When one gets to this point in a long project — it’s been about two years so far — an historical view can put some of the small setbacks into a comforting perspective. There are many ways to think about automotive evolution since 1885; clumping into nine eras helps simplify......
One distinctive feature of classic British cars are their stunning wire wheels. Wire wheels come from a racing heritage and were adopted for their light weight (this was before the introduction of aluminum/magnesium alloy wheels) plus the advantage of quick change knockoff spinners on spline hubs. But there are disadvantages,......
About a hundred years ago, a pioneer management consultant named Henry Gantt invented a chart to track the progress of projects. Typically, these are constructed before a project begins, but we’ve compiled a retrospective one based on all the chronological blog posts with an extrapolation to completion in September 2016......
The U.S. Department of Transportation collects a lot of statistics, and one interesting analysis by-product is a fleet survival profile over time. Take vehicle attrition each year (due to accidents, poor maintenance, theft, and so on), then accumulative them each year and the result is a prediction of average fleet......
In 1960, the Jaguar Mk2 was outfitted with lap seat belts (which were first offered as standard equipment by Saab in 1958). Incremental safety improvements since then include the 3-point belt (invented by Nils Bohlin from Saab, but launched by Volvo), high back seats with head restraints, airbags, collapsible steering......
As has been discussed previously, Lucas supplied nearly all the electrical components to the British car industry during the wonderful classic era. Our Jaguar was officially issued with a Lucas “King of the Road” GT9A battery that was manufactured in a black container with Lucas embossed on the front side.......
Our restoration project required over 500 new parts and several specialized services (like painting) that isn’t practical to do in our garage setup. Many of these parts have been discussed individually in blog posts, but here is a comprehensive list so far with part number and vendor. Jaguar Mk2 Restoration......
While the Jaguar is safely tucked away for the winter, here are a few books of note for indoor reading: Mk2 Restorer’s Guide by Nigel Thorley Mk2 Essential Buyer’s Guide by Nigel Thorley Sir William Lyons official biography Mk2 restoration Early Jaguar saloon history Jaguar Mk2 collector focus...
See also Solex rebuilding and tuning. Jaguar incorporated twin Solex carburetors for the Mark I and Mark II models with the 2.4 engine between 1956 and 1967, but deployed twin SUs for all the other XK engine models. Thus, the Solex is something of an orphan child among Jaguar World......
A running engine brings to mind the topic of petrol (aka gasoline or gas across the pond). British Petroleum, a corporation now plagued by misguided environmental and ethical decisions, was once at the vanguard of national pride. In 1925, BP operated some 6,000 service stations with a logo that helped......
