[dba-Tech] Barrett-Jackson Auto Auctions

Gustav Brock Gustav at cactus.dk
Sun Jan 22 14:48:20 CST 2006


Hi Arthur

Don't speak of Jaguars. I had a Tudor white XJ 5.3C - the 12 cylinder coupé - for 13 years. Drove it every day and felt it like a privilege. The comfort of that car is second to none, a perfect match of a racing car and a limousine. My wife, Rita, loved it too. She drove it as often as I did. "The flying carpet" she called it and pressed the speeder causing only a quiet civilized humming.

It was nearly like this, except that it was all white and mounted with the newer aluminum wheels:

  http://www.classiccarclub.co.uk/carpages/jag_xj.asp 

Still, no one can design cars like Jaguar. I often study BMWs and Mercedes but they just don't get it. Master engineering, yes, but no sense for style. As a journalist here wrote after a test drive for an extended period of the latest model "grand Jaguar": You could live in that car.

Today my old car would cost a fortune in fuel consumption alone. My wife tells me to earn a lot of money; then I can buy any car I wish, she says. She knows what I would buy, and I would have no problem spending that kind of money for a real car. She would even appreciate it ...
Did I tell that her favourite car is the Jaguar XK150 S cabriolet? It is so beautiful, and she was hooked the first time we looked at one at a Jaguar car meeting. It had been refurbished using the original special red colour and looked brand new - ready to tour the country:

  http://www.bsmotoring.com/2002/02jun21_1.htm

Oh well, such cars are getting expensive to the degree where you don't dare to drive them. It's a pity as Jaguars are built to drive.
Tomorrow it's Monday. Better write some code and earn some money.

/gustav

>>> artful at rogers.com 22-01-2006 19:29 >>>
I seem seriously to have missed the point on what cars are valuable. An
original mint condition Jaguar XKE sold for a mere half million while a
Chrysler Hemicuda sold for 2 million! Unf**king believable. Here you have
perhaps the greatest car ever designed (XKE) vs. another stupid lumbering
behemoth and somehow the behemoth scores four times more than the XKE. How
could this occur. Perhaps the old adage applies: if you want to know what
God thinks of money, look to whom he gave it.
Unbelievable, a HemiCuda worth four times the price of an XKE, both of which
are in mint condition. This is a stupid world.
Mind you, anyone who is there to pay a million or so for a car clearly has
too much money, but that is an aside. But given a choice between 4 Jag XKEs
and one HemiCuda, what would you choose? I like HemiCudas but let us be
realistic about this. How could one possibly fault the design of an XKE and
instead choose a HemiCuda? 
I guess this is why I am not affluent. I keep choosing design over HOT. You
get about 1.5 miles per gallon in a Hemi, which is obviously not why you
might have purchased one. But still, why on earth would you buy such an
angry dog? This is not a car! It is a display of somethingm, and I suspect
what that something is, but will venture no further than to reiterate
Fuller`s Fifth law: cubic inch displacement is inversely proportional to
sexual ability.

Arthur





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