An annual "must do" on our calendar is the Jaguars on the Island show in Victoria BC, put on by the Jaguar Car Club of Victoria. The club is part of the JCNA and also holds a concours with the show. This year had 42 cars to be judged and I judged the XJS and XJ classes. Some very well prepared cars with high scores to match. The journey for us is over 1100km each way, plus we have made modifications to the car that would cost us points in judging, so we do not have the car judged, but enter it in enthusiast class. In total there were 134 Jaguars on the field, on a beautiful , but windy Saturday at the Windsor Park cricket pitch in Oak Bay.

I've made this journey many times, so I didn't take many photos along the way, so I'll call this a mini trip report. From Calgary to Revelstoke it rained heavily, so no photos were taken. At least the car is watertight, which is more than I can say for earlier Jaguars. We split the journey into two days, mainly because of the ferry trip over to Vancouver Island makes it too long to do in a day.

This is from the rear of the ferry on the crossing between Vancouver and Victoria:



Between Judging and other things, I didn’t get a chance to walk the field and take time to admire the cars until they started leaving, so the field was fuller than it appears in the photos. A notable car was a Lynx built D Type replica, a very nice car. The feature cars were the Series I/II/III XJ's, so a number of nice ones came, including a 1992 Vanden Plas V12 - a Canada only model, and they only made 100 for the last year in 1992. Each car came with a plaque and were individually numbered. The cars only came in two colours, Black Cherry and Oyster, the car in the field was Black Cherry. Unfortunately I didn’t get a photo of it.




This 1966 S Type was very well taken care of.



The feature models, the Series XJ's.





The next day was a drive and we ended up at a golf course for lunch. This was at the meeting point for the drive, my XJS is up front, but I liked the juxtaposition of all the various Jaguar models.





Then it was time to head home, and we travelled back with another couple. They have a 1994 XJS that is the 5 speed manual, a rare car in North America. I believe the manual cars were only brought in for 1993 and 94.



Travelling together...



From Kamloops onward I wasn't driving, so I managed to take a few photos going through the Selkirk mountain range. Not the best quality as I was using my phone, but it captures the feel of driving through the mountains. In a few places are snow sheds built over the highway to protect it from avalanches in the winter. When the snowpack is high the Canadian Army comes in with their artillery and shells the mountains to bring down the snow in a controlled way before major avalanches happen. They also drop explosives from helicopters to start small avalanches to bring down the snow before it reaches the highway. The Canadian Pacific Railway was built through here in 1884/85 and they had numerous delays and deaths due to avalanches, so in 1916 completed a 5 mile long tunnel under the mountain to avoid the pass and the avalanche paths. There are hiking trails that go up to the stone bridge piers that still remain after the railway abandoned the route when the tunnel opened. 100 years on, most are still standing.



A snowshed:


Entering another snowshed


An avalanche path where all the trees are swept away.


A train on the right, just about to enter the 9 mile long tunnel drilled in the 1980's.


At the summit of Rogers Pass.

 

Thanks for the trip report! Always nice to read something that isn't a problem that could arise with our cars. Nice pics, too. Those look like some lovely driving roads.
A 1992 Black Cherry Vanden Plas V12 would be nice - is this the SIII body? What was called the Daimler Double Six outside North America? Black cherry is a nice colour.
The S Type always seems like the ugly stepsister of the Mark II - a more luxurious model, but the rump isn't as elegant and it doesn't have nearly the same cachet. Or price.... Lovely wood, however. I love the wood in these older models, without any of the modern crash pads. Like in this gorgeous Mark 9 I saw recently.

 

Yes, the 1992 is the SIII body. And yes, known as the Double Six outside Canada. The V12 in the SIII body never went to the USA (except for 6 XJ12's in 1979). For 1992, the only Jaguar badged SIII cars were the 100 for Canada, as production of the Jaguar Sovereign V12 for the UK market stopped in 1991. The other ~1200 SIII V12's made in 1992 were Daimlers for the UK, Japan and Germany. I used to own #53 of the last 100, and occasionally Jaguar messed up, mine had a Daimler floor mat for example. I have seen others that had this too, as well as Daimler stickers on the cam covers, instead of Jaguar.

The drive is very interesting, as there are many microclimates created by the mountains. Everything from desert to rainforest with massive cedars within a couple of hours drive.

 

What was interesting was comparing the fuel consumption between the two XJS's on the trip. We drove together and coming home filled at the same station in Victoria and again at the same station in Kamloops. The 6 cylinder/ 5 speed car took 42L, and my 6.0 / automatic took 53L. Just a bit of a difference! Although on the steep mountain climbs the owner of the 6 cylinder said he was in 4th gear and struggling to keep up, while I left the car on cruise and it never shifted out of overdrive or unlocked the torque converter.

The joys of torque, but you pay at the pump.

 

So that's roughly $15 to $20 difference, depending on what it costs over there, right? I'd pay that for the smooth, torquey V12 (hell, I do pay that for the s., t. V12). Google maps shows a six-hour drive, 444 km. Not too bad, I'd say, for the V12.

I presume you could tell it was shifting out of overdrive by the gear kicking down, but how would you tell if the car was unlocking the torque converter?

I would rather like a SIII Double Six, but for some reason they are distinctly more expensive than XJSs over here despite being much more common.

 

I think I paid $1.63/L, so yes about $18 difference. Fuel is expensive in BC, it's much cheaper in Alberta. That was premium fuel, regular was $1.37/litre and in Alberta it's $1.02/litre. The distance driven was bang on 400km, because Google maps counts the distance on the ferry, but I don't drive that! Instead I leave the car on the lower decks and go up and have lunch in the restaurant. The fuel economy on that section is the worst on the trip because there is the most elevation gain and two very long climbs to the summits of two mountain ranges. It's a roller coaster drive from Hope to Kamloops on the #5 highway.

The drive is longer than 6 hours, mainly because of waiting time for the ferry. In the summer, they sail once per hour but fortunately you can reserve a sailing. When we arrived at the dock if we didn't have a reservation the next sailing was full and the one after that was over 80% full. There was the possibility of a 2 hour wait to get on, and then it's about a 1.5 hour sailing time.

If the torque converter unlocks the revs increase by about 300 rpm. You can hear the difference when it does it.

You need to find an agent who can buy at the dealer auctions, they are much cheaper than buying retail, I see the DD6's are increasing in value, but the auction prices are not nearly as high for them as the XJS's. All the agents I have seen specialize in export though, I don't know the rules about selling domestically in Japan.

 

Ah, yes, the ferry might not require much driving. Forgot to account for that.
Wow, that price for high octane in Alberta is amazing. I pay about $1.75. Even BC isn't "expensive" as far as I'm concerned.

I'll keep an ear out for rev increases when climbing hills....

I actually do have a friend who runs a car shop, so can get auction prices if I need to, I guess. I'm just not in the market at the moment. I may be in a few years, depending on (a) how sick I get of throwing money at my XJS, and (b) how likely a Daimler Double Six will be less hassle. Probably not much likely. Though rear seats would be useful at times.

 

Your 92 should be a 3 speed transmission, not 4 that came with the 6.0 cars. The torque converters don't lockup on the 3 speed cars. If the shifter goes D, 2, 1 it's a 3 speed. If it goes D, 3, 2 it's a 4 speed.

 

Ah, that would explain why I had no idea what you were talking about....

 

It certainly would! On some cars I can listen to the progression of gears as I accelerate and then finally hear the torque converter lockup after it reaches top gear and the rev drop is less than with a gear change.