Bush-Bomb experts - Is this a Jaguar Mark V rusting in the desert?

Submitted: Wednesday, Sep 23, 2015 at 21:59
ThreadID: 130386 Views:4899 Replies:12 FollowUps:13
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Christ I hope that hasn't set National security buzzing!!

One of our most incredible finds while out in the absolute middle of nowhere was this particular bush wreck. Now it's a lot different to your standard EH or HG Holden and we reckon it's a Jag. Our vehicle aficionado Larry reckons it's an early to mid 50's, possibly late 40's.

I'm no expert but reckon from pictures on Google that it's possible a Mark V saloon from 1948-1951 (Larry is a bloody expert all right). Are there any experts out there that might like to confirm those thoughts or identify just what it is.

It was such an amazing relic to find in an incredibly isolated spot that one can't help wonder at its provenance. How did it get there, whose was it and why in the hell were they out there? What happened to them? The last blokes to be out that way were Giles and Forrest and they were on Camels!

Anyway keen to hear your thoughts.

Mick







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trip would doubtless be attended with much hardship.''
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Reply By: Wimmera - Wednesday, Sep 23, 2015 at 22:28

Wednesday, Sep 23, 2015 at 22:28
I am 99% certain you are correct with it being a Mark V Jaguar (Saloon).
In distance past I used to own one. The one I had was a 3.5 Litre and sun roof and spates on the rear wheels. Also had big Fog lights in front of the grill.

wimmera
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Follow Up By: Mick O - Wednesday, Sep 23, 2015 at 22:43

Wednesday, Sep 23, 2015 at 22:43
Thanks Wimmera. I was working of a single photo I found on the web and reckoned it was fairly close. Suicide doors at front, and both doors hinging on the same pillar.

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trip would doubtless be attended with much hardship.''
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Follow Up By: Member - ACD 1 - Wednesday, Sep 23, 2015 at 23:16

Wednesday, Sep 23, 2015 at 23:16
I think your on the money with the MkV.

Double bumper and bumper pillars - check
Fog light mounting holes below the head lights - check

Cheers

Anthony
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Follow Up By: Member - ACD 1 - Wednesday, Sep 23, 2015 at 23:18

Wednesday, Sep 23, 2015 at 23:18
Forgot the rear window and running lights on the guards.

Cheers

Anthony
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Follow Up By: Member - ACD 1 - Wednesday, Sep 23, 2015 at 23:25

Wednesday, Sep 23, 2015 at 23:25
Mick

Can you recall what the colour was?

If blue - the paint colour would have been Pastel Metalic

If grey - it would have been one of 4 (dove, battleship, gunmetal or lavender)

Cheers

Anthony
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Reply By: Member - Michael P (QLD) - Wednesday, Sep 23, 2015 at 22:37

Wednesday, Sep 23, 2015 at 22:37
Mick, The suicide doors look very much like Riley to me.
Mike.
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Follow Up By: Rick (S.A.) - Wednesday, Sep 23, 2015 at 22:55

Wednesday, Sep 23, 2015 at 22:55
Yeah, I also initially suspected a Riley. A common design feature in that era, the suicide doors.

The Mk5 Jag came as either a 2.5 or a 3.5 litre, from memory.

Mick, did you see the donk at all?
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Reply By: Ron N - Thursday, Sep 24, 2015 at 00:24

Thursday, Sep 24, 2015 at 00:24
Mick, you're spot on with the ID. Bit of a shame that the Jag is so badly bashed up, they are quite a collectable car today.
Only 1675 were imported into Australia.
Did you check to see if it was a 2.5L or a 3.5L? [;-)

Mark V Jaguar

The Nullarbor is the place for abandoned wrecks. One needs to fly over it at low altitude to see them all properly.
Many an interesting chariot never made across the Long Paddock.

A miner mate, Rick, picked up an abandoned Daimler V12 (a fancy Jaguar) from the Widgiemooltha Roadhouse around 1983.
It broke down at Widgiemooltha and the owner just caught a Greyhound coach to the East and told the roadhouse owner to sell it for what he could get for it.
Rick paid the roadhouse owner $2500 for it, fixed what was wrong with it (it wasn't major), and ran around in it for about 18 months.
When he found out the grille was worth $2500 to buy - and he had no roobar - he sold it.

