Presidential debate night tonight and I have the TV on. Typically I write about what I see, this time I will tell a story. Back when I was 16 years old, through luck, persistence, gifting, work and prayer I became the proud owner of my first real car(The Studabaker and Dune Buggy don’t count). A gold 1963 Jaguar XKE convertible. At the time it was nine years old and a bit rough. It needed brake work and a few other things. As a teenage boy I had chosen the car because it was the fastest car for the money. Like now, American muscle cars were a lot more money. I thought I was being practical and efficient. That was my logic.

I may have been a little unhappy with my home life. I just wanted to hit the road. Drive and drive. I drove all over the place. I took the car on many road rallies. I went looking for the Jersey Devil in the sand. Set records going to Syracuse. Spent more time with the Jag at Lime Rock than at home. Went on parades through Newport RI. Plus it was my favorite ride to the family farm.

I may have mentioned in some other writings that the car started with four bias ply tires that were four completely different brands. When I drifted through the corners each tire would have its own pitch. On a winding road drifting through different phases of brake induced understeer and throttle powered oversteer different tunes would emerge from the tires. Winding roads without much traffic could be extremely entertaining. With the skinny bias ply tires the cornering speeds were not that high. I spent my summer working at a bicycle shop so I could afford some new Michelin XAS tires. The car cornered much faster, though not as quite entertaining musicly with a single pitch from the squealing tires.

Speaking auditory entertainment, I worked a bit more and bought an Ansa exhaust system. I needed to do this because one of the problems the car had was the brake fluid would boil during spirited driving. Surprisingly when the fluid boils there would be no brakes. So I would turn of the ignition key off to slow the car down with engine braking. When the ignition was off the exhaust system and beyond would be filled with unburned hydrocarbons. When the automobile was sufficiently slowed I would turn the ignition key back on. Turning the ignition back on would introduce a spark that would ignite the hydrocarbons in the exhaust system with a loud bang. The explosions actually split the mufflers. The split mufflers not only let the noise out, they let the heat out setting the carpet on fire. That was a surprise. So I put out the fire and went shopping for a new muffler. I went for a good one. The exhaust was, and still is music to my ears.

I used to like to do all night road rallies. Illumination was important. Because the headlights are under glass there was not much side Illumination so I added three axillary Marchell 8″ lights to a light bar protruding from the grill. There was a spot light in the middle with a fog light on the right and a driving light on the left. I had switches under the dash so I could turn the lights on individually, the car wasn’t capable of providing electrons for all. However I liked the lamps so much I also replaced the headlights with Marchal Amplilux halogen headlights.

My old E-Type was almost a complete and proper sports car. The shocks were a bit soft and I wiped out the drain sump on the fuel tank over an intersection hump. I lost all the fuel and had to repair the tank. At that point I was broke. My dear mother then bought me new Koni shock absorbers.

Another modification I made was to install racing harnesses that came from J.C. Whitney, I believed in safety. One time when I was at Lime Rock Paul Newman’s mechanic borrowed my racing harness for Paul to use in his new racing car. I had to ask for it’s return. I still not really trust those actor types. Yet I will still tell the story.

During my time with the car I put five high school students in the car to drive them home in a blizzard. I had a collection of hats in the car, so if I gave anyone a ride they could have a hat of their choice. I almost always had the top down. Hauled wood for the Boy Scouts campfire, and drove myself to work and school. I even had murder of crows poop on me. Poop landed on the steering wheel windshield and even the shifter. I sacrificed one of the scarfs I had for cleaning.

The most distinctive feature of the car was its long hood. On hills and intersections it was sometimes hard to see where you were going as you were sitting so far back. Yet historically a long hood was a symbol of power. Think of the prestigious cars of the 1930’s, Dusenburgs and Packards come to my mind. Some people would say the long hood is simply phallic. However this is an English car with French illumination and an Italian sound track and a Dutch vibe. So I should say that it is not a long hood, properly it is a bonnet.

So this is a story about memories, I have so many memories about my time behind the long golden bonnet. I sold the E-Type after 50 years, and bought the Mark V. They both have long gold hoods. On the Mark V it is actually called a hood because the car is American. Still the effect is the same. The E-Type may be gone, but it’s essence isn’t. Even the auditory experience is replicated by the Miata from Asia. Even though the NA Miata has two fewer cylinders the revs are proportionally higher at the same road speeds giving an equivalent tone to my ear. Even the stupendous halogen lighting is met with equivalence by the LED illumination in the Cadillac ELR.

So many new roads to explore with emotion and feelings of the past.