This October marks 25 years since the Jaguar XK8 (project code X100) was launched in 1996. It replaced the ageing XJS that had been in production for 21 years, following various revisions throughout its life. The new model was dramatically revealed from a wooden crate as part of the press […]
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This story was told to me by my Uncle Geoff Cooper, one of a series from my family’s local building and decorating firm W.J.Cooper & Son. “Just after the war when my Dad, your Granddad, was still running the firm, Harold Morris and I had to go down to Manor […]
By 1930, when my Dad Frederick Cooper was about 19 years old, he had become somewhat proficient in raking out and re-pointing brickwork. He was asked by Mr Brutton, a local bicycle shop owner in Tunbridge Road, to rake out and re-point three houses that he owned somewhere else in […]
You may have read an article (“When is a Jaguar not a Jaguar?”) in October’s edition of the national Jaguar Enthusiast magazine about the demise of Suffolk Sportscars after twenty-five years. The Suffolk SS100 is a visually and dimensionally accurate replica of the original SS100 Jaguar sports car that William […]
Between 1900 and the 1950s our family of Coopers lived at 107 Milton Street, in a small Victorian terraced house in the seaside town of Southend-on-Sea. It was a dull day in the autumn of 1936 and my grandfather William John Cooper had just come into the back parlour. My […]
My grandfather Frederick Cooper told me the following story about his time working for our local family firm of builders and decorators, W.J. Cooper & Son. In the late 1930s, Geoff and I had to take out an old kitchen range and replace the range with a fireplace in Rebels […]
My father Frederick John Cooper, having just obtained his driving licence, purchased a secondhand, black Austin Seven saloon car. He must have been about 21 at the time. Luckily the Austin just passed through the gate at the rear of 107 Milton Street. Grandfather came out of the back door […]
In 1962 W.J. Cooper & Son, a local building and decorating firm run by my father Fred and his uncles Geoff, Fred and Bill, was given a building contract by Mr Lewis, an architect and the owner of an old cottage on the corner of West Street and North Road […]
An 8-day drive around Germany and Austria Thinking about it, I suppose I have always been a bit of a petrolhead. Ever since my Dad’s first 1956 Morris Oxford, when I was knee high to a grasshopper, I took an interest in cars and also in overseas travel. Long before […]
As many owners will know, the ‘A’ pillars on an XK8 are covered with a nylon-backed material, glued on at the factory. After time, this glue disintegrates and the nylon begins to lift off the plastic-fronted ‘A’ pillar posts, obviously looking unsightly. I decided to replace the nylon on my […]
Unlucky number 13. 404, the internet code for error. Evil 666, the number of the beast… yes, but please bow for 2020, perhaps the worst number of all (and incidentally divided by five equals 404). This year has certainly been a disappointment with no shows, club meetings or social gatherings […]
I have been doing more work on my XK8, improving the state of the leather and changing interior bulbs to LEDs. I refurbished the driver’s seat and door armrest, but the centre armrest was probably the worst in terms of wear. I had bought a kit from Furniture Clinic who have […]
As if I didn’t already spend enough time in front of a computer screen, both at work and at home, this lockdown has made things worse. Typically, around half of my working day is researching and writing reports and papers, but at least the other half was talking to people […]
My mechanical adventures from boyhood, when I was barely able to lift a spanner, to now when I can just about wield one. Let me start at the beginning of my mechanical adventures. Like most small boys I have always been interested in making and repairing things. I liked taking […]
It’s possible to fit daytime running lights to a XK8 or similar for just a few pence (well, a couple of quid). There is a wonderful series on YouTube called “To the garage” and in one of these there was a link to a light upgrade for XK8 cars. One […]
After changing the rear discs on my XK8 I thought I may as well do the front discs. It couldn’t be any harder, right? Wrong. Again, the first challenge, after getting the discs and painting the rim areas where the pads don’t touch to keep them from going rusty, was […]
Having bought an older XK8 convertible from 1998, there were a few jobs to do to it. The brakes have never been as good as they should be, so I decided to change the rear brakes as they looked to be in the worse condition. I sourced the parts from British […]
One of the most important lessons I have learned is never, ever to presume. However, I was to fall foul of these wise words. My tale unfolds from around 1998 when I became the owner of my much-loved XJ6 Series 1. The car had sat in a garage for several […]
I hadn’t thought of changing the front seats in my Mk 2, until I did one of my regular searches on e-Bay. Up popped some XJ8 seats, advertised as an upgrade. Having put in a low bid, I won them. I only bid on them as they were local to […]
My first journey into driving was when I was 17, although I did not pass my test for a couple years to come. My experiences were varied. My first car was a 1967 Ford Cortina Mk II 1500cc that my dad bought for me. He took me out for lessons. Many […]
As many members know, I live in Wanstead, the furthest west of any member in our region, I believe. I am not a Londoner by birth; I come from Bedford and my family background is actually the Cardiff and Newport area of South Wales, by coincidence a few miles from […]
As classic car enthusiasts, we all admire the styles and curves of older vehicles and maybe we have a wish list or a dream. And now, for me, it has happened. My dream fifteen years ago, after selling my RR Shadow 1, was to get a classic car with running […]
Our Jaguar Mk2 NJW 121E was first registered on 31 March 1967 and purchased by Geoff on 16 May 1995. How come Geoff bought a Mk2? He says that he saw one nearby and decided to try to buy one. A friend knew of JD Classics, then at Rettendon, and they sourced […]
We are in the middle of winter and it seems strange, thinking back, that our own ‘drive it day’ on 25 August was one of the hottest days of the year. Early in the year, the committee had been looking at various options for the official Drive It Day, in […]