seat of my car on show being held at Bear Creek Park the following day. Since I still had the trailer, the car was clean, and Bear Creek Park just minutes away, I said what the heck, let's show it. I arrived 30 minutes from published "start" time, and I was amazed at how many cars were already on the field and in place! The registration line was long and slow, and the first 150 got goody bags which included a T-shirt and the usual "stuff". There was no category for import/foreign....this was an American Muscle car show by all appearances.

All were categorized by years of mfg., with 1st thru 3rd places given in each. Fearing a total slaughter in the "1966" category, I opted for "specialty" class, and from all I knew, I was only competing against a funky Camaro dragster. Granted, mine was not a specialty class car and I'm sure I was in the wrong category, if not altogether the wrong car show! So I just quit worrying about it and let the judges put me in the right class. All the cars were parked in the grass in front of a pavilion.

Voting was done by entrants and public, and there was a lot of folks walking around with ballots. I did the same with my ballot, and man were there some fabulous cars! Many were custom, and by all regards, works of art! The one's I most admired were those that had been restored to the nth degree, very detailed and very correct. But again, many of these cars seemed to be right out of AutoRama or some custom rod magazine. Incredible! To the best of my knowledge, there were at least 250 cars, if not many more, at this show.

A group of judges came around and looked at my car, most shaking their heads as they walked away. About 45 minutes later, the same group came around again and re-inspected. One guy took me to the side and said they were judging Best of Show, and that I was on a short list of six. He asked that I be in the pavilion area around 2:30pm .

So at that appointed time, they began the awards ceremony. First place winners got a fold-out chair with "People's Choice Car Show" printed on the back, 2nd and 3rd got plaques (I would have preferred a plaque). When they got to my category, my name/car was not called. They then called out the 6 finalists for BOS and asked them to come up to the front. Mind you, I didn't stand a chance because these were American Muscle cars and American Muscle "Cruise" kind of guys....imports need not apply, and there wasn't even a category for such. The differences between these 6 cars were minute; tiny fractions of points.

So you could have knocked me over with a feather when they announced my car as Best of Show!!! I was stunned! An obscure Jaguar, parked way in back in the Specialty area! I was very proud and humbled. I think a couple of things may have made a difference between mine and the others, which were CLEARLY show cars. First, the complexity of the engine compartment and what it took to make it perfect, and second, the fact that there was not a bit of chrome in the engine bay; it was all polished aluminum which is much more difficult to keep up. There were a few who came back around to take a look. One of them wanted to flip the car over to see the underside ("aw heck fellers, it's just as good on the bottom as it is on the top!").

I sent a very complimentary letter of thanks to the organizer(s) of the show. They clearly kept an open mind in judging, and didn't let the politics of foreign vs. American or "Cruise" organization get in the way. In my way of thinking, the Jaguar XKE was every part of that 60's era of muscle and sports cars as the Corvette, Chevelle, and Mustang.

In October of 2003, I again took a top Grand Champion award, this one at the Kingwood Car Show, out of about 140 cars.

Again, I plan on driving and exercising this car a bit. But before I could do so, I had to first get some insurance. I went through American Collectors Insurance, and I'm paying about $400/year for $70,000 replacement insurance. I'm allowed 5,000 miles a year, but I'll be lucky to do 500. Then license plates. No, the new "Classic" plates just won't do. I had to have bona-fide 1966 Texas plates in mint condition. I found a set on the internet, but paid way too much for them (and how many times has that ever occurred?)!

So the season is still young as of this writing, and I do expect to show my car at the Texas JCNA concours. Whether or not I compete is another thing. There are some awesome E-Types coming out of Austin and San Antonio. One of which is Jeff Snyder's who owns a restoration shop. His was the ONLY car at the National meet in Arizona (Championship Challenge) to have scored a perfect 100. I hope now that the rest of the country realizes that the Texas cars are among the best in the nation!

January 2004

Well, the season came and went, and I did show my E-Type at all of the Texas shows again (in 2003). I wound up in 3rd palce nationally with a 99.99 average...nothing to sneeze about. Jeff Snyder wiped everyone out with his immaculate early
Series 1. Jane Iffla of San Antonio also did great, scoring 4th nationally with her awesome BRG E-Type.

I suspect I won't be competing for a JCNA title this year; it's just too much work and I've got the Venus to keep me busy. I may display it at various shows just to participate with my friends. Truth of the matter, the concours shows seem to draw fewer and fewer people...not only those with cars, but the general viewing public. And personally, I like to show my car to a large public crowd.

So I guess I'll retire for awhile until I get that itch to once again compete. I hope to drive it much more this year as opposed to trailering it to events. But I'll keep it in top show condition regardless. The car does have a few issues for me to take care of in the meantime.