XK Club Round Britain Coastal Drive 2019

The XK Club Round Britain Coastal Drive was a wonderful event with saw a huge group of XKs follow a coastal round around the country to raise money and awareness for Prostate Cancer UK. Twyford Moors were delighted to support this great cause both by providing mechanical support and by taking part in our fully restored Jaguar XK140.
 
This tour offers a great opportunity for us and other club members to get out and use these wonderful cars to promote a great cause and to see every nook and cranny of Britain's beautiful coast line. This wonderfully relaxed tour has one simple rule, "keep the sea on the left", making it a great and easy-going introduction to classic car touring. With nice hotels and the start and finish of each stage, a leisurely pace (unless you desire otherwise) and well-planned lunch stops this tour offers a beautiful amble around the coastline.
 
This sort of event also highlights how well engineered and usable XKs are. So much so that there were very few break downs and those few that occurred were able to be repaired allowing the cars to finish. The majority of issues seemed to stem from electrical gremlins particularly effecting fuel pumps and wiper motors.
 
Jaguar XK140 XK150 Ben NevisOn the subject of wiper motors the weather was fairly kind to the tour. The first week though the West Country and Wales provided stunning blue sky. As the tour travelled further north into Scotland the weather was more changeable but the stunning landscapes more than made up for it. We did have a few torrential downpours in the last week with did test the car but we managed to stay a day ahead of the flooding which unfortunately effected North Norfolk after we had passed though.
 
Jaguar XK140 Emsworth HampshireTorrential downpours brings us neatly onto out XK140 and the host of wonderful upgrades the car boasts. The upgraded wiper system was an absolute god send on this trip. One particular moment heading down the A13 heading to our hotel towards the end of day 16 (I think... it all blurs into one after a while on the road) after a slight mechanical hold up in Clacton-on-Sea saw me trying to make up a bit of time. The weather was horrendous, the traffic was heavy and there were plenty of lorries to get past throwing up the usual spray. The XK140 performed beautifully cruising down the outside lane for mile after mile, the wipers kept the screen clear, the 5 speed box kept the revs down, the halogen lights illuminated the way, the heater kept me warm and toasty, the hood kept me dry without so much as a drop coming thought and the Bluetooth radio provided satnav from my phone and traffic updates thought the radio. You have to take these things as a whole and the package of upgrades on our XK140 makes this kind of touring a doddle.
 
Jaguar XK120 XK140 XK150 HastingsComing at things from a less practical point of view and a more driver focused stand point there was some top driving on this tour. Some beautiful winding coastal roads, country tracks and clifftop views. The XK140 was great for this which uprated suspension, a torquey fast road engine and disc brakes on the front these are real drivers' cars. All round the XK performed fantastically.
 
We would like to take a moment to say thank you to the XK Club and all their team who worked so hard to organise this wonderful tour. The worked tirelessly throughout and were always on hand to help. We would also like to thank our friends at SNG Barratt who provided spares and the spares car for the tour, Andy and CBR Restorations who provided mechanical support alongside us and to Classic Fabs, Turner Classics and CKL for hosting visits during the tour.
 
If you would like to support this great cause you can still donate to Prostate Cancer UK though our Just Giving page here.