After a lot of careful research, I've taken the plunge and there is now a lovely 4200 GT Coupe in my garage.
It seems to be a pretty rare find. Firstly, it's a well set up manual car, with a comprehensive main dealer service record. Even better from my point of view, the car's previous owner was an expert motor technician (Jaguar XK 220 and other exotica) who bought it as his own "forever car" in 2017. Over 6 years (but just a couple of thousand miles) he lavished a tremendous amount of effort on it to make a good, original car into an exceptional one.
Various thoughtful upgrades include a Hill Engineering release bearing and slave cylinder to go with a new clutch and rebalanced gear linkages. Overall, a great deal of precautionary/restorative maintenance has been carried out on all the mechanical bits. With the gearbox removed, the crankshaft seal and the gearbox input and output seals were all replaced. Both subframes were removed and comprehensively rustproofed. All 8 control arms were refurbished and 4-wheel alignment completed. The list goes on . . .
Of course, it's a 20 year old Italian thoroughbred, with all its foibles and pitfalls. But after 200 miles in the past few days, my wife and I are wondering why we didn't do it before.
It seems to be a pretty rare find. Firstly, it's a well set up manual car, with a comprehensive main dealer service record. Even better from my point of view, the car's previous owner was an expert motor technician (Jaguar XK 220 and other exotica) who bought it as his own "forever car" in 2017. Over 6 years (but just a couple of thousand miles) he lavished a tremendous amount of effort on it to make a good, original car into an exceptional one.
Various thoughtful upgrades include a Hill Engineering release bearing and slave cylinder to go with a new clutch and rebalanced gear linkages. Overall, a great deal of precautionary/restorative maintenance has been carried out on all the mechanical bits. With the gearbox removed, the crankshaft seal and the gearbox input and output seals were all replaced. Both subframes were removed and comprehensively rustproofed. All 8 control arms were refurbished and 4-wheel alignment completed. The list goes on . . .
Of course, it's a 20 year old Italian thoroughbred, with all its foibles and pitfalls. But after 200 miles in the past few days, my wife and I are wondering why we didn't do it before.
