I’ve had lots of different cars throughout my life, but my love of motorcycles always took precedence right from the very first ride.
My first bike was a Triumph, but I soon lost interest in them when I saw the Honda motorcycles of the day, so from then I stuck with Honda for 40 years and still have a number of them today.
Likewise with cars, I went British first, with the ubiquitous Mini, but then followed by Honda cars in all sorts of forms, including their sporting versions.
A close mate, however, whose love of motorcycles equals, if not exceeds mine, has been playing with Jaguars for many years and it was some serious prompting from him that set me off on my Jaguar journey.
In 2014, I eventually found the Jaguar I wanted, a 2002 XK8 Coupe, in blue with an oatmeal sports interior, Birds Eye maple dash, 19” Apollo wheels, new tires, 80k miles. It had also had some serious money spent on it in the previous two years, including a total front suspension rebuild, so I just had just a couple of niggling issues to deal with.
I fell in love with the looks
I fell in love with the looks — it’s one of those cars that everyone looks at when it’s parked up. I didn’t even test drive it, I just checked it all over for rust, mechanical soundness and paperwork. I must have been head over heels because it wasn’t like me at all to not test drive a car!
My first drive was the 120 miles home and thankfully it drove like a dream, well, apart from wandering all over the road. A pressure check on the tyres revealed low air in all four — a good pump up soon had me out on the road again.
What really impressed me though, was the gear change — the smoothness of the change was a revelation to many automatics that I had driven previously.
The acceleration was nothing short of astonishing, smooth and linear in its pickup. Other nice touches are its lovely burble (I have changed the rear pipes), the auto lights, great stereo/cd changer, and auto door locks when a gear is engaged.
That first month after purchase, at the beginning of December 2014, I did around 1000 miles and then proceeded to do a few hundred more as I went through the first Christmas period with the car.
Once I had dealt with a few electrical problems and fixed a few niggles I began to enjoy the drive even more. I also spent a lot of time tidying things up on the car, cleaning off the underside and resealing it ready to drive it a lot more, which is what I have done.
I’ve even took the other half on a 200 mile round trip to the seaside — she was impressed. Because the car is so smooth and comfortable my partner has actually asked that we go out in ‘the Jag’ (as it is now known) on quite a few occasions….and I can tell you that wouldn’t normally happen…
I wish I had found Jaguar a lot earlier in my life, but perhaps I can make up for it now. I think after I’ve done a few paint jobs and given the XK8 just a little bit more TLC, then, maybe, just maybe, it’s time for an XKR.
Do you have story involving Jaguar to tell?
If you have your own interesting story to tell involving anything Jaguar then please get in touch by filling out the contact form and you could also have your own feature on the official Jaguar Enthusiasts’ Club blog.
The Jaguar Enthusiasts’ Club’s (JEC) aim is to assist enthusiasts, in a friendly and informal manner, to keep their cars on the road with the minimum of cost. And as well as the technical side, there’s a strong focus on the social side of things with events, rallies and meetings throughout the year.
For membership enquiries please see the joining section of our website, or call: 0117 9698186.
