Part of the Hagerty Podcast Network, the Carmudgeon Show is a comedic, information-filled conversation with Jason Cammisa and Derek Tam-Scott, two car enthusiasts who are curmudgeonly beyond their years. Proving you don’t have to be old to be grumpy, they spend each episode talking about what’s wrong with various parts of the automotive universe. Despite their best efforts to keep it negative, they usually wind up laughing, happy, and extolling their love for cars. Which just makes them angrier and more bitter.
Jason Cammisa is an automotive journalist, social-media figure, and TV host with over 300 million views on YouTube alone. Jason’s deeply technical understanding, made possible by a lifelong obsession with cars, allows him to fully digest what’s going on within an automobile — and then put it into simple terms for others to understand. Also, a Master’s Degree in Law trained him to be impossible to argue with.
Derek Tam-Scott still tries. He’s a young automotive expert with old-man taste in cars, and a Master’s Degree in Civil Engineering — which means he knows how to be civil to Jason. Or at least he tries. With a decade and a half’s experience buying, selling, driving and brokering classic and exotic cars, he’s experienced the world’s most iconic cars. And hated most of them.
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Part of the Hagerty Podcast Network, the Carmudgeon Show is a comedic, information-filled conversation with Jason Cammisa and Derek Tam-Scott, two car enthusiasts who are curmudgeonly beyond their years. Proving you don’t have to be old to be grumpy, they spend each episode talking about what’s wrong with various parts of the automotive universe. Despite their best efforts to keep it negative, they usually wind up laughing, happy, and extolling their love for cars. Which just makes them angrier and more bitter.
Jason Cammisa is an automotive journalist, social-media figure, and TV host with over 300 million views on YouTube alone. Jason’s deeply technical understanding, made possible by a lifelong obsession with cars, allows him to fully digest what’s going on within an automobile — and then put it into simple terms for others to understand. Also, a Master’s Degree in Law trained him to be impossible to argue with.
Derek Tam-Scott still tries. He’s a young automotive expert with old-man taste in cars, and a Master’s Degree in Civil Engineering — which means he knows how to be civil to Jason. Or at least he tries. With a decade and a half’s experience buying, selling, driving and brokering classic and exotic cars, he’s experienced the world’s most iconic cars. And hated most of them.
Your BMW M3 Comes Thanks to Jaguar — The Carmudgeon Show w Jason Cammisa & Derek Tam-Scott — Ep. 186
The Carmudgeon Show
59 minutes
3 weeks ago
Your BMW M3 Comes Thanks to Jaguar — The Carmudgeon Show w Jason Cammisa & Derek Tam-Scott — Ep. 186
Bank robbers prefer sport sedans: all the speed of a supercar with seating for all their accomplices — and trunk space for their loot. And the fast sedan was born with the Jaguar sedan powered by a Le Mans-winning-engine.
In the 1950s, Jaguar was on a Le Mans winning streak with its MK120-C and D-Type race cars. But why let the sports cars have all the fun? In 1955 Jaguar introduced the 2.4 Saloon (aka the Mark 1), and a handful of months later plopped their Le Mans-winning 210 hp 3.4L straight-6 engine into the chassis to create the 3.4 Saloon. Equipped with race-spec 4-wheel discs and double-wishbone front suspension it outran everything (including the police), and is arguably the world’s first sports sedan.
In this episode we’ll cover the elegantly menacing Jaguar 3.4 Saloon or “Mark 1”. Starting with how to properly pronounce Jagyoowuhr. Or is it Jagwire? Depends.
We’ll cover the marque’s origins – from Sir William Lyons’ Swallow Sidecar Company, to early sports cars like the XK120 and the Le Mans winning streak of the 1950s with the C-Type and D-Type. The 2.4L straight-6, followed by the monster 3.4, then 3.8, and even 4.2 which was used all the way up until the mid-1980s in the XJ6 and even early 90s in the Daimler DS420.
The 3.4 Saloon employed 4-wheel disc brakes, double wishbone front suspension, a cantilevered rear leaf spring, and panhard rod. Early cars had centrally-mounted gauges, and the chassis was Jaguar’s first to use unitary construction. Sadly, galvanization wouldn’t take off for another two decades, starting at Porsche. And while the unibody proved stronger than anticipated, it wasn’t strong enough to protect racer Mike Hawthorne when he fatally crashed his Mark 1 while passing a Mercedes 300SL Gullwing in England in 1959.
The Mark 1 comes from a bygone era of race cars where Le Mans-winning engines (and entire vehicles) would find their way into dealer showrooms effectively unchanged. With few exceptions since (notably the McLaren F1 – which, incredibly, went the reverse direction from streetcar to dominant race car). The last of the breed may have been the Mark III Ford GT40, as things escalated dramatically with the arrival of the Porsche 917. Luckily for us poors, plenty of lower level racing exists, and we got a handful of other homologation specials to choose from in the form of the BMW E30 M3, Mercedes-Benz 190 2.3-16, Ford Sierra RS Cosworth, and Rover SD1, to name a few.
Cars like the Alfa Giulietta Ti sedan give the Jag a challenge for the original sports sedan mantle, but the Italian wasn't first. In today’s world, the Jag was a performance-per-dollar bargain akin to a Tesla Model 3. Or possibly a Dodge Charger Hellcat. In any case, today’s quintessential sports sedan, the M3, has gotten far too pricey to be considered a bargain. As Derek points out, if you’re a thrifty enthusiast, skip the G80 and E30 and get yourself a nice used E36 or E46.
No matter what you buy, budget for fixing it (especially if it’s a Land Rover). And always, always get a silly license plate. Just maybe one that doesn't tempt fate like Jason's friend's NEED AAA plate. Because, umm, he did. Immediately.
[The words Hagerty Roadside didn't fit on the plate. Obviously.]
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The Carmudgeon Show
Part of the Hagerty Podcast Network, the Carmudgeon Show is a comedic, information-filled conversation with Jason Cammisa and Derek Tam-Scott, two car enthusiasts who are curmudgeonly beyond their years. Proving you don’t have to be old to be grumpy, they spend each episode talking about what’s wrong with various parts of the automotive universe. Despite their best efforts to keep it negative, they usually wind up laughing, happy, and extolling their love for cars. Which just makes them angrier and more bitter.
Jason Cammisa is an automotive journalist, social-media figure, and TV host with over 300 million views on YouTube alone. Jason’s deeply technical understanding, made possible by a lifelong obsession with cars, allows him to fully digest what’s going on within an automobile — and then put it into simple terms for others to understand. Also, a Master’s Degree in Law trained him to be impossible to argue with.
Derek Tam-Scott still tries. He’s a young automotive expert with old-man taste in cars, and a Master’s Degree in Civil Engineering — which means he knows how to be civil to Jason. Or at least he tries. With a decade and a half’s experience buying, selling, driving and brokering classic and exotic cars, he’s experienced the world’s most iconic cars. And hated most of them.
