My first Jaguar - Jaguar XJ6 Series 3

Watching ‘Need for Speed’ today with my good friends certainly brought back memories of the actual video game which I’m sure many of you have at least played once. Back in the day, Jaguars were also known for their speed and If you’ve read my first post ‘My passion for automobiles’, you’ll know that I’m a huge fan of Jaguars especially the Jaguar XJ6 Series 3. And I’ve got a confession, I told myself that when I get married I will make sure my bride comes in my very own Jaguar Series 3… And it happened!!

The search for my first Jaguar started some years back even before I bought my first Mercedes-Benz. Finding a well kept one which still had it’s original engine seemed quite far-fetched as many of them had had their engines transplanted and were now having Japanese engines inside. Though it may be a little cheaper to maintain as well as economical, it certainly killed the ‘Jaguar’ in the Jaguar.

Then I came across a well-kept one much later, after I even missed buying the very same Jaguar XJ6 that I fell in love with when I was a young boy just by a mere two months. The car I came across was a 3.4 litre twin carburettor not the much desired 4.2 litre fuel injection, nevertheless the price was not too bad and the condition was the best I’ve seen in a long time and so me being me, I bought it. At that time, it did need some mechanical doing up but it was nothing major. Once I had bought the Jaguar Series 3, the adventure started. 

The difference between a classic Rolls-Royce and a classic Bentley

Back in the days when Rolls-Royce and Bentley were owned by the same parent company, many of you may wonder what the differences are between a Rolls-Royce and a Bentley besides the different grilles and obviously different names and emblems. In simple, the Rolls-Royce is a luxury car where the owner is meant to be chauffeur driven in but the Bentley instead is sporty and is meant to be driven by the owner.

I had the pleasure of viewing both beauties yesterday, a Rolls-Royce Silver Spirit as well as a Bentley Turbo R. Both the cars are based on the same platform but with different badges. If you are interested in the history of both companies, this is a link (click on the link to go to the page) that I came across sometime back and certainly one you would not want to miss.

But do bear in mind, Rolls-Royce and Bentley now belong to different owners thus their design platforms are no more shared. Rolls-Royce is currently owned by BMW AG and Bentley is currently owned by Volkswagen AG.

Mercedes Benz W108 / W109

Still on the Mercedes Benz theme, let’s talk about one of the most iconic cars of the 60s and the 70s, the Mercedes Benz W108. The W108 was the S-Class (‘Sonderklasse’ meaning ‘special class’ in German) of it’s time. It succeeded the Mercedes Benz W111 / W112 (also known as the ‘fintail’) in it’s class. The W108s were built between the years of 1965 – 1972 before being replaced by the Mercedes Benz W116. There was also a rare long wheel base model (LWB) known as the 300SEL produced which was given the designation W109.

Mercedes produced various models of the W108/W109 with various engines ranging from a 2.5 litre inline 6 to a 6.3 litre V8 similar to that of the Mercedes Benz 600 which I will also talk about in later posts. Though the big V8 powered cars never really made it to our shores (it was mainly for the US market), the 250S and the 280S models became popular cars in South East Asia in it’s time including Malaysia and it became a status car for the wealthy especially those involved in business.

My passion and obsession for this model was the reason I acquired one for myself, a 1970 Mercedes Benz W108 280S late last year and is currently being restored. I will be updating on the progress from time to time and meanwhile I shall leave you for the weekend with this clip from the 1978 movie ‘The Driver’ which I’m sure some of you may have already watched it. Do admire the beauty and the capability of the car except for the part where the car get’s thrashed of course. Haha.....

The history of the three-pointed star

Whenever any one of us thinks of a Mercedes Benz, the first thing that comes to mind is the three-pointed star. It is what the ‘Spirit of Ecstasy’ is to Rolls-Royce and the ‘Leaper’ is to Jaguar, it’s an icon. The three-pointed star has become probably one of the most recognized automotive symbols of all time but have any of us actually ever wondered what does the star symbolise or why does it have three points instead of four or five? 

Here’s a brief walk through history for those of you who are interested. The three-points actually symbolise the three modes of transport that we have that is land, sea and air. It was actually the idea of Paul and Adolf Daimler, the sons’ of one of the founding fathers none other than Gottlieb Daimler. Gottlieb had actually used the three-pointed symbol to mark the family’s house on a post card with a view of the town of Deutz in Cologne, Germany.

It was then patented by the then parent company Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft or in short DMG and has been in use on their cars since 1910.

Source: Daimler.com

Updated Section - Modern cars for rent

Just a few updates here, I have updated the Modern cars for rent page (click on the link to go to the page). The two new additions are convertibles of which one of them is an extremely rare Chevrolet Camaro convertible and the other a reasonably rare one too, a Mazda MX-5. Do stay tuned for more updates.

The Jaguar XJ220

The Jaguar XJ220 may not be a household name for many as the common Jaguars at that time were the XJs. The XJ220 is not to be mistaken for other Jaguar XJs. The XJ220 was a marvel created by Jaguar in the early nineties and those of you sports car enthusiasts born before the nineties will surely remember this beauty. The sleek, aerodynamic and out of this world lines are certainly one would never forget. Unfortunately, many of us would have never seen one in real as there were only close to 300 units ever built around the world during it’s short production period from 1992-1994 (only know of one owned by the Sultan of Johor).

The XJ220 was once the fastest production car in it’s time hitting a top speed exceeding 340 km/h. A quick check online on a UK based auto website put the current price to be in the range of a £150,000 – £200,000 (that’s almost RM 1,000,000). Being a rare car due to it’s limited numbers, the Jaguar XJ220 has become a forgotten legend. But for true Jaguar enthusiasts, I’m sure it still holds a special place in them despite being built after Jaguar was sold to the Ford Motor Company.

(Jaguar is currently owned by Tata Motors of India)