For those of us who do not want to or cannot ship their cars to Don Law in the UK, is there anyone in the USA who has experience working on these cars? If not, anyone in the USA have the Zytek diagnostic kit with the old Toshiba DOS laptop for sale, rental or loan? Any help appreciated.
This poor thing has only 400 miles and would like to go out and play with the big boys.

Note hood pins, external ignition cutoff, external engine compartment release, race wheels with slicks. 1 of 3 TWR XJ-N cars built for Italian GT. Sister to the Martini GT car, this one was never raced. Or driven much.

 

Hi drsolly,

Lovely car and so good to see that it still exists in such good condition! As far as I knew, the last 220 specialist in the US was Gail Carpenter at GC Performance in Tennessee. However, I also thought that Gail had retired from servicing 220s after completing the ex-Gary Bartlett car in 2016?

So maybe that means that you'll need to send it over to Don? That might not be a bad thing anyway, especially if it's still got it's original tank bags and clutch. I'm sure you'd want to change those if you're recommissioning the car for use. And you could put some nice new Bridgestone tyres on it at the same time! Not cheap as I'm sure you know, but I guess you're on the original 1993 tyres?

Good luck

Paul

 

Thanks! The car was literally bubble wrapped and stored in a special garage after 400 miles. Yes, I believe Gail Carpenter did retire after doing the Bartlett car. Unfortunately I have recently heard some pretty negative reviews about Don Law from some very knowledgeable people. Estimates tripling once the car is stripped, no return calls or emails, and in a few cases outright refusal to release the car to its owner unless the extra work is authorized and paid for, because they don't want their name associated with a car that has not been fully restored to their satisfaction. Try getting away with that here in NYC. You might find yourself on the wrong end of a pistol.

The dealer, who is a personal friend, found an excellent mechanic in CT, not far from Lime Rock. He has his own 220 that he federalized 10 years ago, and has worked on others. He also maintains all of the spec Miata race cars at Lime Rock as well as some incredible BMW race cars. I drove up and spent 3 hours talking to him and touring his collection scattered over a dozen barns and buildings in the middle of nowhere, but only an hour from my home. He just started the teardown today and hopes to have it done by April. As far as tires, this is one of 3 XJ220-N cars (also known as XJ220 GT) built for 1993 Italian GT racing by TWR. The other 2 are pretty famous, especially the Martini car, but this was a backup car that was not needed. So its on BBS race rims with old Hoosier slicks. Don't even know if the new street tires will fit. But there are plenty of Hoosiers and Mickey Thompsons in the correct size, and Hoosier even makes a "street" tire now with tread and everything. And much less expensive than the new Bridgestones and Pirellis That's about the only thing on a race car that's less expensive than a street car, but this is street legal somehow. Has a title and registration. One day I'll get to drive it! I hope!

 

I am curious, how is Don about supporting DIY'ers on the XJ220? Does he provide access to parts, tools, and information, or does he strongarm you into sending the car to him?

I do all my own work on my exotics and daily drivers as part of enjoying the hobby, so if I picked up a XJ220, I would want to be able to do the work on it myself, regardless of what it needs.

 

I have no personal experience with Don. But I have been speaking to an owner of an xj220S in Canada who also likes to do his own maintenance, and Don Law will not sell parts to DIY guys or even to a Lambo dealer who has been working on this car. Don Law "fixed" this owner's car 8 years ago, then it wouldn't run, and Don wanted him to ship the car back to the UK. It's taken this owner 6 years to get his car back on the road. Yes, Don tries to get you to send your car to him. Then when you get it back and it doesn't work (which happens often enough to be talked about) it's not too bad if you live in the UK. But I'm not about to send my car back on the next ship so he can fix something else. Like anyone with a monopoly, he's trying to get all the $$ he can out of it.

