Schaefft's Bargain Barge Extravaganza - Jag XJ8 rediscovers it's Power!

[cbowditch]

I think I would of crashed if a giant spider attacked me whilst driving! 

[hairnet]

On 27/04/2025 at 21:09, Schaefft said:

Bronx late April '95 or Newcastle '25?

 

 

no steam sadly

[Schaefft]

6 hours ago, cbowditch said:

I think I would of crashed if a giant spider attacked me whilst driving! 

It doesn't help that there constantly seem to be new spider webs forming around the windshield! The hoover will remain next to the car in the garage for a little while I think.

I recently got my XK8 key fobs back from the repair service, it now has two perfectly well working remotes again (one actually belongs to the XJR I think), looks like the battery contacts were the issue. No more alarms going off shortly after unlocking the doors! For under 30 quid including new batteries I cannot complain about that, its a major quality of life improvement with the Jag.

So with the nice weather outside it was a great choice for the trip to Tesco. It's a car thats very easy to like, it looks great, sounds good, has decent handling and pulling power and is slowly becoming a better and better vehicle. It's also got plenty of space for groceries (don't forget theres a backseat, too!):

The next jobs on it will be replacing a blown lowbeam bulb and sorting the parking brake. Long term I'd have to do something about the rust on the rear quarters, its all fixable and seems to be fairly solid still but the question is whether this would be the right XK8 to do this kind of work on. With so many of them around for cheap with much lower miles it would be easy to just wait for the right car that won't need paint. Then again this is a fairly well sorted example that could be kept on the road for relatively little money, unless something tries to blow up again. And if you find a cheap XK8 convertible it's unlikely to be in any better shape. The devil you know etc.

[rm36house]

Mhm, Z3 cabrio, just lovely looking car!

[Schaefft]

With yesterday's collection now completed lets have a look at the latest purchase, a somewhat down-on-its luck 2006 KB1 Honda Legend 3.5 V6 VTEC EX SH-AWD. What a name! What it means is that this is the first model year of the 4th generation Legend in pretty much fully loaded spec, a car that introduced some impressive innovations to the auto industry while completely flying under the radar of even the most die-hard enthusiasts. More about that later.

My example was purchased from the son of it's last owner, who unfortunately must have passed away sometime last year. Looking at the state of the bodywork the story certainly fits as its covered in scuffs, scratches and the occasional giffer repair. The fact that I can tell despite the whole car being covered in 5 inches of grime tells you a lot (note the bumper cover being warped from hitting something low):

It doesn't help that the car has obviously been sitting for at least a year, the cob webs are impressive:

Quite a few interior surfaces are covered in mildew, nobody who interacted with the car before me seemed concerned enough to at least wipe off the steering wheel:

The instrument cluster lit up like a christmas tree after reversing the car into position (probably a faulty PDC sensor?):

So, why the hell would I buy a car like this then? Because underneath all the easily cleaned up filth is a 75k mile, 2-owner top-spec Legend for a price you'd hardly find a beat up Civic for. The PO bought the car in early 2008 from what could only be Honda/the dealer who were its first owner. I have the original bill of sale for that transaction which I will post later.

I've been looking for a 2nd gen Honda Legend Coupe that isn't junk for a few years now, unfortunately an impossible task in the UK. However it did mean I found an ad for this car in the UK FB Owners group. As usual, I was the only remotely sane person contacting the seller so making a deal was pretty quick and easy. And so I'm now the owner of Honda's Mid-2000s tech-fest that is the KB1 Legend, a car that (at least according to Honda), introduced torque vectoring AWD (hence the often mentioned SH-AWD, which stand for Super Handling AWD) to the world.

It allows the system to send up to 70% of torque to the outside rear wheel while corning. I think in Europe it'll be the later Honda NSX that really gave Honda's AWD system a little bit of brand recognition, in the States lower end Acuras like the TL were making it much more commonplace there. All this happened long before Audi or Subaru introduced similar systems. In reality hardly any Legend owner will have made use of it (I tried yesterday) but the safety reserves must be truly enormous.

