JAGUAR HERITAGE TRUST NEWS ISSUE 5 – August - October 2015 Welcome to the fifth issue of ‘The Trust’ – the The Trust’s collection of Jaguars will be newsletter for the Jaguar Heritage Trust. accommodated on the ground floor of the new building which will also contain a 6 ramp ‘The Trust’ focuses on the various activities and workshop with an overhead viewing gallery – to events that have involved the Heritage Trust enable visitors to see the work being carried out team or its vehicle collection – many of which on the cars. The upper floor will be home to the continue to be in support of the parent Jaguar reserve collection of the British Motor Industry Land business. The key news in this Heritage Trust (BMIHT) and it also hoped to issue concerns the imminent move of the Trust accommodate some of the Jaguar Heritage team and its vehicle collection into the new Trust’s collection of Daimler and Lanchesters on building being completed at the Gaydon site. this level.

The new Collections Centre: Museum Refurbishment:

As anyone who has visited the Heritage Motor As reported in the last issue, the refurbishment Centre at Gaydon recently will have seen, the project will totally reconfigure the main Heritage impressive new ‘Collections Centre’ (its official Motor Centre museum and move its entrance to name) is now very nearly complete. be opposite the new Collections Centre. As part of this, the Jaguar gallery will be re-designed and re-positioned; the new display area will be semi-circular with a feature car on a raised plinth and the other cars fanning out from this point.

The picture above is taken from the HMC’s live webcam on October 19 and shows that the structure is now finished (all the exterior cladding and glazing), the access ramp for the The theme of the display will continue to be upper level is in place and landscaping is Jaguar Sports and Racing Cars and there will be underway. There is still some internal fitting out a large circular banner above the stand on to complete but the plan is that the building will which will be mounted the Trust’s collection of be handed over on November 6. nine quarter scale model cars – creating a dramatic view from across the The Trust team will be moving into its new museum! offices during w/c November 9 and also starting to bring over some of the vehicle collection from To allow this work to take place, the museum the current storage warehouse in . It is will be closed from the end of November until hoped the Collections Centre will be open to the mid-February 2016. Details of the re-opening public for guided tours from the weekend of plans will be advised in due course. November 14-15 although this will be for quite a

short time window as the whole museum is due Office Plans: to close at the end of November for a major refurbishment to take place (see later). The ground floor of the Collections Centre will house the new office facilities where the Trust 1 staff currently based at the Fairfield Court, The following weekend saw a couple of the Seven Stars Industrial Estate site in Coventry Trust’s inveterate volunteers head off to the will be moving. They will be sharing the new famous Nürburgring for the Oldtimer Grand office with some of the BMIHT Collections team Prix, Germany’s largest race meeting for classic headed by Tim Bryan. The Jaguar Heritage cars. The Trust provided three cars from its Archive team will stay located in the main collection to help make up a ‘grid’ of historic museum building alongside the BMIHT Archive sports cars on the Jaguar stand – the 1938 SS team. 100, 1956 longnose D-type and 1984 TWR XJS.

The Fairfield Court office will continue to operate because the lease is being taken over by Jaguar . This is so that the former Trust employees who moved across to the JLR Branded Goods team in April can carry on working there. A further change that will take place when the Trust relocates to Gaydon is that we will no longer offer merchandise for sale via our website – the only online ordering channel will be via the main Jaguar e-shop at: https://shop.jaguar.co.uk/ This event also hosted the only round of the

Jaguar Heritage Challenge race series to take Further information regarding the new address place outside the UK. and contact details will be published on our website www.jaguarheritage.com just before the Back in July, following an article that appeared move takes place. in Autocar about the Broadspeed Jaguar

XJ12C, discussions took place with chief tester,

Matt Prior, about organising a session for him to Events Review: have some hands on experience with the Trust’s

example of this mighty racing car. Blyton Park Although the events season has finally race track was chosen as the venue and the quietened down for the winter months, the date was set for August 13th. period since the last issue of the Trust was once again action packed, with the team turning out to support a variety of events both at home and abroad. Here is a whistle-stop tour, month by month.

August – the month began with the Jaguar Drivers’ Club National Day on August 2nd which this year was held at Wroxall Abbey near Warwick. As this was in the local area, the Trust was able to support with a selection of eight cars ranging from its 1938 SS100 up to the 1984 The camera arm being fitted to the Broadspeed TWR XJS racing car – the latter celebrating the XJ12C to capture action shots of Matt’s drive model’s 40th anniversary this year.

