British Cars

[ironside]

Countrylad, you asked if I did restorations - I did one. It sounds like you do some, tell us. Yes I have been saying for years: "I wish I had a lathe. I can't say too much, if they find out I am a Yam Yam on here I' m toast. Woops better make this my last post.

[roy one]

better known had the dagnam dust bin

[jamesm]

This is the one I always thought of as the Dagenham Dustbin. Very strange rear window

[countrylad]

this is a humber  much along the same lines as the other two cars in the list

Lovely, I remember my old dad waxing lyrical about the Humber. Stunning cars but always seemed outside the main swim, so to speak.

[countrylad]

This is the one I always thought of as the Dagenham Dustbin. Very strange rear window

Do you remember the Anglia Classic? A bit longer and wider, twin head lights. The Anglia also did an estate version, but not many of them

[countrylad]

now we come on to the big boys toys   the big cats of the road the jag and this one is the 3.8 and did it go never driven one but iv been in one a few times

Beautiful car. S Type I think, never too good on the variants of the Mk 2. I shared a workshop with a guy in Garrison Lane in the late 70's, a couple of doors up from The Sportsman Pub. He was into restoring mainly Mk2's but did have a lovely Mk 7 there on one occasion. I think there is a Mk 7 on the first picture on this thread.

[roy one]

   a bigger dust bin

[countrylad]

I indulged a whim in the 70s and bought a 1961 MKII 2.4 litre Jag, quite a bit slower than the 3.8.  They were cheap then.
It was ok and ran well.  It had Irvine parachute harness style seat belts with a centre release buckle, lots of switches to play with and overdrive,  but perversely I still prefered my old A40 Somerset which had a higher ride and more boot space 

The bottom dropped out of the market for big cars early 70's remember them dishing out petrol coupons ( old coupons from the war I think). E Types were selling for £300 to 400 quid.

[countrylad]

   a bigger dust bin

That's the one! It looks quite sad, doesn't it with it turned down front panel

[countrylad]

Only ever driven an XJS. Went like the proverbial off a shovel. A friend, with whom I worked, had an E type and I had several journeys in the passenger seat. At one stage, on the Hagley Road, travelling to Kidderminster, he got up to about 110 mph and there was still more in the engine to go faster.  Never been that fast before or since. Scared the **** out of me

jamesm in the 70's I did quite a bit of contracting ( heavy industrial pipe work) I was fortunate enough to work in many car factories. I worked at Jaguar in Coventry, there were three plants in all. The only one I can remember is the Radford plant. I would be staring at the E Types all day long then came the XJS, what a motor. We used to work a lot at the weekend when the factory was on stop. Any chance I had, I would be sitting in the XJS that were undergoing rectification work before commissioning. Such happy memories for someone who would aspire but would never acquire such a vehicle.

[countrylad]

Countrylad, you asked if I did restorations - I did one. It sounds like you do some, tell us. Yes I have been saying for years: "I wish I had a lathe. I can't say too much, if they find out I am a Yam Yam on here I' m toast. Woops better make this my last post.

Hello ironside, what have you restored?


For me I have always been interested in cars and mechanics. I started off modifying mini's, customising vans and anything else through to restoring old British sports cars as a hobby. These days I mainly work on my old Land Rovers or my old Tractors.