The Legend was also the car that introduced Active Cruise Control and Lane Assist to the brand, something you'll find in most cars today but was still pretty much unheard of back then outside of an S-Class/7er/A8 (where it was a rarely ticked option box). Add that and a myriad of other luxury options (heated/ventilated seats, backup camera, Bose Audio,...) plus an interior that would put your typical E60 5-Series or C6 A6 to shame and you actually have a surpringly nice executive car for a competitive price. As always, luxury cars from non-luxury brands didn't sell well, in the case of the Legend the top tax bracket and no diesel/hybrid option didn't help. It sold so poorly that at roughly 500 cars Honda managed to shift about half of what Citroen managed with the similar age C6, and maybe a 3rd of Renault VelSatis numbers? It's that rare, although the survival rate probably will be significantly higher. Mine has a few issues but I'm sure with a bit of help I can bring it back to its former glory.

[Surface Rust]

 

I love the understated capability, a proper nerds car!

I'm sure I read somewhere that these were technically capable of autonomous driving from a to b, but legally Honda were too scared to activate it. Maybe just a myth though.

[hairnet]

if you remember to bring the chauffeur nicht war?

[Schaefft]

3 hours ago, Surface Rust said:

 

I love the understated capability, a proper nerds car!

I'm sure I read somewhere that these were technically capable of autonomous driving from a to b, but legally Honda were too scared to activate it. Maybe just a myth though.

With active cruise and lane assist it would have the capabilities to a certain degree, like most cars with these options I guess. In the case of the Legend it would do it for 12 seconds apparently before you need to grab the steering wheel again😄

Anyway, have some close-up shots of the nastiness:

And now, with the car washed, it's actually looking great! Imagine what a polish will do!

I'll do the interior tomorrow, it should clean up just as nicely!

[High Jetter]

4 hours ago, Schaefft said:

Honda's AWD system 

IIRC it came to the UK first in a Prelude. Not the 1st, think 3rd though could be 2nd.

[Schaefft]

8 minutes ago, High Jetter said:

IIRC it came to the UK first in a Prelude. Not the 1st, think 3rd though could be 2nd.

The Prelude had some sort of torque vectoring on the front axle, they never came in AWD though (you might think of 4 wheel steering which the Legend doesn't have). Apparently Mitsubishi did have a vaguely similar setup on the Evo a little earlier but it might have just been the front/rear bias? Would have to look it up.

Anyway, yesterday was also the day when I visited a rather odd place near London that I just needed to visit, having tried to buy a car from there for 2 months now. It's a yard of what I assume is a larger used car dealer or multiple of them, very much out of the way of prying eyes. Most of it was a bare field but there easily must have been a few hundred cars there, including the usual used car dealer fodder. However, one corner did have what can only be described as an eclectic collection of cars:

I mean, this is only 1 of 170 Zimmer Quicksilvers, a '63 Imperial convertible and a row of other custom builds and lowriders dumped in a muddy field there. Apparently they all came from the long shut London Motor Museum, closed due to taxation issues and are now rotting away in this yard. Some can still be seen in visitor photos on Google maps.

I came for the silver Cadillac Fleetwood Brougham and peach-colored Sedan DeVille with with the most glorious brown interior I've ever seen. The latter only has 16k miles! But there was also this coach build '91 Eldorado Biarritz convertible with an amazing white interior and just 54k. The problem: All of these cars had zero paperwork, no keys, drilled out key barrels and no registration plates. That doesn't mean they are all stolen but it sure means an increased risk, costs and hassle. On top of the fact that despite their once pristine shape they've all been trashed to hell and back since arriving there.

I've negotiated a fair price for the silver Fleetwood, albeit one that was still based on the assumption that the reg plate was actually belonging to this car (it doesn't). The seller is making an attempt to find out more, I'm hoping that the previous collector just never bothered to register them with HMRC to save a few quid. Rust wise it was remarkably clean but there's no telling of its registration status or actual mileage. If I can get a reg for any of these and can actually negotiate a fair (close to scrap) price for any of these I might just have to bite the bullet. It doesn't happen very often that you get a chance to buy some very rare cars for very little. The risk is there however. If you want to see more photos of any of these or what's in the background, just let me know!