In the meanwhile, we were also contacted by Jaguar’s Danish importer which was doing some PR work with Danish racing driver John Nielsen – who famously won the Le Mans 24 hour race in 1990 driving The JLR Heritage Parts team also came along a Jaguar XJR-12 with their hospitality unit to promote their which he co-drove products to the many visitors attracted by the with line-up of beautiful classic Jaguars. and Price Cobb. 2

As Blyton was already booked and the date number of other interesting cars including the worked for the Danish team, arrangements were Trust’s 1929 Austin 7 Swallow saloon, one of put in place to re-unite John with a TWR Silk Cut the first cars to be produced in the Foleshill Jaguar - albeit the Trust’s 1998 Le Mans factory following the company’s move from winning XJR-9 rather than an XJR-12. Blackpool.

John showed that he had lost none of his racing skills and enjoyed a few hard driven laps round the circuit to the delight of the film crew and Some of the Trust’s cars outside the CTM – including other onlookers! the 1907 Daimler and 1929 Austin 7 Swallow

Hot on the heels of this was another local event, The same weekend, continuing our support of Coventry Car Day, which took place on August the Jaguar Clubs both large and small, two more 15th. This was organised by the Coventry of the Trust’s intrepid volunteers set off for the Transport Museum as part of the ongoing south coast to support the Jaguar Enthusiasts’ celebration of their recent major refurbishment Club Portsmouth Region’s annual event. and was planned to showcase cars built by as Held in conjunction with the Weald & Downland many historic Coventry manufacturers as Vintage & Steam event at a showground near possible. Goodwood, more than 150 classic Jaguars were brought along by their proud owners.

One of the stars was the Trust’s 1938 SS Jaguar 100, one of the few surviving original examples of this sought after car. Many thanks to event organiser and former Jaguar Chief Engineer, John Cady, who kindly provided accommodation for the Trust’s support team (and their wives) for the weekend!

To this end, the Trust provided a wide range of Coventry built Jaguars and Daimlers from its collection – ranging from the mighty 1907 Daimler TP35 open tourer through to the very last Jaguar to be built in the city which is a 2005 Jaguar Super V8 Portfolio – the final car to come off the production line at the Browns Lane plant. In between these bookends were a 3

The month of August finished up with the by Diana – and which has the Oulton Park Gold Cup race weekend which uncommon addition of two rear seats which hosted the finale of the Jaguar Heritage were used to accommodate Princes William and Challenge series. The pair of Mike Wilkinson Harry when they were rather smaller than they and John Bussell ensured a classic ending to are now! To read more about Joe’s experiences the inaugural season as they took the on the tour and to see more photos, click here. chequered flag driving their Jaguar E-type – formerly owned by Formula One legend Sir Jackie Stewart.

The Trust had a further four cars on display at the Concours itself – three also with royal connections, the 1955 Mark VllM, 1973 Jaguar Race fans were treated to a special spectacle XJ12 and 1992 Daimler DS420 limousine all of on the Monday when Andy Wallace was which were the personal transport of HRH reunited with the Trust’s XJR-9 which he co- Queen Elizabeth, The Queen Mother. drove to victory in the 1988 Le Mans 24 hour race. Despite the rather wet conditions, Andy performed a number of rapid demonstration laps much to the delight of the crowd.

The fourth car was the 1988 Le Mans winning XJR-9, chosen by the organisers because of its Scottish connections – one of the winning drivers being none other than John Crichton-

Stuart, 7th Marquess of Bute, better known to September – Hardly pausing to draw breath, race fans as Johnny Dumfries! the team next set off for points further north – this time for the annual Concours of Elegance which took place this year (for the first time) in the grounds of Holyroodhouse in Edinburgh over the weekend September 4-6.

The Concours itself was preceded by a ‘Royal Road Trip’ Highlands Tour which saw a magnificent array of priceless classics drive a 250 mile route through some spectacular highland scenery. The Trust was asked to supply one of its cars for Joe Breeze, Editor of Classic Driver to drive on this tour. To keep in with the royal theme, the chosen car was the The following weekend saw the biggest turnout 1987 XJS V12 Cabriolet that was originally used of Trust cars for a single event in many years. 4

This was to support the JLR presence at the look like a period Scalextric set – with four cars Goodwood Revival which took place from placed along a snaking section of track including September 11-13. Following a similar concept the Trust’s 1938 SS Jaguar 100 and the famous to last year, the JLR PR department had invited 1950 XK 120, NUB 120. At the back of the a number of members of the media to attend a stand was a large Scalextric track, set up so that two-day programme centred around the Revival. visitors could test out their skills with a On Day 1 they were able to experience a competition for the fastest lap time! number of classic Jaguars on a 45 minute drive from the Bel and The Dragon Inn at Churt (which had been exclusively booked for the event) to Dunsfold in the centre of rural Surrey.

