Saturday Surprises…

We worked hard this week, and the weather was pretty nice today, so I decided to take it easy for a change.  Brian Donovan was down in my area visiting a friend of his, and had made arrangements to swing by around 10 AM to see the shop and drop off some aluminum panels for repair…

I was sitting pout front drinking coffee when I heard something a little louder than usual coming, and the next thing I know, an E-Type popped around the corner!  It turns out that Brian’s friend, Dane – lived about 1/2 a mile from me all this time!  They showed up in his factory-prepared 1963 E-Type coupe – complete with vintage racing rims and HUGE Jaguar Mark IX brake calipers fitted at the factory!

After we talked for a while and I showed them around, I cut the grass, did chores, etc., but when things quieted down in the afternoon, I took the chance to drive over to my friend Eric’s house to pick up some “old car magazines…”

In college, I was bored – alot…  All I really wanted to do was mess with my car, but I often found myself stuck at the University of Delaware without wheels, bored to tears.  My parents actually only lived 7 miles away, and I WALKED home many times to spend the weekend tinkering with the Jag.  But in the Winter, I was pretty much trapped there, and while I would find plenty of parties and ways to get into trouble, you do tend to find alot of time on your hands in college…

One thing I figured out after about a year, was that they had these little one chair cubicles in the basement of the library, and you could sign out VHS tapes of vintage movies.  This was where I originally saw most of “the classics” – Gone With The Wind, Citizen Kane, The Graduate, On The Beach, Patton – stuff like that…  After a while, I figured out something else – the library had EVERY ISSUE of road and track, bound by year, way back in the dark recesses of the basement shelves!

So, I would go down there after class, sign out a movie, and then walk over to the racks and grab 1955 through 1965, and come back to my little cubby with a giant stack of these volumes.  This was how/when I learned all about the sports-racing specials of the 50’s and 60’s – Scarabs, Bocars, Chapparals, Listers – I would pore over the articles is minute detail – learning about unsprung weight, DeDion rears – all kinds of cool stuff!

Over the years, I purchased several copies of my own at Flea markets, etc. – and built up a small collection of Road and Track, and LOTS of Sports Cars Illustrated, which later became Car and Driver.

So ANYWAY, Eric’s wife asked me last week if I wanted some boxes of old car magazines.  My immediate reaction was, “No.”  Eric was my best man, and one of my 4-wheeling buddies, and so I immediately assumed we were talking about Peterson’s 4-wheel and off-road from the mid-nineties…  I mean really, all I would POSSIBLY be interested in are old copies of Road and Track from the 50’s or something, and they sure as hell don’t have any of those!

But I finally said, “OK, what kind of magazines?…”  “I don’t know, here, Eric can tell you…”

“Hey – What’s Up?…  Remember my uncle who had the Jags?  Well, they’re his old magazines from when he was a kid – I think they are Car and Driver from the 50’s.”

“STOP – I WANT THEM!”

Now, this brings me to another story…  Eric had two uncles who, when they were teenagers and in their mid-20’s I guess, were into XK-120’s and 140’s – they each had a couple of them I think, but they were long gone by 1991 or so when this happened.  I met them both at a picnic at his house when I was about 19 or 20, and I was there in the Jag.

And I’ll never forget this, and I’ve told this story a million times:  His one uncle was really loving the Jag and the fact that I had it at my age and all, and he said, “Listen – don’t ever sell this car.  I’m serious.  If you ever need money that bad, call me – I’ll give you the money.”  I never forgot that – and I still have it (although I have thought about calling him several times through the years and saying, “Hey – about that money…”

So this afternoon, I drive over to Eric’s to see what we’re looking at here with these “old car magazines”…  And…  JACKPOT, BABY!!!  EVERY SINGLE Road and Track for the entire decade of the 50’s!!!  Plus, just as many Motor Trends from the 50’s – which I have NEVER seen!  They even smell the same – musty, but they are in GREAT shape, and for a guy like me, there’s no better reading…

So all in all, it was a pretty good Saturday.