[worldofceri]

I'm sure I remember seeing that last yellow thing in a magazine years ago.  Think it has the entire roof and all the glass from a Calibra.

[High Jetter]

7 minutes ago, Schaefft said:

The Prelude had some sort of torque vectoring on the front axle, they never came in AWD though (you might think of 4 wheel steering which the Legend doesn't have

It was passive RWS initially.

[EspenO]

Those BBS RX(?) split rims on the yellow custom will be worth a fair chunk on their own. 

[Honey Badger]

The SH-AWD is  much more than a torque vectoring system, the trick differential with 3 clutch packs actually makes the outside wheel turn faster to push the car round the corner, you can feel it working sometimes. This is why you need the special Acura unicorn jazz based fluid for it that Honda UK don't sell.

I haven't been able to source a new glovebox lid , though it looks like there are a couple of new breakers on Ebay at the  moment. 

What state are you wingmirrors in? Have they gone dark yet through people leaving the heating element on all the time?

[tooSavvy]

Came down the hill, to Fourstones, yesterday 😉

Reminded SWMBO of the jaunt 'over the lines' to your house @ NE Twixfest.

Great day out and you were very generous in offering 'the paddock'.

🚙💨

[lesapandre]

With the cars in the field - unfortunately anything left out on the ground direct to grass/earth is going to have suffered big-time underneath. Those have probably been there a few years. 

The Zimmer Quicksilver should be got under cover ideally - amazing thing.

The rest - probably scrap alas. Was some of this stuff used in a film?

 

[Schaefft]

32 minutes ago, lesapandre said:

With the cars in the field - unfortunately anything left out on the ground direct to grass/earth is going to have suffered big-time underneath. Those have probably been there a few years. 

The Zimmer Quicksilver should be got under cover ideally - amazing thing.

The rest - probably scrap alas. Was some of this stuff used in a film?

 

To be fair, the cars would be rotten for many other reasons than being parked on grass in this case but you are right. I've checked the floors in the convertibles and naturally had a look under the silver Fleetwood to confirm things being fine (they surprisingly are). However, even without rust holes these would only be valued as a parts donors, and they are advertised and priced accordingly. Some rare low mileage parts in most of these!

No movie cars here, as mentioned above they are from the London Motor Museum, guy running that in the past still has a big museum with similar vehicles, including moving cars, in Florida. How the guys selling them here ended up with them I don't know though.

2 hours ago, tooSavvy said:

Came down the hill, to Fourstones, yesterday 😉

Reminded SWMBO of the jaunt 'over the lines' to your house @ NE Twixfest.

Great day out and you were very generous in offering 'the paddock'.

🚙💨

We'll, we might do another one soon if people feel like it!

3 hours ago, Honey Badger said:

The SH-AWD is  much more than a torque vectoring system, the trick differential with 3 clutch packs actually makes the outside wheel turn faster to push the car round the corner, you can feel it working sometimes. This is why you need the special Acura unicorn jazz based fluid for it that Honda UK don't sell.

I haven't been able to source a new glovebox lid , though it looks like there are a couple of new breakers on Ebay at the  moment. 

What state are you wingmirrors in? Have they gone dark yet through people leaving the heating element on all the time?

Yup, unfortunately they are (do they not turn off automatically?). I thought they had the usual issue of the electrochromic fluid leaking out as is the case on all BMWs. In proper giffer fashion the fix on the passenger mirror was gluing another mirror glass of completely different shape on top of it lol.

Did Honda ever fix the glovebox material issue? I'd imagine that most used parts will suffer from the same issue.

12 hours ago, worldofceri said:

I'm sure I remember seeing that last yellow thing in a magazine years ago.  Think it has the entire roof and all the glass from a Calibra.

Yeah, it must be at least partially based on the Calibra shell. Mini headlights used in the front. Judging by the state of the interior it was abandoned mid-build.

[cort16]

 

This on the right looked to have been this, the worlds lowest camper van. 

[Sigmund Fraud]

22 minutes ago, cort16 said:

This on the right looked to have been this, the worlds lowest camper van.

It is, indeed, Andy Saunders' Van Cake. Real shame to see it neglected like that...

