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Classic Roadsters Duke Jaguar SS-100 Replica, Epilogue. I don't know if anyone sees or is following this part of the forum any more, but I thought I would post a final report of my Jaguar ownership experience after reviewing my original thread. On May 22, 2019, I helped load my Jaguar onto a transport trailer to be shipped to its new owner in Phoenix. After six years of ownership that featured lots of fun driving, a few breakdowns, quite a bit of maintenance education and work, we decided we had satisfied our Brit roadster yen and wanted the garage space back. A Craigslist ad brought me a willing buyer with cash. As an investment, the Jaguar was a loser, but considering the money we put into it overall, probably equivalent to the depreciation on any vehicle. I documented most of the work that was done to make the Jag a reliable and attractive car in my first thread. At the end, it was in fact very reliable. The last recurring problems turned out to be fuel system issues that were working together to be hard to diagnose--carburetor and fuel pump. The rebuilt carb I installed was not internally calibrated quite right, including wrong jets, so a professional rebuild of the rebuilt solved one part of the equation. But it was still stalling. That turned out to be due to bad fuel pumps. The Duke was built with a non-stock electric fuel pump mounted just below the tank. The original and first replacement pumps were overheating and cutting out. My mechanic finally installed a racing-duty pump which totally solved the stalling problem. Like folks say about boats, it was a happy day when we bought the Jaguar, and a happy day when we sold it. No regrets. Loved the experience and even learning from the problems. And over 4,000 miles of joyriding. And so we move on. I hope folks who own, or think about owning or have interest in replica cars, and the Duke model particularly, find something of interest or encouragement in what I have shared. And to whoever owns our Jaguar now, and wherever they may be, happy driving!
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My Duke came with steel wheels and plastic wire-wheel hubcaps unlike all the cool models that came with the custom Ford 15" wire wheels. The Duke's have the Ford 4x4.25" wheel pattern, popularly known as 4x108 (mm), similar to the Mustang II or Pinto from which the front hubs and rear axles come. The Truespoke wheels don't currently offer a 4-bolt pattern. Due to the high 75 aspect ratio on my current tires, the 14" wheels with 205/75-14 tires are taller than the 19" wheels and low aspect tires on the Cadillac. One Duke factory custom wheels looked like this: One Duke had these: The actual 39 Jaguar SS100 used 18x3" wheels (like a motorcyle wheel these days) I see these on ebay 15x7 with 4x108 lugs; with a 205/75-15 tire these would be 1" taller than my current wheel/tire which are 205/75-14. Speedo would be 1 mph off at 30. which can be equipped with a finned center spinner like this; total with shipping for 4 ~$900. I also was taken with these which are a mix of black powder coat and chrome: From another seller I also see these in 15x7, 4x108: Except they are $550 with free shipping, so less, but don't have the fake knock-off spinner that would look like the original. The lower price does make them more attractive if I end up buying 6. I don't see any 16" diameter wire wheels with 4x108. I could perhaps go even wider to a 225/75-15 from my 205/75-14 and gain a second inch, but I think the current 205's rub a bit turned close to lock. What do you think about the three choices above?
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Here are some pix of our Duke. 1. A promo picture of it from the Barrett-Jackson auction. Don't know what Dream Machines refers to or what the price is based on. Nobody paid anywhere near that. Also, they listed it as a '39 but the picture shows '37. 2. Front view of Jag after clean-up and new tires. 3. Rear view. Someone mentioned putting a classic suitcase on the rack. I couldn't find one at the thrift shops but did find this aluminum covered replica trunk pretty cheap. Don't know if it adds or detracts from the overall look? 4. On a whim, I entered the Jag in a local car show last summer. I got a 2nd place ribbon in the "exotics" class. ... this is the one that got the 1st place trophy Kind of hard to top that. Just a couple of things I have noticed. Regarding clearance and body height, the distance from ground to lowest point on the bottom of a running board on my car is 8" on the driver side and 8 3/4" on the pass. side. Gotta check why the difference. I have seen three different sizes of headlight "can" housings on replicas. Mine are medium size, 9 1/2" OD. Some are old single large headlamp size and some are huge, like 12" diam.
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