In total, the Trust provided 16 cars to support these two activities which naturally required quite a large support team. In keeping with the On arrival they were shuttled to a nearby field spirit of the event, all the team dressed in period where they had the opportunity to drive some overalls as they went about their duties – even heritage Land Rovers from the Dunsfold finding time to pose for a group photo! collection before making the return trip back to Churt in the Jaguars.

The JHT team (l to r): Roger Atkinson, Gary Jones, Dave Palmer, Dave Rooney, Dave Withers, Richard On Day 2 they were given VIP access to the Mason and Geoff Smith (and also Jonathan Partridge) Revival event itself where, amongst many other attractions, they were able to see a couple more A couple of more local activities followed with a cars from the Trust’s collection in the recreated photoshoot for Jaguar World magazine for a Earls Court motor show display. forthcoming feature about the X300 which will include this unique stretched version from the Trust’s collection, originally used as transport for Nick Scheele, Jaguar’s Chairman at that time:

The Jaguar stand this year celebrated the brand’s 80th anniversary and was designed to 5

Then, on September 25 a special event took P60 XJS (last XJS produced), joined the place in Coventry when Ratan Tata, Chairman timeline. The other two cars on display were the of the group bearing his name which owns unique Daimler XJS concept from 1986 and the , and Professor Lord 1987 XJ-S V12 Cabriolet formerly used by Bhattacharyya, founder and Chairman of the Princess Diana. Warwick Manufacturing Group, were both made Honorary Freemen of the city in recognition of October – This month has been a little quieter, their contribution to the local economy. but one of the early errands was to collect the famous 1961 E-type 77RW from its owner, Mike Kilgannon, who had been using it during the first few days of the month on the Welsh Towns Rally. Here it is pictured by the water’s edge.

The Trust was asked to provide some appropriate transport for these two VVIPs to chauffeur them from the Coventry Council HQ to the nearby Cathedral where the ceremony took Although Mike has kindly put the car on long place. The chosen car was the 1955 Jaguar term loan to the Trust, he still likes to borrow it Mark VllM formerly used by The Queen Mother, back a couple of times each year to participate and Trust volunteer Eric Baptiste kindly offered in local rallies. Always in demand, this car will be to do the driving duties. one of the stars of the Classic & Sportscar London Show over the weekend Oct 30 – Nov 1. The end of the month saw the final major Club event of the season with the Jaguar With the new James Bond film ‘Spectre’ being Enthusiasts’ Club Western Day which took launched, there has been renewed interest in place on September 27 in the grounds of the cars used in previous Bond films. The Trust Bodelwyddan Castle in North Wales. The Trust owns one of these which is a heavily modified had been asked to supply a number of XJ-S XKR from 1998 that was the baddie’s car in the models from its collection to help make up the film Die Another Day – famously dicing with 40th anniversary timeline that was organised by Bond’s in an action packed Letitia Mace. Five cars were despatched by sequence filmed on an ice lake in Greenland. transporter but sadly the site access prevented the TWR XJS race car from being unloaded.

To support a future article, Jaguar World asked to do a photo shoot with this car at Bruntingthorpe on October 8 (photo © Michael Bailie).

Nevertheless, the other four, which included first As this issue goes to press, three more of the and last bookends in the form of the 1975 V12 Trust’s cars are out at the Circuit de L’Anneau Coupé OOM 555R (an original Earls Court du Rhin near the French/Swiss border for a big motor show launch car) and 1996 V12 Coupé photo shoot for Auto Extra magazine that will 6 focus on the Emil Frey XKR GT3 entry in the Run which will take Blancpain GT race series. place on Sunday November 1. This year only one of the Trust’s cars will take part – the 1903 Daimler 14hp Tourer AP221 – which it is hoped will be driven by Dr Ralph Speth, JLR CEO.

It is hoped to publish a report on this and some photos in the next issue of The Trust.

