A fabulous day for the trial - 3 hours of navigating by 'tulip' diagrams and cryptic clues through the Waikato district (dairy farming country). Hills, bends, lakes and some fast straight bits...

Bur before the fun we had the usual dramas "the night before". The recored radiator arrived at 5pm Friday evening just as it was getting dark... that afternoon we had fitted the new shortened handbrake cable only to find I had not asked for enough mm to be trimmed off :(( but it did work - and held the car from moving while in "D" at tickover - some progress at least

The gathering for the trial start - great winter weather!	Channel IX not sliding very much	John hanging out in the "pick the cones *off* the poles" game

With the last of the afternoon light I handsprayed 4 litres of degreaser all through the engine bay and spent two hours scraping away 40 years of grease and grime. My fingernails will *never* be the same again! With a jury rigged hose connecting the top and bottom water connections (John holding hose while I drove - sans radiator) we shifted her out to the washing area (over the grass at the end of the drive!). With some ingenuity I hooked up the waterblaster to the hot tap in the laundry and got 55degC water for washing down (what a magician!).

With water everywhere we thought she might take a few moments to start (WD40 at the ready) but no, with a touch on the button ("Press the button Max! - which movie was that - The Great Race?) she fired up.

Neil hanging out for "put the cones *on* the poles" game	Channel IX has serious understeer on slippery mud!	The club president's wife (driving) with friend reaching for the bucket

So, to the radiator - all nicely painted up and about 2 tons lighter than the old one... As you know (or don't) the room in the front of the IX for the radiator needs leprechauns to get to any of the hose fittings so we decided to put the bottom hose on to the rad first so all we had to do was hook up the hose to the bottom of the pump. In the meantime I had re-tightened the fan belt - so it was with much cursing we wangled the rad into the hole only to find we couldn't rotate the fan blades to allow the hose to fit down the gap. Back out with the rad and slacken the fan belt. In goes the rad again (now minus some bits of paint!). Now we found we couldn't align the fan blades to get both the hose and the drain tap past the blades! (hmmm we got it out that way it *must* go back the same..) back out comes the rad. In again, this time with the blades spun round a few degrees - in she plops. Phew! Now for the death defying trick of twisting your wrist through 270 degrees upside down to get the hose onto the pump stub pipe. (Note if we had taken the sump guard off life would have been much easier!!).

Anyway 20 minutes later I had huffed and puffed (with some Scottish refreshment in between) enough to get the hose and the jubilee clip back in place. Now for the mounts. There are two tie bars holding the tops of the front guards together and the bonnet catch sits in a large plate covering those two bars. Now, I reckon that the whole body had moved a bit cos when we put the top plate back none of the bolt holes would line up... bug*er. Then we find out the man who rebuilt the rad has carefully and very neatly brazed on the overflow pipe connector right in the very place where it should *not* be ie right where the plate needed to sit close against the radiator top. No amount of gentle persuasion (ie hammering) would bend the pipe out of the way. So, with much sadness we pulled out the hacksaw and took off most of the copper pipe, leaving enough to hook up the rubber drain pipe which leads down the side of the rad. Now, of course the top plate dropped in perfectly and the bolts popped into place.

Another John in his "Coombs" II	65 4.2 E husband and wife team in action	The number plate tells all (personal plates cost NZ$300 - easy to obtain)

Thus at 8.30 pm we had the rad in place. Ahhh but what about the top hose you may ask... well, we had to resort to some sealant 'cos the stub pipe from the thermostat housing was very corroded and we couldn't get the hose to seat properly. Some Holts Gasket Cement (the sticky brown liquid stuff) did the trick - we didn't use the blue hylomar stuff cos that turns to jelly in about 3 milliseconds and is awfully hard to smear into a nice smooth layer.

It is now 9pm and we have no leaks and a temp of 65degC on the gauge... about 10deg cooler than previously - and we have handbrake...

Another hour is spent polishing, vacuuming and getting tool kits ready for our 6.30am start time. oh for zzzzzz's!

To cut some of this saga a little we managed to get away on time and cruised down the motor(free)way at 3500rpm (our speedo is not working) with 65deg on the temp gauge and 60 on the oil. She just purred along like the pro she is...

So, back to the trail - we left the kick off point at 10am and finished at 1.45pm with a few clues blank but feeling we had done our best - and we had had only one minor shouting session near the end as to whether or not to turn back to get one clue we had obviously missed....

When all the others checked in we waited a little nervously for the results - and we WON!!! by... one point! Channel IX makes the grade!!! BTW we had now been christened Abbott (that's me, Neil) and Costello (John).

The E looks a little smarter than the race ready series 1!	Concours day outside the motel (no the utility vehicle didn't win!) Photos show Channel IX t o be immaculate!	Two of the three IIs lookking very smart - in spite of all the mud.

We all then convoyed down to Rotorua where the rain came down, spoiling our nice shiny chrome. But a group meal at a local restaurant cheered us all up and we had a late night playing charades (!!??!).

Sunday - gymkhana day - if you haven't done this in your Jag - do it as soon as you can - serious fun is to be had being able to hurl your two ton car around a grassy (soon to be muddy) field. We didn't look at the mud and grass getting stuck up in the spats - we had a ball. Timed parking/reversing, slaloms, throwing batons into buckets on a circular course and an "ever increasing circles" timed run - Channel IX was going sideways much of the time with wheels spinning and mud flying everywhere!!! Even the chap in the *immaculate* , and I mean immaculate, E was doing the same.

Our man in the Coombs II won the day - he did have wide wheels and, I think, plenty of practice at driving the II sideways...

A play in Rotorua finished the day with an hilarious evening in a local steak house - even getting the waitresses to play charades with us...

Monday morning - we slept in late and woke to find everyone else concoursing their cars outside the motel - brushes were flying, water everywhere and cries of "where did you put the chrome polish?". Still sleepy eyed we dragged ourselves out and got going on the IX... with only an hour to the judging.

Against the E we had no show of course (not a scratch, speck of dirt or wire out of place) and the cars from a neighbouring Jag club (New Plymouth) were very very smart. But we did come 10th - (out of 11!!). Channel IX's body needs 5 tons of anti-wrinkle cream and her clothing inside is still original (in the '60s) so we didn't mind - it was fun to enter and we had done our best. She was, though, the most inspected and people just had to sit in the back and feel gracious...

I will be scanning in some pics of our weekend (mostly the IX of course) but I have got some of the other Jags just so you can see the fun we had with our friends.

For our sins in winning the trial on Saturday we have to write up a story for the club magazine - I guess I'll use this lot as the base for it.

At a petrol station on the way back, the chap at the pump looked at the IX and said "ahhh - those were the days when they made cars... now they make cartons" - a truism I think?

A comparison of three 3.8 II engine bays

Neil & John (Auckland NZ)

MkIX 1960 - MkX 1964 - Mk10 '65

420 '67 - MkV 1950
Jaguars@clear.net.nz