As the title suggests, I am ending a chapter in my E-Type life. I have recently sold my 1963 FHC. I had a For Sale sign on the car at our recent concours at Little Switzerland. The buyer was Marc at Motor Car Trader, located just north of Charlotte. He has owned and sold a number of E-Types and is very excited to get his hands on this one. My interaction with Marc was very positive and I can recommend him highly. BTW, my score at the concours was 99.97 and it took 1st place, in a class of only 2 cars. Where have all the E-Types gone? It has been my stated intention all along to build this car back from a basket case into the most accurate version of “how it came from the factory” that I could. I always enjoy the restoration process and doing the research on how my exact car would have been configured from the factory caused me to learn a lot about E-Types of that era. But as I have also said, I know I enjoy the restoration process but I am actually not a big fan of the “caretaker” part. The car was so nice (only 42 miles on the odometer when I sold it) that I really didn’t want to drive it. And my storage garage is such that it would gradually become an insect and rodent habitat, if I wasn’t very careful! So I am at peace with the sale and hoping the new owners enjoy the car.
Now that I have some money “burning a hole in my pocket” I have thought about what project(s) are next. There are several answers. I have a 1986 Porsche 928 that I have also owned for a dozen years. I have done a little bit of a “rolling restoration” to it and it is a nice driver (but not a show car). I am going to make some final tweaks to it and sell it. I also have a 1967 E-Type 2+2, that I acquired 25 years ago. It has been a running driving car all that time i.e. not an obvious restoration candidate. But as seems to happen, I haven’t driven it much in the last 10 years, as other cars in my stable always seemed to get the nod. Now I plan to get that car roadworthy, at a minimum. This should mainly involve getting the fuel system cleaned out. I am on the fence as to whether to sell it as-is or do some modest restoration. The irksome problem with 2+2s is that they don’t command nearly as much money as the non 2+2 models, so you can get “underwater” on a restoration really easily. It’s not all about the money but there may be better ways to invest my funds, time, and energy.
Which leads me to another philosophy shift, which is to try out interesting cars for a short time and not get stuck into long term ownership. I know some people say things like “I want to be buried in my car”, indicative of the fact that they can never think of selling it. That is fine, although maybe one’s wife/children are not thrilled with prospect of getting rid of some half complete project that has been sitting in dad’s garage for years. If you car needs to be towed to the cemetery, that is a red flag! As such, I am trying to divest myself of major “I’ll get around to that one eventually” project cars and instead keep one or two nice “ready for sale” cars on hand that won’t be a burden when I pass. I am spending some happy time mentally putting together my “bucket list” of cars that I would like to own for a year or so, just to get that experience and themove on. In my case, there are several criteria. They should be near the bottom of the depreciation curve. But new enough to have a “modern” engine management system, basically electronic fuel injection. They should be pleasant to look at and interesting to drive. And if they need a little bit of “rolling restoration” that is fine but nothing that has to be totally torn down to individual bits and put back together. My current list, which probably changes daily, includes a Ferrari 308 (the Magnum PI car), an Acura NSX, a Porsche 993 (the last air cooled cars), and a Jaguar XK-120 DHC (I know, does not follow my rules but they look so damn cool!). If nothing else, this will give me something to write about when my Jaguar specific activities are showing no progress. Stay tuned!
New Hill Garage 
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