Historic Touring Cars (New Zealand)

[AMCO72]

We had the XJS out for a blast at Hampton a couple of weeks ago before it was 'shipped' to the Sth Island. The first run it had had after the rebuild and the first for many a long year. I'm afraid she was up to her old tricks........getting rather too warm in the oil and water departments, despite two massive oil coolers up front. The radiator is an original item and is not up to getting the heat out of all that metal in the V12, so something will have to be done about that.

Having said that, Angus and Gary decided to just get on with it and not look too hard at the temperature gauge!!!!!!!!!

One thing we noticed at Hampton was how QUIET the car was. With all this talk lately on decibel levels, this machine was howling round almost unobtrusively. It has a drain-pipe sized exhaust pipe with minimal silencing, and yet it was difficult to hear the exhaust noise at all except when it was actually passing you. Don't know why that would be, multiple cylinders maybe. Although when you think of other multicylinder cars......the BRM in particular, it could be heard 2 counties away......apparently.

Anyway was good to see it shooting the breeze again on the track where it belongs. It has certainly gone to the right home.

[Steve Holmes]

We had the XJS out for a blast at Hampton a couple of weeks ago before it was 'shipped' to the Sth Island. The first run it had had after the rebuild and the first for many a long year. I'm afraid she was up to her old tricks........getting rather too warm in the oil and water departments, despite two massive oil coolers up front. The radiator is an original item and is not up to getting the heat out of all that metal in the V12, so something will have to be done about that.

Having said that, Angus and Gary decided to just get on with it and not look too hard at the temperature gauge!!!!!!!!!

One thing we noticed at Hampton was how QUIET the car was. With all this talk lately on decibel levels, this machine was howling round almost unobtrusively. It has a drain-pipe sized exhaust pipe with minimal silencing, and yet it was difficult to hear the exhaust noise at all except when it was actually passing you. Don't know why that would be, multiple cylinders maybe. Although when you think of other multicylinder cars......the BRM in particular, it could be heard 2 counties away......apparently.

Anyway was good to see it shooting the breeze again on the track where it belongs. It has certainly gone to the right home.

Thanks for the description Gerald. Great to see another old Group A car out and running again, and looking amazing!