Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

There's no going back now!
It's impossible to drive a Tempo again after tooling around in a Ferrari.

I really dont understand why Ricks are compared to Ferari's. Allthough Italians understand a lot about design, quality is not their best virtue. I prefer Ricks to be compared to Porsche's. Good design and thorough quality.

A Ric is more like a Cadilac ... things like the mechanical mute, Ric-o-sound and the pickup cover are like the 50s Detroit cars with big fins and lots of chrome ...

...and totally P-I-M-P ! ! ! ! ! !

Actually, I prefer Jaguar E Types, but I meant a sports car versus a mundane production vehicle, but that much was obvious.

Jaguar knows everything about design, and nothing about quality . . . at least, as far as electronics go. Oh, British cars, how I love/loathe thee! I almost got an old '70s MG-B.

The old issues with Jaguar and MG wiring (and I've owned both) was the fact that during the 70's and early 80's when the UK car manufacturers were all nationalised all the electrical harnesses and relays were made by one company, Lucas Electric.

Lucas singlehandedly destroyed the reputation of almost every UK maker, including Jaguar, MG, Triumph, Austin, and many others with poor quality and shoddy workmanship.

Once Jaguar became private once again quality began to be slowly restored.

That's why in most late 1970's & early to mid 1980's movies & tv shows almost every car that was shown being driven over a cliff (or similar mode of total destruction) was a Jag!
The mid to late 1960's E Types are the essence of true sports cars (IMO).
To quote something I read in a magazine years ago regarding the voluptuous curves of the XKE:
"I could wash it all day..."

The Jaguar E and the Rickenbacker 4001... Perennial designs both.

Love those curves!

Sir William Lyons said Jaguar was "Grace with Pace" and having traveled across Europe, Rotterdam to Vienna averaging 100 Mph+ I can testify to that.

Cruising at 100+ in an XJS is eerily quiet, exceedingly comfortable, course the only thing about doing 100+ in an XJS is you can see the petrol gauge dropping, so once you get to half a tank you really need to be looking out for a Service station.

The fastest I ever took my XJS was in Germany, at 148 Mph I chickened out, the XJS had more in her.

This is a XJS 4.3 Sport, with a Straight 6, fitted with twin turbo's, and a 5 speed Getrag automatic gearbox. She'd do o-60 in about 5.5 sec and 30-70 in under 3, the colour was "Cranberry Red" which looks like Fireglo to me which is why I chose it !!

Jim, keep driving fast like that and it will become a burst pattern when the paint starts to fly off! I saw you standing by the car and thought "Yup, FireGlo."

I have done 125 mph in a 1970 Chevelle Malibu back in 1971 and wouldn't recommend it. I also did 120 mph in a '72 Cuda when I was hurrying home to get my wife when she went into labor with our first - I was wondering why everyone was going so slow until I looked at the speedometer...

Hi John,
At about 100 I could still relax and enjoy the drive, once you got over 120 you develop tunnel vision and you have to focus and concentrate so much it's no longer enjoyable.

The interesting thing with the XJS was once you got over 90 the whole car was lowered on its suspension with ground effect, felt like you were on rails.

"At about 100 I could still relax and enjoy the drive, once you got over 120 you develop tunnel vision and you have to focus and concentrate so much it's no longer enjoyable. "

Truth! Doesn't the suspension on the XJS adjust according to speed and conditions - the body computer monitors this?