Welcome

All too often the cars we treasure most in our lives have the awful habit of becoming huge money pits when they head off to the workshop for what in the first instance seemed like a reasonably straightforward repair. We all know how one job on a classic can quickly morph into another very expensive repair. Before you know it the final bill to put everything right has grown into an uncontrollable monster that’s gobbled up a huge chunk of your already diminished post-Festive bank balance.

This is exactly what happened the other day when our project XJS went to a Staffordshire XJS specialist to have new wishbone rubbers and front swivels fitted. Although the job was progressing well, a ‘phone call from one of the technicians informing me there was now a growing pool of brake fluid under our Jaguar was worrying to say the least. This urgent problem definitely needed sorting out sooner rather than later, so I gave the go-ahead to proceed and fill me in with the gory details later. Within a couple of hours, our Jaguar’s rear suspension was neatly laid out on the workshop floor at Just XJS Ltd while proprietor Andy Harvey replaced the car’s hard-to-access inboard discs and calipers.

How this time-consuming job was completed is covered in this month’s Project XJS and I’d like to take this opportunity to thank Andy for throwing his busy work schedule up in the air to sort our car in double quick time. So if that was your XJS taking a back seat while Andy wrestled with our car’s rear suspension cage, I sincerely apologise for the delay but at least we made the final print deadline for this issue.

Ford fans will be delighted see a mint MkII 3-litre Capri gracing several pages of this issue and more observant readers may notice this fine example belongs to the same chap who also owns the smart little Renault 4TL that appears a few pages further on. Another interesting classic featured in this issue is Chris Hart’s MkIII Spitfire as the car appeared in CM a couple of years ago as a work in progress restoration. It may have taken many moons to conclude the Triumph’s rebuild, but the finished result is truly outstanding, especially as large chunks of the Spitfire’s body tub disappeared while it was being sand blasted.