Welcome back after your Labour Day off!
After a year of lurking and reminiscing, I have finally rejoined the ranks
of LBC owners. Yeees!
It was quite painless in the end, but it was tense for a while. Pam used to
say that she was my second wife; I was married to an MG before we met and
showed me the error of my ways. Certainly, bringing up two tots there was no
time for indulgences of that sort. But now they are 8 and 6 they no longer
need constant attention and we started thinking about our own quality of
life too.
I started buying Classic and Sports Car and remarking how cheap cars were
now and had to be a good investment. Friends started buying hobby cars
again. We planned to extend the house and build a bigger garage.
The turning point came one Sunday when we overtook a MkII Jaguar on the A45
and Pam remarked "That's lovely! Why don't you get one of those and we could
all go for drives in it at the week-end?" I didn't need further prompting!
It had to be a 4-seater or 2+2, so we could all fit in, that was only fair.
I looked at a nice original TD21 Alvis drophead and bid for it at auction,
but its reserve was over my limit. Then I noticed the Jensen in the
Cambridge Evening News. It started at #6950. No takers. A month later it was
back at "priced to sell, #5450". Still no takers. After a couple of weeks, I
went to see it. It looked good and went well - rust in the usual places, but
good: c'mon, we're talking England here! More worrying was no oil pressure
at tickover, so I decided against it. Three weeks later I met the owner in
the car park of the Barley Mow - still not sold but the oil pressure was a
faulty sender. Next week I rang him up and offered him #4000:
#5000 "It's got a new transmission"
#4250 "That's my limit; there's so much to be done on it"
#4500 "Split the difference"
"Sorry, it's not worth that much to me"
"I'll let you know in a day or two"
Nail-biting two days. Hell, I wanted that car.
"#4500 and it's yours".
"OK, #4350; I can't go higher than that"
"Done". Face was saved, so I am now the proud possessor of a 1974 Jensen
Interceptor Mark III J-Spec, 86,000 miles, four-wheel ventilated discs,
alloy wheels, Positraction axle, A/C that works. The engine we don't like to
talk about in these circles, being an, ehem, M*p*r 7.2-litre (sounds more
respectable than 440 ci!), but it makes it a super boulevardier for the
older geezer, with wicked acceleration when you want to show off (0-60 in
6.8, I think).
I took it into work on Friday, but I'm afraid it disgraced itself, failing
to start then coughing up oil smoke as it stuttered into life. I think it
needs new valve stem oil seals.
It's off the road now for bodywork and all those little fiddly bits which
are so satisfying to do - the little red lights in the door edge, the fuel
filler remote solenoid etc etc. I'm looking forward to the winter!
Paul.
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