Pick your angle... ...number 1 : Take 19 Jaguars, drive them down to one the most popular tourist destination in the middle summer, add a Keys sunset cruise, a nice hotel and excellent planning to create a week end of fun that all will want to do it again... ...number 2 : Take 19 Jaguars some nearly 50 years old, drive them down one of the hottest stretch of US highway in August, add some traffic, a few red lights, draw bridges and tolls and you have the ultimate cooling system challenge... which they (nearly) all passed with flying colors ! Key West Florida is a unique and popular destination, sort of a taste of the Caribbean that you can drive to; it is after all the Southernmost point in the continental US and the closest you can get to the islands. Colorful and exotic but also very much laid back : when you leave the mainland and turnpike at Florida City, there may as well be a sign telling you to put your watch away and just enjoy the moment... SFJC President Chris Canning and Key West resident Jim Lloyd were in charge of the week end and they pulled it off nicely and smoothly despite temperatures in the upper 90s challenging those 50 year old cooling systems. The plan called for the Palm Beach County members to get together with Broward members along the way and finally meet with the Miami members at the end of the turnpike. It all worked out pretty well and we soon had 17 Jaguars roaring down the straight and bumpy Card Sound road in the upper Keys. Mangrove and water on each side, fishing boats and fishermen on the bridges... Welcome to the Keys !
For the most part, the road to Key West is extremely scenic : a succession of bridges linking one key after the next... it's not called Overseas Highway for nothing and some sections are just a few feet from turquoise blue green waters. Traffic can be a bit of a problem though, especially on weekends but all went well and after a couple of hours it was time for a first taste of the Lower Keys at Boondocks, a casual restaurant just on Ramrod Key. There we were greeted by Lower Keys members Jim and Annie Llyod and their very special 53 XK120 Special... After lunch the final 20 miles took us to the heart of Key West and the Wyndham Casa Marina resort where arrangements had been made for special parkings for the cats... the valets were great saving us spots in the prime location in front of the historic hotel with over seven acres of manicured grounds and tropical foliage. Built by Henry Flagler in the early 1900's, this legendary resort has its own Kokomo Beach-1100 feet of beachfront, three magnificent swimming pools, three lit tennis courts, two health spas plus a wide variety of water sport activities available. In short... the perfect weekend getaway ! Key West is a town full of contrasts with a wild main street lined up with shops and restaurants yet just couple of blocks away, the side streets are quiet with trees and old houses. Of course, any visit to Key West means a ride down Duval, the main street, which on a week end could also be called the Duval Crawl... Downtown is also where the marina's are and that was our destination for the evening as Jim and Annie Lloyd had invited us on a sunset cruise aboard their 37' trawler... Sunset are the big thing in Key West and experiencing it from the water is even better. Getting from the Casa
Marina The sunset cruise was
great with nice cool drinks and hors d'oeuvre on Jim
From a "car nut" point of view, Sunday morning was the highlight as we had planned an informal car show in front of the hotel the selection of car turned out to be pretty good, from sports cars to saloons, from the 50s to the 90s and beyond, it was a beautiful display. One the most noticeable and rare car, turned out to be a local XK120 with Pininfarina body which belongs to a friend of Jim Lloyd. Manufactured in 1953, two of these XK120 FHC where rebodied by the famous Italian stylist in an amazing blend of Italian and British lines. Both the front, with its heavy egg crate grille and the rear with the fins are typical 50s Italy but the center section is still unmistakingly British. Only two of them where built for a very rich gentlemen racer who was killed in a race, in 1954 driving one of them . After a couple of years, his family sold the second one which quickly found its way across the pond and was purchase in 1959 by the current owner Jack Senney. The engine has been detuned and returned to its original configuration but in its early day, the engine bay featured a pair a supercharger along with special heads... Of course, Jim Lloyd's own 54 XK Special is quite unique... build on a 1954 XK 120 chassis with a custom body, revised suspension up front and independent in the rear, modified engine and more, it's a stunning creation and a head turner as well. Once again the Wyndham Casa Marina and the valets were helpful in giving us the use of the valet parking area right in front of the hotel at the stress corner. No trip to Key West is complete without a drive by the Southernmost point in the continental US marker, a big concrete marker shaped as a marine marker on the water front. Originally, the idea was to get there early in the morning before the show to avoid congestion. Being a Sunday morning, and with a great breakfast served on the veranda right on the beach, it didn't happen so we decided to stop there on the way out of Key West. Imagine a small 2 way street, with something like 100 tourists taking pictures, being invaded by a pride of wild Jaguars and considering only the most daring had decided to go for it... they were certainly not the most muffled... We were able to squeeze
3 XKs, Jim's XK Special and my own E-type in the picture The rest of the trip should have been uneventful but let's not forget some of these Jaguars are nearly half a century old coming from a place where near 100 degree weather is rare to say the least !
But cooling problems where not over yet and the drive back would soon turn into a roadside troubleshooting tech session as it soon was Oscar's turn to complain about the heat as if Russel wasn't paying close attention to his water temperature gauge...Traffic through Islamorada got heavier and it took a couple of stops before we finally made it to out scheduled lunch stop, Snapper's in Tavernier. At this point Oscar was under escort with Chris and Patsy Canning X-Type and myself in the E-type carefully watching Russell's car for occasional blows of steam and also for the smoke out of the tail pipe which was getting worst and worst with white puffs... Chris had an XK120 owner/expert with him in his car, Bob Scibelli so there was plenty of help available. We made it to the restaurant and just let the car cool off in the parking while we cooled off inside... As a testimony to the strength of the venerable XK engine, no damage was done and the fears of a blown head gasket or cracked head were unfounded. The oil was clear of water and upon close examination we discovered a serious leak between the radiator and the thermostat housing. Tightening the bolts and the clamp helped a little bit and we followed Jeff Hynes to his home just a couple of miles away for further examination. Unfortunately, Jeff didn't have anything to make up a replacement thermostat gasket so Russel decided to give it a go carrying extra water and planning extra stops. Once underway, Oscar performed perfectly, so well that Patsy was having problems keeping up driving the X ! The following 40 miles on the less traveled Card Sound road went fast with the temperature staying under control all the way till Florida City where we made another stop to replenish the water level... The final leg turned out to be a memorable one as Russel probably figured that by driving fast, he would increase the pressure under the bonnet and maybe reducing the pressure difference with his cooling system... yeah... right... that excuse wouldn't have worked with FHP... although I must admit that Oscar was performing beautifully on the Turnpike and once again the X had to work hard to keep up with us...
Participants: Jack Senney,
1953 XK120 Pininfarina |
in the
Leaving the first planned stop 20 miles into the trip, at Jim Lloyd's home
where Russell was dropping off the Special, Felix decided to blow a big cloud of steam....
Felix for those who don't know is Russel's XK140 FHC racer. The cause of the
failure was not immediately known but it was considered prudent to leave the car at Jim's
house. 
