(Partly Invented) Romantic Back Story

Timeless.  Better in green, but perfectly OK in white.

Doubtless Jay Leno knows the entire, real, back story of his new/old XK-E.  I don't want to hear it.  It might interfere with my fantasy.

http://www.jaylenosgarage.com/video/1963-jaguar-xke/1432514/

It's obviously an L.A. car, or a Southwest car--no moisture but a rare rain storm.  I love the idea that a young woman bought this car new in 1963 for herself.  Manual 4-speed, with no syncromesh on 1st and no air conditioning.  She was not gonna let the need to master it, put up with its shortcomings, and carefully maintain it, get between her and this car.  I would like to think she was a young professional.  In any event, she was an independent woman with a restrained sense of style: white/black.  I like to think she chose a coupe over a roadster because the design of the XK-E Series I coupe can't be improved upon.  (A roadster would have been the obvious choice for a young woman in a sunny clime.)

She used it all over L.A. or Phoenix or someplace similar.  She drove it sympathetically enough to "lap in the gears in the box."  She "had it up to 80 once," drove it for 48 years and kept it for 50.  The original seats have seen leather conditioner, but not many u.v. rays.  She knew what she had, and what she was doing.

Eventually, she peered into the abyss (per my recent post).  The Jag went under a carport for a couple of years.  When it was clear she would not drive it again, she asked herself "Who would appreciate this car?"  Leno.  She sought him out and sold it to him.  High-five to you, lady: way to enjoy a fine GT for decades, keep it as pristine as a car in normal use can be, and pass it along for more unmolested preservation.

 I feel romantic about this car's story.  So much so that I had to partly make it up.