I've just had a rather interesting experience...
When he bought it several weeks ago, it caught my eye in the parking lot.
Of course, when I found out whose it was, I beat down his office door
and merely mentioned, "One of these days, I'd like a ride in that!"
It was our Product Development managers new car. His other car is
a VW Fox Station Wagon.
At lunch today, Dave sat down with us and after various subjects were
discussed, I merely mentioned that, "One of these days, I'd like a
ride in that car of yours!"
Dave tossed me his keys to his white 1987 V12 Jaguar XJS.
With heart aflutter, I stumbled nervously upto the Big Cat. I'd never
driven anything bigger than a 2.8 Litre V6 before (I tell a lie, I did
drive a big-blebb V-8 [I think] American station wagon once, but that don't
count). And I'm not used to automatics either. The trusting soul was
letting me take her out on my own too. Gulp...
I started up the great beast. How quiet! I wound down the windows, turned
off the AC and backed her out of the parking slot, VERY gingerly. A slow
trip around the parking lot (goes around the building) familiarised me to
the big powerful brakes. Wow, this was one heavy car!
Ok, I braved myself to get her out on the road. A well travelled back street.
After a time, I decided to get onto a busier road (two lanes each way),
keeping strictly to the speed limits. Ah, this was better! How smooth!
Confidence was growing. The intersection with I-91 was coming up. Should I?
Stupid question...
The Big Cat was upto 60 mph in a flash. The next exit was two miles or so,
perhaps more. I trimmed the speed back to 55 and "cruised".
Ahhhh.... is this heaven, or wot?
The exit was coming up. Traffic was getting heavy and I needed to
get over. I blipped the throttle upto a leisurely 65, pulled around
some trucks, pulled back to the slow lane, slowed to 55 and still had
plenty of time to exit the highway. All done with the appropriate
signals as is proper of an English Gent cruising in his Jag, of course :-)
Starting off from the stop sign at the end of the ramp I chirped the
tyres. Quite innocently, of course. This baby's got some torque!
Anyway, I turned her back north up I-91. I tried to keep to the
speed limit, I really tried. There's a long straight down to
the exit ramp. Temptation heckled me, and I gave in. I only
got her upto 80 mph, but I felt so bad (heh, heh, heh).
So I took her back to work. A big, beaming smile frozen to my face!
As I pulled into the parking lot, a couple of folks were just going out in
their cars. As they saw me the looks on their faces was priceless!!!
I circled round the lot again, trying to extend this experience as long
as possible, and then pulled neatly into a space. Turned her off.
It was over (aaaaaaaaargh!). I had to give it back. But it was mine,
ALL MINE (pant, pant) for 15 minutes of sheer ecstacy.
"How was it?", Dave asks. Stupid question...
- Garry ("I gotta get _me_ one of these") Archer
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