I know some of you reading this probably laugh when I talk about the UK winter weather and the doom and gloom that snow and icy roads bring. Perhaps you are reading this in your T-shirt and shorts in the middle of the Australian summer or somewhere else where such scenes are only found on Christmas cards. If so all I can say is - lucky you! But to add to your amusement, I am going to talk a little bit about the season us northern people have to endure for a little while yet.

Who knows what the next few months may bring in terms of weather but there is no doubt that the European and North American winters have become far more severe in recent years. In the last newsletter, I talked about laying up your car for winter but I know there are plenty of you who keep your car on the road all year round. I have also had some questions from owners regarding the use of winter tyres. Few of us, in the UK at least, had ever heard about them until recently. They were something the Swiss and Swedes put on their cars each year but of little interest here; that was until we had some heavy snow falls and the country ground to a halt. I get a few enquiries about their suitability but in most cases there is no point in changing your tyres on old XKs because firstly you can’t get suitable tyres, secondly you don’t have the same grip problems that modern tyres do and thirdly there are not many who will venture out with their XK in such conditions. It is the wide modern tires that are particularly bad in such conditions and if you have a modern Jaguar or any other high performance car then you could think seriously about buying a spare set of wheels and winter tyres for them. ...MORE

In the last Newsletter, I told you about some of the problems in correctly identifying second hand parts, in particular suspension components. That led me to think about the enquiries we get from customers about second hand cylinder heads – particularly with regard to ‘straight port’ heads. So I thought this time we could have a look at identifying the various heads suitable for XKs; how you can instantly tell a straight port from a non-straight port cylinder head and how many variations are there of heads and manifolds.

I guess we should start at 1948 and the launch of the XK120 with a straight-six, double overhead camshaft design, fed by two 1 ¾ in (44.5mm) SU carburettors on a one­ piece alloy inlet manifold. We can call this an 'A-type' head: it's not its official Jaguar designation, but this is often its affectionate name, given in later years. This basic design of inlet ports and layout stayed on throughout XK120 and 140 production, and I know you are going to say, "what about the 'C-type' heads we all know and love?" This was no more than a direct development from the 120 cylinder head; bigger exhaust valves, some opening and polishing of the ports to help flow and a nice letter 'C' cast in the top to help quick identification. But the inlet manifold from an XK120 or 140 swaps from one to the other without any modification, showing that the water and inlet ports remain the same. Even a production 'D-type' head is merely a C­type head with increased inlet valve size and a change of camshafts, not a new special one-off casting, just a development and improvement from the last production head. ...MORE

The workshop is extremely busy at the moment with a number of extensive projects underway.  Not least is an extremely rare left hand drive XK140 Drophead Coupé from Morocco.  This is a super original car, which is having a total mechanical and electrical rebuild whilst not over-restoring the paint or interior.

On May 28th the start flag drops on the 2013 Peking – Paris.  With more than 7500 miles (12,250 kms) and 33 days of driving over some of the toughest terrain in the world ahead, this is arguably the toughest event for any car.  We have a daunting project to build an XK120 roadster to tackle this enormous challenge.  We certainly have our hands and brains full on this one!

As well as these two major projects, we have several road and competition engines to build for customers in France, Belgium, Portugal and the UK.

If that was not enough there are two Broadsport XK120s and another one on the way, so all staff holidays are cancelled for the foreseeable future!

If you rarely take the time to venture out in your XK, take a moment to browse the 2012 events that we've found for you below.

Apr 1 - Spring Meeting, Brooklands, UK

Easter - National Jaguar Rally, Blenheim, New Zealand

Apr 29- May 2 - Sussex Backwaters Tour, UK (contact Backwaterstours for further details)

May 20 - Kent Backwater Run, UK (contact Jaguar XK Club for further details)

June 1-4- Normandy Landing/Chateau Tour, France (contact Backwaterstours for further details)

June 10-14 - Tweed Valley Tour, Scotland (contact Jaguar XK Club for further details)

June 23-24 - XK Club Weekend, Prescott, UK (contact Jaguar XK Club for further details)

Jun 29-Jul 1 - Goodwood Festival of Speed, UK

Jul 12-22 - Liege-Brescia-Liege Rally, Belgium-Slovenia (contact Classic Rally Press for further details)

Jul 20-22 - Silverstone Classic, UK

Sep 14-16 - Goodwood Revival, UK

Sep 14-17 - Goodwood Revival, Tour (contact Jaguar XK Club for further details)

Please take a little time out to browse our website; there is a great deal to see and we keep updating the website with new products and special offers. You might want to add us to the Favourites section in your browser settings.

As well as having new products and special offers, our parts catalogues can be downloaded complete from the website together with our Top Secret Broadsheets. Hopefully this will provide you with the detailed information you need when ordering parts and will help in restoring your Jaguar XK. Our registered user base for 'Broadsport News' continues to increase. Please 'Tell a friend' who might be interested in our XK news.