To Twyford for tweaks

1955 JAguAR XK140 robert CouCher

Before winter set in, I took the XK down to Twyford Moors in Clanfield, Hampshire, for a service and a general going-over. It was running well and all seemed fine, but as usual I had a list of snags that needed attending to.

An exhaust leak was rectified with a set of new gaskets, while a tendency for the engine to run-on after it was switched off when hot was cured by advancing the timing and enriching the mixture. The tappet clearances were also checked and deemed to be fine.

Aside from these maintenance jobs, Twyford’s Ian Mills also fitted a discreet third brake light into the central reversing light nacelle on the bootlid. An extra brake light is more important than a reversing light on our busy motorways, where drivers of modern cars think they can stop in an instant.

With all the fluids seen to as well, Ian called to say the Jaguar was ready for collection, so I grabbed a newspaper (remember them?) and hopped onto the next available train.

Many of us enjoy driving classic cars because of the intimate ‘feel’ they impart. Modern cars are a totally different mechanical construct because they are largely made by robots to incredibly tight tolerances and nearly always feel the same. They’re quiet, refined and isolating but also numb, with the driver removed as far as possible from the mechanical bits. Classics are different – you feel all the oily bits doing their best and sometimes less-than-best.

Yet after attention at Tywford Moors the XK always feels significantly better to drive. With the engine timing reset it is now markedly sharper and more powerful, and it runs cooler. The quiet exhaust also makes it sound much more refined; I had been toying with the idea of ‘straightthrough’ pipes, but no longer.

The biggest improvement, though, has been to the quality of the ride. I had left the adjustable Spax dampers set very hard after a regularity rally a few years ago; unnecessarily so, as it turns out, for general road use. With the shocks re-adjusted to mid-firm, the car feels fantastic, with no noticeable increase in lean or wallow and all thumping and banging over transverse ridges and potholes now dialled out.

Above and below Those lights are colourless so it must be the front – as seen on the closed roads of Farnham; a trip to Goodwood in better weather.

From top Pre-winter checks were painless, while damper adjustment and the fitting of a discreet third brake light have made the XK more comfortable and safer to drive.