Jaguar #8. 1989 XJ-S V12 coupe.Bio
Updated: 09-07-09
All images are thumbnails
Born in Sacramento, CA, in 1955, 3rd generation Californian ( English, German,Scots-Irish, and 1/128th Hawaiian), Aries with Leo rising. My father (traced back to Robert The Bruce) and maternal grandmother were born in San Francisco in 1918. Dad joined the British Army in 1939 as he saw the need for service. I've got letters from a Cooper ancestor from 1914 thanking mum back home for the money sent and general correspondence as he was on a recruiting drive through the states. Dad served in the 8th Army under Montgomery, chasing Rommel's ass around North Africa, in the Medical Corps. Never injured but saw friends blown to pieces. After the war he finished his degree in civil engineering and went to work for the Atomic Energy Commission. He was secretive about what he did but he did tell mom that he used his surveying skills to determine exactly where they'd set up for the above-ground nuclear testing at Frenchman's Flats. He'd tell her (Victoria Morton, now) that they were going camping, this is before an above-ground test, from around 1950 to 1954. They'd go to the desert and at a certain time, always early daylight, he'd look at his watch and say, "Hey, look over there". And the nuclear blast would go off! On one of the tests they saw 3 silver saucers hovering over and rising above the mushroom and alternately dipping down into the upper portion of the cloud, as if sampling, and rising again to re-form a triangular formation. They both observed this with dad's transit (a small telescope) as it did last for a few minutes and then they divorced in 1959. Dad worked as a civil engineer for the state of California for about 10 years (big on clover-leafs) and then went on to work for the Rhodesian Ministry of Defense and the South African General Consulate and would never talk about what he did. He passed away in a hospital from pneunomonia , after going there for a fractured arm, and died in 1983. I hate hospitals to this day, just full of sick people.....Anyway.....
On mom's side of the family my great, great grandfather, Fred Maguire, and a mining engineer, went to Hawaii in 1880 to see if the volcanoes were diamond bearing. He fell in love with the people and culture. He became a good friend to King David Kulakaua (born David La'amea Kamanakapu'u Mahinulani Nalaiaehuokalani Lumialani Kalākaua) and Queen Lili'uokalani (born Lydia Lili'ou Loloku Walania Wewehi Kamaka'eha), and later renamed Kaolupoloni K. Dominis.
They developed a great friendship between themselves (no diamonds, by the way) and they adopted him! This lucky bastard spent the rest of his life in paradise working with the plants on the royal estate, always close by. Meanwhile, Mom lives in a 12,000 square foot castle in Safety Harbor, Florida. When I was 17 I asked her if I could get a new pet and she said, "what is it, John, a cat?" Well, sort of, it's a 7 week old black African male lion cub. "I will not have a Goddamn lion in this house," was her response, with a stamp of the foot, first time I ever saw that. Anyway, in 1783 a sea captain great-great, etc, of mine hit one of the Hawaiian Islands and found a wife, hence the 1/128th Hawaiian. My grandfather, Charles Byron MacIntyre, Sr., was an electrical engineer that worked on the original flying wing in the late 1940's and later spent 30+ years working at the Puget Sound Naval Ship Yard in Bremerton, Washington. During the war he served on a light cruiser named the S.S. Dewey in the South Pacific. He once painted their bathroom and couldn't help himself, I guess, but even painted the toilet seat. And both my Aunt Betty and Grandma sat on that still wet painted seat. I can remember both yelling "Bi". That was what he was called, Bi, short for Byron. At least I didn't have to see how they got that mess cleaned up.
Hey, here's a good one, I am the only one to be suspended from the San Diego school system for making nitroglycerine in the biology lab. About 1971, no police or anything and my parents didn't get pissed! Nowadays you'd have an FBI file on you. Guess they weren't too surprised as I did blow up our birdbath when Uncle Bill Mahan, Monty & Betty visited our home in Chula Vista (Silver Bow Main Ranch House, circa 1908), an amazing property with a 96,000 gal swimming pool with 60 foot island, palm trees, two bridges, bath house, stone barbecue building, major rock fountain with passage-ways, ponds, secret compartments and where one of my 3 younger sisters buried my medieval battle mace in 1971.
Education: Olympic Community College, Chemeketa Community College, University of Oregon, University of Colorado, Texas Instrument's DS990 & IBM's System 33/34 System Operations and Golden West College for the photography classes. A.A.S. in Business Technology, A.A. in Liberal Arts, and 'that' close to 4 or 5 other degrees. Currently enrolled in the University of Phoenix to finish my B.S.M. and then on to either law school or electrical engineering. Probably e.e.
While graduating from Chemeketa in 1980, I watched every major eruption of Mount St. Helens from a distance of around 35 or 40 miles. It was just like the viewing the Grand Canyon or a Space Shuttle launch, where the photos are interesting but don't have anywhere near the impact of actually being there, simply amazing stuff! Have seen 8 launches out of 10 trips, a delay here or there but HOLY COW! Saw the Challenger disaster STS 51-L, on January 28, 1986 at a little before noon at Titusville, FL and saw debris washing up the next day, very, very sad.
