Cars (all fuels and electric)

@gallois the item for the Stag might be a bit more exotic / rarer.

A Spitfire’s alternator is about as common-or-garden as you can get – the price seems right to me. I imagine the exact same item is standard to many cars of the era and is probably made by multiple manufacturers.

Canley Classics (IME cheaper than Rimmer Bros and less inclined to sell crummy repro stuff) list an ‘uprated’ 60amp Lucas alternator for the Mk IV Spit at GBP 62. That may be without VAT.

But these are basic cars. As long as it physically fits and chucks out the voltage, it’ll do.

Where I am with the Spit right now is wishing it wasn’t a soft top. One day I may wish to use it daily, and weatherproofing would be nice for that.

The factory Spitfire hardtop is both durable (steel) and stylish Somebody in England has one waiting for you.

Rare as hen’s teeth though. Fibreglass monstrosities very much available.

Irritatingly, the car had a steel hardtop on it when I bought it. I ebayed it because it needed paint and a lining and I didn’t really have space to store it.

Peter wrote:

Diesel is needed for trucks and there is no solution for that, not even remotely. So diesel cars have an assured future.

Not to forget they can run quite nicely on heating oil and on Avtur/Jet A1 as well.

Distribution…

Peter wrote:

Distribution…

Heating oil? Just about every house here which does not have a thermopump yet (and some of those) have a 3-5k liter oil tank. The only issue with this is that heating oil has a different colour than Diesel and costs considerably less as there is no fuel tax on it. So driving a Diesel car with heating oil is a customs offence, but technically….

Jet A1, loads of cars on airports are driving with it, whenever they can get it cheaper than Diesel (or avoid the fuel tax).

I’ll stick with gasoline versus heating oil, but you never know there could be a time when 100UL (it having no alcohol) could be a good thing, at least for my motorcycles.

Vic’s E-type and Capri look great but I can’t myself see putting the latter into daily driver status, it’s too nice. Having said that I can foresee more people doing similar while my plan for now is to buy and wear out a series of newer gasoline cars, purchased at best value. Low depreciation with high utilization is a requirement when you are piling up money to replicate a well paying job with investment income. That lasts until you are so old that you can’t spend the money in this lifetime. Life has its phases

I do have a classic car but driving it to the airport and back costs $35 in fuel. That could otherwise be spent at the airport on enough Avgas to fly 45 minutes so it’s mostly a garage queen.

Silvaire wrote:

Vic’s E-type and Capri look great but I can’t myself see putting the latter into daily driver status, it’s too nice.

Not only that. I once had the chance to be driven around in a Ferrari. It was quite uncomfortable but the primary problem I had was that the seat is so low down, that I basically had to crawly out on all 4s. Not very dignified. And by the looks of it, that has not changed much. I’ve come across a place where new Lambos and Ferraris are stored recently and they still are very flat cars. It’s funny, most of those cars are driven by elderly gents for whatever reason they hope to achieve with those, but I somehow think quite a few might not be driving them a lot as with age they don’t become more agile…. getting in and out must become a challenge.

I guess the E-Type is no different. In my youth I recall it was a highly desirable car here due to a trash crime series sold on newsstands which was tremendously popular. German readers might recall “G-man Jerry Cotton” who sported a red E-Type.

Nevertheless, Vic’s cars look like wonderful pieces of restauration art. It’s relly nice to see such cars still exist and are loved by those who own them. Vic must be proud and rightly so.

