+
From: Michael Kaplan <mkaplan@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
+
Date: Tue, 23 Apr 1996 00:34:18 -0400
>Has anyone on the list had a real experience with the machine?
What do you mean by "real experience"? If that means owning or driving
it, no. One of the few Jaguar dealers in NYC was located in Queens, near
the intersection of Broadway and Northern Boulevard. (I think the
building is still there, but not the dealership.) I had to pass the
showroom daily to get to the Northern Boulevard station of the BMT line.
It wasn't open during morning rush hour, but it *was* in the evening, and
I invariably (at least twice a week) stopped in on the way home to pet the
Jags.
I thought the 3.8's were fairly exotic, but when the XK-E was introduced
and displayed (in this rather modest working-class neighborhood,
remember) it knocked everybody out. Although few of us teenagers had one in
those days (you had to be 18 to drive in NYC) we lived and dreamed cars. And
this was it -- the ultimate. Absolutely the most beautiful machine I had ever
seen in my life. A number of years later, I did get to drive the XK-140,
but I never managed to drive or even ride in the E-type.
===================================
Michael Kaplan
Associate Professor of Architecture
University of Tennessee, Knoxville
mkaplan@xxxxxxx