While there was only one European machine in the Gator-O-Rama top 10, the Opular Dependence Team Israel Opel GT grabbed the prestigious Organizer's Choice trophy for the Continent. Not only that, the Saabs avoided throwing even a single connecting rod this time out, which should be cause for rejoicing in the streets of Stockholm
.
Thanks to Myke Toman, Nick Pon, Zerin Dube and Speed:Sport:Life, Anna C of Bikini Racer, the Norwegian Slaabs, Saabs Gone Wild, Prison Break Racing, Team Beermer, LeMons Supreme Court Justice Lieberman, Jackson Williams, and others for their fine photographs.

It's always fun with DOTS cars park near each other; that's the '62 Ford Falcon across the street. I see the Falcon driving around town on a regular basis, but the Jaguar doesn't seem to move much… if at all.


The list price on this cat in 1986 was $32,250, about what Adnan Khashoggi might charge for a few cases of hand grenades bound for Nicaraguan "freedom fighters," or what a couple of bent S&L execs might spend on lunch. For about a grand less, you could have bought a new BMW 535i; for $218 less, a new '86 Corvette convertible could have been yours.

I could sit and photograph a cool-looking animal hood ornament all day, and this cat is one of my very favorites. Such feline anger!


Of course, Jaguar owners displayed facial expressions similar to the one on their cars' hood ornaments every time the gentlemen down at the local British-car shop sent them a bill. But so what? Just look at this car!


Whoops! That's some genuine California-style rust there, and I'm betting there's more like it in all the areas that collect rainwater (i.e., trunk, rear floors) during the wet Alameda winters. It appears that the owner has attempted to sand away the problem, which indicates a willingness to take decisive action coupled with a lack of understanding of the rust MO.

My adored '77 XJ6 is back in the shop for some repairs I have neither the time nor the space to complete on my own. The carbs have recently been rebuilt. The front left double wishbone suspension replaced. New front tires. A new oil pump. All of the vacuum leaks tracked down and cured. But now that the engine is running right, it's spitting oil everywhere. And the oil is eating through all the gaskets, causing the transmission to leak. And I still need to replaced the right front suspension and the mufflers.

All-in-all, when the tech called to tell me what they'd found today, I'm looking at a repair bill that's more than I paid for the car. To date, between the shops and my own time and effort, I've easily doubled what the car is worth. But is this the time to say goodbye? I love this car, it's so pretty, so much fun to drive — when it runs. It's so hard for me to imagine parting ways, but in the end...it is a car. And I don't know if I can keep putting so much time, money and blood into it. And oh yes, there has been blood, and plenty of skin from my knuckles.

So when do others give up the dream and move on? I'm hoping there will be more tales of woe to keep me company while I weep in the corner.

And yes, yes, I know that having anything stuck together in England during the '70's is just silly to begin with, but just look at him?!

Normally, a 70s Jaguar XJ-6 doesn't really grab my attention, but you don't often see a total hideous beater Jag parked on the street. The reason for this is pretty obvious- most Malaise Era Jags didn't last long enough to become beaters.

Missing and/or cracked lenses really add to that "just don't care" image. Oh yeah! It really doesn't matter whether the lenses are there or not, since The Prince of Darkness will ensure that no light on the car works more than 10% of the time.

This saloon actually looks mean; we can only hope it has a massive exhaust leak to give it the sound to match. Give it some Mad Max steel-spoke rims, a coat of thick black Rustoleum, and a small-block and you'd really have something.

I'm pretty sure the cat-face-beneath-clear-plastic hood ornament isn't supposed to be so blurry.

This is actually a pretty good-looking design, which is the bait that lured so many unfortunate buyers into British Leyland's trap back in the 70s. Wait, doesn't Hyundai make a snout like this now?

This car brings to mind some puzzling questions. Has it always run well enough to keep limping along for 30 years, thus acquiring its beaterness in the honorable gradual-decay manner of so many evil-looking Detroit land yachts of the era? Did a crazy person with bottomless cash reserves pay to keep it running for 27 years, before giving up and selling it to some car-abusing ne'er-do-well? Was it stored for decades and miraculously brought back to life? There's really no way to know.

But we do know the gas gauge doesn't work! Uh, it's not any safer to keep the full gas can in the trunk (which is doubtless full of sparking lose wires), but you can't smell it quite as much from the driver's seat that way (especially given that the odds of even one power window working approach zero). – Murilee Martin

Related:
British Leyland 1977: England's Dreaming! [internal]