Urs, you are quite right, having to use a Ferrari on a longer holiday trip would be pure punishment. And you could not have much luggage in the car too, unlike the Jag which we used for several trips to La Ferté Alais for the meeting aerienne – from Munich which is quite a long trip in one day, and for a few trips around France before we got the Yak. We wanted a complete car, the Coupé certainly , not the open two seater so cool today, as that version is a lot less useful. Actually the Jag is a lot nicer than the Capri on the roads we love, more weight but with a great and refined suspension they kept for many decades on all Jags. In the early sixties they could beat the racing Ferraris on the tracks in the winding bits of the course but less so on straights due to higher weight , not a pure racing car by design like these Ferraris. One reason the E-type was so desirable was the low price compared to Mercedes or other cars. The 190 SL was about same price then, with a basic 4 cyl engine and simple suspension. The famous 300 SL was not faster than the Jag, questionable suspension in extreme situations but cost a few times more than the Jag – and a cathastrophe in an accident for repairing the lot. Certainly these cars are low entrance , more so when looking at those tanks today . Still not a big problem for us aged 70 to slip in by sitting on the door step and turning round for slipping in, the E-type that is. I guess not unlike to some aircraft to get in and out somehow ?? Worse with only one door I´d think . Once seated our cars are great on the roads and spacious , less so in some Audis etc. where you feel like sitting in a sleeping bag in your tent – biiig looking at the outside but small inside, space lost for all that garbage that makes a “modern” car. At least the Capri gets used in decent weather a lot, 100 km to the airfield one way. But no, for real bad weather we don´t hit the road when we do not need to – retired – or get one from the car sharing pool easily. As to old age, I will likely refit the standard steps to the Yak wings soon again as the wings are quite high up for just having the knees to help us up – quite different to our classic cars then ? Vic

Vic those are 2 lovely cars. I well remember my Capri white with green stripes. It was a great car.
The trouble is you used to drive a car for a while and then you’d see something else and think I’d like one of those. You never thought that they, especially Ford Cortinas, Escorts and Capris could possibly become a classic and much desired.
Which was actually my initial point. All half way decent cars without the modern gizmos may well become classics as their supply dwindles and demand grows from people who enjoy tinkering with cars, don’t want all those gizmos spying on them, or who simply like to return to their youth and their dreams as a kid. Do kids these days really dream of a Honda Jazz or any other SUV filled with loads of fancy electronics or even battery powered, in the same way as 9 year olds we lusted after the E.Type or in my case the Aston Martin DB5 Volante.
The alternators on the Mk1 and Mk2 Stag are different. The Mk 2 is cheaper but just wont fit the Mk 1.
The parts are no longer in production and all that is available unless you are very lucky are refurbished ones. And even they are in short supply.
Going ebay I have always found risky with parts not being as described on arrival and then having to pay to return them. The delivery costs on car parts are expensive these days.
IIRC I don’t have an invoice in front of me the price for the part at Rimmers (who I trust to know their business when it comes to Triumph and Jaguar cars) was around the £300 mark IIRC plus taxes and delivery around £400. Rimmers would give me £80 back on the return of the old alternator but the cost of delivering the old part was £90+.
All my old pals who would have taken the alternator apart and fixed it are long since dead or in a home.
I was more making a point that parts on cars which are not festooned with electronics are becoming more and more difficult to get hold of, as they are with older aircraft.
To be fair I think the Citroën C8 I had for a while and liked as a daily driver had too much electronics for me. Various anomolies kept coming up on the screen like “anomoly airbag”.
Tracing the problem according to the local dealer meant taking all the seats out, carpet up etc etc. And I thought all these electronics were supposed to make finding the problem simpler and cheaper. Cost of labour in this case would have been €800 and that was just to trace the fault any remedial work was extra. But because nobody knew what the fault was they couldn’t say how much that would be. Of course it could not be left as it would not pass a control technique (MOT) with that anomoly showing.
So I got rid of it. I gave it to a guy who was happy to rip it apart and find the problem and fix it. He then part exed it for a newer model.
The alternator on that was €800.
I vowed never to buy another car full of electronics.
Since then I have been long term renting. But if I come across a nice DS or CX prestige at a good price, maybe I will go back into ownership of a daily driver.
Funny enough it was a similar reason I didn’t buy another twin after I sold the Seminole.