He he. Over here is UK it's what's known as a marmite car. Love it or hate it.

 

And your XK8/XKR?

 

Nice! But do we need to call the men in white coats if I prefer and would rather have the left one, by far?






.

 

Just beautiful! If my X100 would turn out to be a clone of your car once I find it, I would be a happy man. What is the name of the color?

These wheels are quickly growing to be my favorite X100 single piece wheels. They are 18" right? I also like some of the 2 piece designs, which are I think all 20"(?). But as far as single piece, this one plus the original 1996 ones are my favorite so far.

 

 

Thank you. Yes, they are 18" wheels. The colour is Mistral Blue.

 

The taste or the flavour?

 

Does this count?

 

Ah, this is also the same color as Frog's and GGG's former cars if I'm not wrong. I also think this is the same color as yours Mark99? It's on the top of my list for colors. Is it rare or hard to find?

I also like BRG. But it's quite dark unless under direct sunlight and dark shades hide the X100 beautiful curves. Although I still like BRG. But that is as dark as I would like to go.

 

where i live this is considered the anti-Corvette attitude. they like to have their polishing parties where the cars are displayed with ten year old original tires, windshield wipers (They never use them if at all possible.), originality fights and debates. there is also a general aversion to adding any miles to them. some with newer ones like to sell them every five years or so to a friend for very little depreciation and then start the process again. then there are the survivor/restorers or this or that anniversary edition; they are afraid to sit in the seats . . .
we have some car guys that get together and occasionally have little shows for charity. i get lectured by some Corvette owners. they spend an entire Sunday at a beach parking lot talking while i am driving to Bear Mountain, NY (BTW, if you drive 9W? south towards the mountain, it is one of the nicest roads for a sporty car. you will use the J gate a lot with the nice mix of climbs and descents and curves.). even got questioned by someone working at my local convenience store as to why i would be ruining such a nice car.

few of the above seem to realize that the beauty of something is often in its use and with minor efforts, it can be kept very nice. i look forward to when i reach the end of my driving days turning over a well preserved but high mileage beauty to someone else. there are some collected car makes where this is a badge of honor and they actually have such for these achievements.

 

When I attend car show display days, I always have people compliment the colour of the car and ask if it is a factory colour.

I don't think it was a popular colour seventeen years ago. Not like silver, black and BRG. That is probably what makes it a bit rare. I may have the only Mistral Blue XK8/XKR in Australia as I haven't seen another one in the three years that I have owned the car. Not too many red ones around either.

When I was shopping for an XKR I almost bought a red one until I checked the paint code and found that it was originally black when it left the factory.

 

NO - Frog and I had Frost Blue coupes. This was one of the special colours available only for the US Victory and RoW Final Series in 2005.

There had been similar light blue metallic shades before but they do look very different when seen together.

Graham

 

My go-to car is the XK8 all year 'round except when raining or snowing. Our daily drivers are the Toyotas for business and wife's commute, and the truck is for long trips or hauling stuff. The therapy car is the Cobra replica, soon to have a supercharger install.

 

dual vintage ball drive Paxtons , I hope


Z

 

I'm with you, I can't believe it when I'm reading that people prefer a low milage car, or are actually BRAGGING about how low milage their car is after X number of years of ownership. Sheesh, I'd be ashamed to admit it to my closest friend, let alone put it up on the internet for all to see, that I had a fine road car, with everything one could hope for: style, horsepower, handling, a noble heritage, and was content, even proud, to let it sit in the garage and keep the milage low.

I say WAKE UP people. You are missing out big time on the #1 reason the car IS one the greatest. Drive that sucker, run up the milage as fast as you can. The day will come when you are too f***king old to drive even a wheelchair, your health will start to go, and as you lay in your death bed, boy do I feel sorry for you.

All you will have to remember is how great your car LOOKED at some stupid car show or in the garage, etc. You WON't be thinking of all the great adventures you had in it going cross country, driving to opposite coast, whatever.

You won't be dying with a smile on your face. Too bad.


Z

 

Wasn't that on Bill Cosby's Cobra? Trying to get that to run probably is what turned him off cars and on to easier pursuits.

From the 1970's to the 2000's, the people I have known that wasted literally years of their life trying to make Paxton supercharged cars "fast". They think they finally had it, bring it to the track and then quietly slink off back to their garage after it disappointed once again.

Its sad, really. but there wasn't many alternatives (turbos didn't grow on trees like today)and the Granatelli's could sell iceboxes to eskimos

 

sadly, anyone can buy a screwdriver and think they know how to tune a car. when they fail, it's ALWAYS the cars fault, never a lack of preparation or knowledge.

Here are some photos of my '66 GT350 w/ vintage ball drive Paxton. I drove the car equipped like this for about 85,000 miles over an 11 year period. It was fast, and reliable. Numerous times I ran the same course used by the Big Bend Open Road Race ( https://www.bborr.com ) which is about 53 miles each way, and cars car run wide open for 99% of the way, if they can stay in one piece. I never had any issues with the Paxton equipped GT350. Not because I'm some whiz tuner, but because I took the time to learn what was going on inside the carb and the Paxton. I was fortunate to have the right mentors in the 1960's & '70's who encouraged me to learn theory first and application second.

For the Paxton car, I studied the weak points like high rpm turbulence inside the carb enclosure which made the high rpm performance very inconsistent, and the cooling and durability issues of the ball drive system. Just a little attention to these problem areas let me go from getting 80% out of the supercharger once and a while until it got hot, to getting a trouble free performance 100% of the time. I made my own air diffuser out of a marine spark arrestor to solve one issue, and used a simple external cooler and a good synthetic ATF to completely eliminate the wear and durability problems.

If people would spend a little time learning the science and engineering that any given fuel system is based on, then there would be a lot less complaining and a substantially more satisfaction.

Also pictured is my '65 K code Mustang with a set of four 48 IDA Weber carburetors. Again, like the ball drive Paxton's, the Weber's have a bad reputation for being impossible to tune, or impossible to keep in tune. Nothing could be further from the truth. If a person puts down their tuning screwdriver and picks up a book, then they'll discover how easy these multiple Weber carburetors can be to set up, and enjoy. Once they are right, they stay that way for years with very little attention required.

Getting complicated carburetor systems to perform at a high and reliable level is not difficult, Getting some people to put down their screwdriver and learn something first, is very difficult.

Z.

 

Wow, sorry for my sin.

Well, they do look close enough in photos to fool me they were the same. Maybe side by side in person they are very different. But it's looking like if you buy a light blue metallic car and you wanted the very rare color, you could get way with spraying the outside only with Front Blue and the inside the hood, doors etc would be close enough not to draw attention.

But both colors are nice actually. Light blue metallic is shooting up to the top of my favorite colors list.

 

Beautiful cars.

I've won the 135 mph (2007) and 140 mph (2012) class in the BBORR race and finished 2nd by .016 seconds to a brand new Porsche GT3 in my 1986 Pontiac in 2004, so I'm pretty familiar with that road.

 

Interesting. I had never heard that about Corvette owners before. I actually thought it would be the opposite. With Ferrari, even though I don't think it makes much sense, I can at least understand where they are coming from with the whole keeping miles down thing and so on. But with a Corvette? They are a dime a dozen, mass produced, cheaply made, cheap trills cars. Would never have thought. A Corvette is what I would buy if I wanted a supercar but couldn't afford one or would not want to drive one to the ground.

Oh well, I'm glad you enjoy your X100 to the maximum. It's exactly what I'm planning to do with mine once I find it.