Between myself and a mechanic I use for my race cars we have all the parts from alternate sources and from there on it's just a lot of work. The big problem is the old Zytek ecu. If something goes wrong you need a special interface and an old DOS/Win3.1 laptop or emulator and this blue interface box which is unobtanium. It also uses 2 proprietary cables running off a serial plug. There are 2 diagnostic kits in NA; one in Canada and it's never leaving the owner's house, and the 2nd in a shop in the south who paid $75,000 for the kit 15 years ago and has a 5 month waiting list. Or you can install a new Motec or similar for $30-40k.
Not the easiest cars to get parts for, but they are available if you look hard enough, and some parts are interchangeable with other Jaguar models.
I was told by some very knowledgeable people not to send my car to Don Law, and the more I hear, the happier I am that I kept it nearby.

 

Well, that just ruins the hobby when you can't get the right parts or tools to do the job, so I will cross the XJ220 off my list. It's just no fun being forced to deal with the ******* of the car world, like Don.

It probably also explains why even though there are so few XJ220's in the US, they always seem to be for sale.

 

I'm trying to sort out some 220 repairs alternatives that don't involve shipping the car to England. I'm not sure how it will pan out and it may be a few months before I know or hear more. But, if/when I do, I'll post back

Cheers
DD

 

drsolly,

It must be very frustrating having such limited access to XJ220 knowledge and expertise on your side of the water. I know that we can only speak from personal experience but I've always had a good relationship with Don & Justin and have been up there many times. They re-commissioned our car beautifully at the agreed cost, the only exception ironically being a failed Zytek ecu. It's fair to say that Don did keep the XJ220 brand alive during the long period when Jaguar just walked away from it and I think the popularity of our cars is in no small way due to their continued efforts. So I can understand their desire to maintain the standard of each car, even if that's frustrating to DIY owners.

As regards your Zytek issue, the key problem as you say seems to be the interface box. The Win 3.1 emulation and even the interface cable seem to be things that can resolved. As I said, I assume the same box was used by anyone who worked on Zytek XJR-S? So contacting all the UK specialists who deal with XJR-S might prove useful.

Good luck drsolly, I do hope you get a resolution. I'd love to hear that you've got your rare car running.

Doug, do let us all know how you get on. It's all too rare to read about anyone working on these cars.

Cheers

Paul

 

Actually I was going to send my car to Don Law when I ran into a problem with NY state over registering a "non-standard" car, because it has no emissions controls, no cats, and is essentially a race car. I've been told how to remedy the situation, but it will take months to do. Meanwhile I can't send the car out of the country without legal title to the car, because if anything happens on either end with customs I will be in a mess. Since I don't want to wait until next summer to start the restoration, I sent the car to a mechanic who has experience with these cars so he can begin the recommissioning process.
Today I received a nasty email from Don Law informing me he will not sell parts to anyone any more. He wants all xj220's to be recommissioned in his shop. Most people I have been in touch with do not want to send their cars to the UK for $10k and 6-8 months when there are qualified mechanics here. Don Law will never see my car unless he buys it, and I will let everyone know where they can purchase parts right here in the USA. He may have done a lot to keep this car alive and viable, but it does not mean he has control over other people's property. And we Americans do not like to bullied or blackmailed. We tend to push back hard.
He's not doing himself any favors. The cars will not go to the UK, and he will miss out on part sales. This is why we don't allow monopolies.

 

So are you planning to to do a full engine rebuild on your XJ220 every 5000 miles? I wonder why this one needed an engine rebuild after that many miles? Maybe Don soaking an owner?

https://rmsothebys.com/en/auctions/a...r-xj220/799489

 

No, I'm not planning on a full rebuild every 5,000 miles. Not even sure what that means in the context of a Sotheby's catalogue writeup. Maybe the owner believes that a cambelt change and fluids replacement are an engine rebuild. I highly doubt the bottom end needed anything, and unless the seller had a massive over-rev, like a 5th to 2nd downshift and rev limiter didn't kick in fast enough why would you need a top end. I hope Sotheby's can back up that full rebuild claim with receipts. If Don Law really rebuilt an engine at 5,000 miles I'd love to know why.