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Photo 1 (below my xmas photo) - Jaguar #7, May 31, 2004. 1993 XJ-S, 300hp. One of the faster cars on the road but would have done better with a manual tranny. Factory correct, had about 12k miles on a total rebuild. Upgraded to Jag 16" rims, new suspension, brakes, exhaust, abs & engine computers, differential, emissions and a complete rebuild of the 4.0 liter fuel injected hemi (I added high-performance cams). Purchased for its flawless body and interior, 8 months later I finally got to drive it! Mid 90's point-wise in a concours d' elegance, and then I wrecked it! Shit!!!!! My others, in order of acquisition: 1959 XK150, 1963 Mark X, 1958 XK150, 1963 XKE series 2-1/2 (the one with 3 windshield wipers), 1962 Mark X, 1967 420G, 1993 XJ-S 6 Cylinder & #8, my beautiful 1989 XJ-S V 12 with 83,000 miles on it. Jags are all I've driven since I was 19.
#8 - 1989 XJ-S V12 which I actually sought out and found this particular year and model. It was found carefully stored in a cool garage for 5 years and only had 80,000 miles on it. It had issues with the distributor that the former owner couldn't solve, so he just garaged it. I grabbed it and replaced the interior wood, headliner and rear seats (with parts from the exact same year XJ-S) and had the exhaust, tires, shocks, plugs, brakes, etc. replaced. Runs sweet on the highway, maybe 21 mpg; but, in town (I only work 0.7 miles from my house), I get around 7.0 mpg. Would love to fill that 32 gallon tank with 101 low lead (airplane fuel). 101 is the minimum rating but it usually tests out to around 105 octane. I used to fill my 58 XK150 and 63 E-Type with it and those engines would absolutely purr, and perform! Smells funny but worth the extra bucks if you can find it.
Jaguar #8. 1989 XJ-S V12 coupe.
Here's an old joke from the Jag Club: What do you call the President of Lucas Electric?
Answer: The prince of darkness.
Here's the image I used for my 2001 Christmas card. I think I scared a few
people with it. I was so glad this photo turned out that I didn't take the
time to get another one where I was smiling, I guess it is a 'dark' sort of
photo but is full of interesting details.
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Oops, I wrecked my beautiful 93 in photo 1, above. Damn. then went on to my red 89 XJ-S (#8, above).
Photo 2 - Costa Mesa, CA lab with 2 Godzilla's that I pried off of the drive thru at 2 Taco Bells (claws not shown), I still can't believe I did that, June 2001. The Tesla coil to the right is Agnes, 1.8kVA, 5 foot arcs, 6 on a good night.
Photo 3 - Me - June, 19, 2004
Photo 4 & 5 - 11" x 14" photos entered into Orange County fair for their 2004 photography contest with my dog, Aibo, overlooking them.
Update: They only accepted the high contrast image on the right of photos 4 & 5 where I caught two mockingbirds chasing each other over an old wooden building near the Queen Mary that had been turned into a restaurant. An extremely difficult image to produce. I shot it with a 35mm camera (b/w film). Using my b/w enlarger I then exposed a 10"x12" sheet of x-ray film to create a positive image and developed it with a high contrast developer. Then I used that 10"x12" film positive to contact print another sheet of the same x-ray film, creating a negative. I then used that film negative to contact print an 8" x 10" sheet of Ilford b/w photo paper. Each step required careful dodging and burning, a real technical challenge and exercise.
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All photos are thumbnails, click on them
Photo 6 - I love this picture, it's one of my favorites, acrylic on an 11" x 14" canvas. Every time I read through it I have to laugh. These scenes are of Howard the Duck dispatching 'Hell cow', a vampire cow, with a wooden stake through the heart just as two policemen enter with guns drawn wondering what the commotion is and catch Howard in mid swing. I can't recall how Howard explains away his hammering the wooden stake into a cow, killing it, but somehow he does, once again saving humanity, while getting no credit whatsoever. 2003 as a warm-up project (I hadn't painted for a number of years).
Photo 7 - Agnes, my 6' 11" 1/4 wave Tesla coil, negative solarization of a b/w image. Testing a new capacitor bank, five 0.1uF Chenelec reconstituted mica caps in series for .02uF.
Photo 8 - Dangerous Kitchen, painted 2003, acrylic. A study in creating depth.
Photo 9 - Strange Planet, painted 2003, acrylic. Science fiction goof.
Photo 10 - Double exposure on an 8" x 10" sheet of Ilford b/w photo paper using two b/w 35mm negatives. Each negative required different contrast filters, enlarger settings/height, and exposure times, a very tricky maneuver in the darkroom! The placement or registration of the paper was intense, not a task to be undertaken by the faint of heart or the less than skillful. What do you see in this?
Photo 11 - 'It's The Science Lab.' Not mine but I like this image and have it framed and sent a similarly framed copy to the Editor of the Electric Space Craft Journal, Charles Yost, sadly deceased but now run by a thoroughly qualified E. E. in the name of Richard Hull, who has years and years of experience of experimenting with Tesla Technology, and has it on film, about 74 of them, I have them all (vhs), one of 5 or 6. Amazing stuff, email me and I'll hook you up with Richard, known him for over 10 years - john@tesla-coil.com
Images below are prototype Logo hyperlinks that need updated.
