In 1963 my friend and I were drag racing, he in a Pontiac Tempest, me is my hotrod 1953 Ford Flathead. He rolled the the Tempest and promptly traded it (with money added) for a stored Jaguar XK 140. Two days later I drove the Jag with top down on a lonely country road at night, pitiful headlights ablaze, at an indicated 125 MPH. Mind you, this was on the 1954 Jags original tires. The sound from the engine was amazing. If I remember correctly there was no synchro when you went back to first gear. I hit a jackrabbit while doing this and my friend said, when we stopped, you could have killed us hitting that rabbit, what if a bone had gone through the tire? Yeah, like that was the only thing.
I often think of that car and what a goober my buddy was for only keeping it a short while and then trading it for a rebuilt 57 Chevy 283 that had been wrecked. What I would not give for that Jag today.
Bruce