A Jaguar E-Type, a Nobel Playwright, and Kevin Durant

In today's episode, I attempt to answer a question I often get: "do you drive all your cars regularly?". The answer is yes, I try to rotate through them on a daily basis to keep them all exercised. Not every day is an epic drive, but usually something fun comes out of it.

So yesterday I took the 1969 E-type Roadster out on another sunny November afternoon. I had worked around the house all day, so I went for aa short drive before going to a basketball game with some friends (more on that in a sec). 

Ever since I put in a smaller Moto-Lita steering wheel (14" diameter vs 16" OEM), the Jaguar is much easier to get in and out of. And with the new Bell large-bore exhaust and recent tune up, the car is just a pleasure to tool around in. Just driving around our little town of Danville today, but the late afternoon sun was wonderful in the hills west of me. 







I ended up at the historic "Tao House", which was built by Eugene O'Neill in 1936. Eugene O'Neill is America's only Nobel-prize wining playwright, and he used his Nobel Prize money to build the Tao House right here in our little town of Danville, CA. It is now a National Historic site. At this home between 1937 and 1944, O'Neill wrote his last plays including "The Iceman Cometh" and "Long Day's Journey Into Night", for which he won a Pulitzer prize (one of 4 he received). I drove around the area and snapped a couple other photos along the way, and made myself a promise to come do teh full tour here at my first opportunity! O’Neill turns out to be a fascinating guy, a son of Irish immigrant actors, born literally in Times Square, NY, who went on to change the face of American playwriting. 











I put the car away as the sun descended and jumped into a Lyft (being anti-Uber today), and headed down to Oracle Arena to join some friends at the Golden State Warriors game. They have courtside season tickets, which gets you very close to the action, as well as access to the "BMW Club" for dinner and drinks pre-game. Being a few feet away from people like Kevin Durant makes me recall that I'm damned short (5'-9"). Steph gets all the love, but Durant has to be one of the best-ever acquisitions in the history of basketball. 









Also, the prices are so high for pro-sports tickets these days that the crowd is clearly "corporate", and it makes me sad for the average fan. Yet it was a super-fun evening, only my third time I’ve attended a Warriors game. The Memphis Grizzlies played hard the first half to break at halftime in a tie. But as often happens, they got tired by staying on pace with the Warriors’ deep bench and the Warriors pulled away by 20 in the 3rd quarter, giving the Warriors Dancers a reason to celebrate.



So that is how you tie together a Jag, a playwright, and a seven-foot millionaire.

Jaguar E Type: Meeting your childhood heroes

Let's just agree that if you are a car enthusiast, there is probably some point in your life you thought about owning a 1960's Jaguar E Type (or "XKE" as it was referred to in the U.S.).  Well, that was true for me and has been for a long time. Having always loved convertibles, yet fearing old British sports cars, I had considered many options through the years, including beautiful cars like the Triumph TR3A, the MGA, the Austin Healey 3000, etc. But nothing quite was going to scratch the itch of owning a Jag E Type. Well, this year, I finally did something about it.

I went to the Barrett-Jackson Scottsdale Auction in January 2017, wit the intent of looking at a few British cars, including an XK-140 and  TR3A. But then I saw several E-ypes in the line-up and figured I could get a good deal.  As it turned out, I should have waited one more car, as a fully-restored Series 1 E Type sold for a very low price. As it is, though, I am very happy with my 1969 (Series 2) 6-Cylinder E Type in red paint with black interior. The Jaguar Heritage certificate shows the the numbers of the engine, frame, transmission, all match as per original factory build. It was originally a Primrose Yellow exterior with Cinnamon interior.  That's nice, but I don't see myself returning it to original. I like the classic red and black.

Someone once said that you "shouldn't meet your heroes"... meaning that you may be disappointed. And in this case, I wasn't sure at first. But after some work to get the brakes in better condition and after some work on the valves and head, it drives smoothly and has nice torque down low. It's a bit cramped, suggesting that the English drivers of 1969 weren't over 6 feet tall (neither am I, so my 5-9" frame works just fine in there). The car was apparently reconditioned back in the late 80's or 90's and it is obvious that these cars didn't have much value back then, because some of the body work was done without the greatest attention to detail or originality. Looks great on the outside, but the underside, particularly of the bonnet, leaves something to be desired.  Details count, but in this case, I bought her to be a car that gets driven, not as a show car.

I do find that the pedal position is a bit odd (slightly to the left of center) and the pedals have a softness that make it feel as if your throttle and brake inputs are muted. But the clutch has a nice take-up and the 4-speed manual transmission is a pleasure to click through.

Overall, this hero lives up to its billing, mainly for its timeless proportions and beauty and its smooth low-end torque. Summertime cruising along California's Highway 1 will be perfect for this one. And oddly enough, without trying, somehow my garage now has three British sports cars in it.