I drove it for a while, when Rick went on holidays. It was amazing how people treated you much differently when you rolled up in a Daimler V12. You could practically see people genuflecting. [;-)

This Coober Pedy sparky bloke - Dave "Swampy" Sawyer, is a legend for wreck collecting.
He has all the good stuff underground, though.
He won a $6000 toolbox from Just Auto because they reckoned he was a legend.
I still want to know how a Lambretta scooter got to Coober Pedy, though.

Dave the Legend

Coober Pedy Regional Times - April 2012

Cheers, Ron.
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Follow Up By: Ron N - Thursday, Sep 24, 2015 at 00:32

Thursday, Sep 24, 2015 at 00:32
I just remembered the Daimler V12 was called the Daimler Double Six (typical Pommy snob name!).
I think it was about a '73 model, so it was about 10 yrs old when the owner abandoned it.

Cheers, Ron.
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Follow Up By: mike39 - Thursday, Sep 24, 2015 at 07:52

Thursday, Sep 24, 2015 at 07:52
A mate I went to school in Victoria with joined Grazcos as an "apprentice" shearer.
When he started working around the sheds, travelling from Vic. to NSW he started off with a Vespa scooter, graduating to a BSA Bantam.
Next came his first car, a Goggomobile Dart, then a DKW? 3cyl. 2 stroke car and the last time he called in home was in a XK140 3.8 Jag. in which he took me for a 125mph spin up the highway.

Most of his vehicles were left where they finally died, but geez he got some mileage out of them!.
All this was in the mid '50,s
Mike
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Follow Up By: Sigmund - Thursday, Sep 24, 2015 at 08:11

Thursday, Sep 24, 2015 at 08:11
People have ridden around the world on 50cc step -throughs.
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Reply By: Member - John (Vic) - Thursday, Sep 24, 2015 at 01:06

Thursday, Sep 24, 2015 at 01:06
I sat at the bloody pub with you most of Sunday arvo and you failed in all that time to mention this little story!

Memory slipping or couldn't get the Ultimate out of your mind? :)

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Follow Up By: Mick O - Thursday, Sep 24, 2015 at 10:57

Thursday, Sep 24, 2015 at 10:57
Choose one of the following;

I couldn't get a word in.
I was drunk.
You were drunk.
I was drunk and asleep.
The dog ate my journal!

;-)
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trip would doubtless be attended with much hardship.''
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Follow Up By: Member - John (Vic) - Thursday, Sep 24, 2015 at 14:38

Thursday, Sep 24, 2015 at 14:38
Wasn't me drunk!
I can believe your bloody dog ate your journal, since it eats everything including pot plants!
You were a little drunk and certainly doing your best to fall asleep on the couch.

I guess it was a case of too many other things to talk about. :)

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Reply By: pop2jocem - Thursday, Sep 24, 2015 at 07:00

Thursday, Sep 24, 2015 at 07:00
Way back in the early 70's I was working for a Detroit Diesel dealership. One of the other mechanics got offered a MK 5 Jag at a price he couldn't refuse. Now this bloke was one of the most fastidious tradesmen I ever had the pleasure of working with. So when he decided to do a restoration on this car he didn't take any half measures. Body work and upholstery re- done professionally while he attacked the mechanicals. If memory serves me this was an inline 6, can't remember the displacement exactly but 3.5 liter sounds about right. Apparently these models came with dual SU carbies, 1 3/4" I think. Somewhere along the line a previous owner decided a set of triples off an E type would give him a bit more oomph. The problem was that the Mk 5 pointy nose didn't allow for the extra carby to sit equidistant from it's 2 mates so had a "custom" manifold knocked up which had the 2 front carbies sitting very close together. This of course made tuning the carbies to run well almost impossible. Anyway this bloke decided that as part of the total engine re-build including a complete balance, to source a new manifold to restore the original twin carby set up.
Eventually the big day arrived for the maiden voyage, so to speak. He was going to bring this work of art to work for us all to admire. Now this guy as part of his "fastidiousness" was always on time and even when crook as a dog never took a sicky, so when he wasn't at work it seemed most unusual. He did show up the next day with a most despondent look on his face.
Apparently the day before while on his way to work, some clown came through a stop sign, tee boned him and wrote the Jag off. Fortunately all he suffered was a heap of bruising and nothing broken except for his spirit to some degree.