[lesapandre]

The Fleetwood you are looking at looks one of the best.

Really interesting car. GM moved back to RWD for that and went back to 'full size' to mop up the market for remaining traditional Cadillac customers. I think they put out about 260bhp. Hope you can save it from being broken.

[Schaefft]

10 minutes ago, lesapandre said:

The Fleetwood you are looking at looks one of the best.

Really interesting car. GM moved back to RWD for that and went back to 'full size' to mop up the market for remaining traditional Cadillac customers. I think they put out about 260bhp. Hope you can save it from being broken.

Unfortunately decoding the VIN revealed that it's only the 185hp 5.7 TBI, same as the 5.0 in my Caprice basically. Would still consider it, they are probably the most desirable 90s Cadillac. It's just that the '94+ LT1s are much more desirable!

And yeah, they just used the B-body platform of the Caprice to produce a replacement for the still surprisingly popular late 70s/80s Fleetwood Brougham. The previous "normal" 80s Fleetwood was just a fancier version of the peach colored DeVille I'm interested in as well. The blue '96 DeVille I already own is the next generation of that fwd platform which would become the biggest Cadillac after the '93-96 Fleetwood was phased out.

[lesapandre]

Still looks an epic car. Hope it goes OK. I'm in London if you need a hand.

[sierraman]

The cut n shut Cadillac (?) looks interesting. 

[cort16]

I think roadkill had a shortened Lincoln called the missing linc that was the same ideal as that Cadillac

 

[bramz7]

I went to London Motor Museum when it was open, I think I had a Wowcher/Groupon money off deal as well, this would have been late 2013. 

It was empty bar myself and my partner at the time. I could try and dig out the photos but there isn't much of interest beyond what you've seen. 

 

 

[Schaefft]

4 hours ago, sierraman said:

The cut n shut Cadillac (?) looks interesting. 

 

2 hours ago, cort16 said:

I think roadkill had a shortened Lincoln called the missing linc that was the same ideal as that Cadillac

 

Yeah, wouldnt be the first time I've seen it. I actually remember that red Seville coming up for sale easily a year ago, same seller, different FB profile.

2 hours ago, bramz7 said:

I went to London Motor Museum when it was open, I think I had a Wowcher/Groupon money off deal as well, this would have been late 2013. 

It was empty bar myself and my partner at the time. I could try and dig out the photos but there isn't much of interest beyond what you've seen. 

You can still find many photos of it on Maps, not sure how many people actually visited the place but it cannot have been many considering the fiancial situation they ended up in. This Regal still has the name on its reg plate:

 

[jon.k]

The reviews on tripadvisor for the museum are an entertaining read.

 

https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g191260-d1590756-Reviews-or10-London_Motor_Museum-Hayes_Greater_London_England.html

[AnthonyG]

Weird that these cars seem to be on the edge of a housing estate. Unless you are one of us it’s not exactly a good view, a sort of customs scrapyard.

Shame about the Imperial but if it’s been left open for x number of years all the interior will be utterly destroyed, and all the floor pan and nearby panels will likely be in a bad way. 

Is the black Thunderbird a real one or some sort of replica? These were worth real money at one point, but it looks to be just a shell now.

Good luck on the two Cadillac saloons, they look to have survived the best. I’d be very wary of the Eldorado if the weather’s got in - a custom interior and hood won’t be easy to replace and the damp may have ruined the electrics - not sure how complicated these 80s ones were but I’d guess a Northstar one would be very dead indeed if left open to the elements for any length of time.

[yes oui si]

The calibra... Thing... 

It used to be purple, reg is h157 hbh. 

Wheels as noted should* be genuine bbs rs2 and 20" iirc. Narrow though, and not the best specs. Would need to see stampings to know exact specs. The vast majority of 20" rs2 are 5x120, but there is one spec which came in 5x112 which would make sense as that's 20 wobble bolts away from Calibra fitment. 

[yes oui si]

On 05/05/2025 at 22:51, EspenO said:

Those BBS RX(?) split rims on the yellow custom will be worth a fair chunk on their own. 

BBS RS II. About £1,500-4k depending on specs.