Cheers
Pop
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Follow Up By: Ron N - Thursday, Sep 24, 2015 at 11:08

Thursday, Sep 24, 2015 at 11:08
Gee, pop, that would about break your heart, wouldn't it! All that time and effort for naught!
Seen some incredible restorations, one of the best was a 1929 Chev soft-top tourer that was restored by an LAME.
The Chev had that aircraft-mechanic attention-to-detail-and-finish, that was just incredible.
I reckon it didn't even leave the factory in that superb a condition!

Cheers, Ron.
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Reply By: Member - Stephen L (Clare SA) - Thursday, Sep 24, 2015 at 08:02

Thursday, Sep 24, 2015 at 08:02
Morning Mick

Thats not a Bush Bomb............

This is a bush bomb we found in the back blocks of Queensland on our recent Gulf trip.

From the inscription on the back of the car, it clearly showed it as a Fal Coon.....





Cheers


Stephen
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Follow Up By: Member - mechpete - Thursday, Sep 24, 2015 at 08:23

Thursday, Sep 24, 2015 at 08:23
a great car ,the old XP ,had 3 of them wish I still had one
for a toy mechpete
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Reply By: Pushy - Thursday, Sep 24, 2015 at 11:31

Thursday, Sep 24, 2015 at 11:31
Ahh the memories. Many, many years ago, when I was in grade six, the teacher who coached us in cricket had a mark v. He would take the whole team (12 of us) in his car to away games and upon returning to school afterwards he would do donuts on the grass adjacent to the playing fields. After school hours of course.

Truly boy heaven !!!!!!

But sadly a definite no-no in many ways these days.
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Reply By: Whirlwinder - Thursday, Sep 24, 2015 at 14:16

Thursday, Sep 24, 2015 at 14:16
Mick O,
Did you ever find out who dumped the small garbage compactor near the Mk5?
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Follow Up By: Mick O - Friday, Sep 25, 2015 at 07:28

Friday, Sep 25, 2015 at 07:28
Harsh....but fair!
''We knew from the experience of well-known travelers that the
trip would doubtless be attended with much hardship.''
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Reply By: Ross M - Thursday, Sep 24, 2015 at 18:04

Thursday, Sep 24, 2015 at 18:04
No it's not rusting, just Tin Worm at work.

Almost the same shape as the T van decaying next to it.

I have one too.
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Reply By: Bob R4 - Thursday, Sep 24, 2015 at 21:44

Thursday, Sep 24, 2015 at 21:44
Hi Mick,
From memory I think the Mk 5s had 16" rims which made their off road capabilities right up there with VW Kombies and Early Landies.
None of that hard working low profile stuff we are fed today.
Those old vehicles could go places.
Check some of the achievements of the likes of Peugeot 203s (I think was the model from the fifties) They were unstoppable and from memory very successful in early Redex trials.
Clever balance of rolling diameter and lack of power.
But just enough to do the job.
So there is no surprise that one found it's way to wherever it happened to be when it died.
They didn't have to cart fridges, computers, inverters and hair dryers either.

Cheers, Bob
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Reply By: Michael ( Moss Vale NSW) - Saturday, Sep 26, 2015 at 20:06

Saturday, Sep 26, 2015 at 20:06
Mick O!!

That Jag had a mechanical problem, The transfer case gear lever broke off so the couldnt engage the front diff, abandonment was the only option !! :)) Michael
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Reply By: Bob Y. - Qld - Sunday, Sep 27, 2015 at 14:12

Sunday, Sep 27, 2015 at 14:12
Mick,

When I saw the top photo, it looked very much like an Armstrong Siddeley.

However if the consensus is a Jag, I'll go along with that. :-)

Bob

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Can't remember most of it.

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