Forthcoming Events: The 1903 Daimler taking part in the 2013 event – in fine sunny weather for once! The events season doesn’t quite stop at the end of October as there are two events taking place It had also been hoped to enter the 1901 over the final weekend involving cars from the Lanchester 12hp Tonneau but unfortunately collection. there has not been sufficient time to complete The first is the Classic and the necessary running in mileage of the Sportscar London Show reconditioned engine to ensure the car’s which is being held at the reliability for such a long run. Perhaps next Alexandra Palace from year….! October 30 to November 1. The show promises to bring visitors the world’s most glamorous classic cars in an historically important venue, drawing in some of the finest examples, the most highly regarded dealers and the world’s wealthiest and most respected collectors to Alexandra Palace. The last event on the 2015 calendar is the Classic Motor Show which will take place at Birmingham’s NEC from November 13-15. This is the UK’s largest classic car show and caters for all tastes - whether you’ve a passion for traditional British classics, vintage motors, historic motorsport, European exotica, American muscle or prefer the more modern retro classics, you won't be disappointed!

One of the show’s displays will be the “Best British Car Ever sponsored by Autoglym” which will feature, amongst others, the famous 1961 E- type 77RW that is looked after by the Trust. Let’s hope that it wins in this category!

At the same time, central London will be a hive of activity with the Regent Street Motor Show on Hall 2 at the NEC will be the hub for Jaguar fans October 31 once again acting as the prequel to featuring displays from the Jaguar Enthusiasts' the annual London to Brighton Veteran Car Club, Jaguar Drivers' Club, Jaguar XJS Club 7 and the Daimler and Lanchester Owners Club. XK-SS while diners in the restaurant are Their stands will be clustered around a large watched over by an enormous image of the stand, operated by the JLR Heritage team which famous 1952 Montlhéry 7 days and nights will once again be showcasing its various record breaking XK120! heritage related business activities.

The JLR Heritage stand at the 2014 show which The original images were provided by Karam featured a 1956 Ecurie Ecosse D-type . Ram, the Trust’s photo archivist, from the enormous collection of archive and current The Jaguar Heritage Trust will have three cars photographs that he maintains. from its collection on display. Two interesting Daimlers, a 1973 Daimler Double Six once used by Sir and a 2002 Daimler Super …and finally, the Teaser: V8 which was a royal relief car and also the last X308 produced, will be displayed on the Daimler and Lanchester Owners Club stand.

In addition, the 1987 Jaguar XJS V12 Cabriolet Although it is a while ago now, as many of you that was originally used by Princess Diana will guessed, the teaser in the last issue was a rare be featured on the XJS Club stand. 1952 Jaguar Supersonic Coupé with coachwork by Carrozzeria Ghia.

Other News: The 1950s decade was a period when automobile stylists the world over were Only one other small news item for this issue. influenced by developments in aircraft Jaguar enthusiasts visiting the Midlands are technology, in particular the coming of the ‘Jet encouraged to book a stay at the Holiday Inn in Age’. This influence would reach its zenith in the Solihull which United States in the decade’s latter years and is recently perhaps best exemplified by the outrageous tail underwent a fins of the 1959 Cadillacs. European designers makeover, part of too fell under its seductive spell, as this car which included clearly illustrates. the addition of three full wall The work of Giovanni Savonuzzi at Ghia, the images of some ‘Supersonic’ body design first appeared on a famous ‘faces’. Conrero-tuned Alfa Romeo 1900 entered in the 1953 Mille Miglia. In addition to the solitary Alfa Two corridors have been decorated with floor to and three XK120s, the Supersonic design also ceiling images of an XK150 front end and an appeared on an Aston Martin and a number of FIAT 8V chassis. 8

The left-hand drive Jaguar XK120 Supersonic, pictured is chassis number ‘679768’, one of two ordered via the French Jaguar importer in Paris, Royal-Elysées, by a Lyonnias businessman, a Monsieur Malpelli. The other Malpelli XK120, finished in blue, is known to exist in France while the third example’s whereabouts are unknown. This red car recently sold at the RM Sotheby’s auction in Monterey on August 15th for a staggering $2,062,500 – not a bad investment given that it last sold for ‘just’ €753,000 at a Bonhams auction in 2007!

Contact Reminder and Update:

A reminder that all enquiries relating to Jaguar Heritage Trust vehicles or event support should be sent to [email protected] or by calling +44 (0) 24 7656 4431.

For further information on any of the items in this newsletter or copies of any of the images, please contact Jonathan Partridge on the number above or e-mail: [email protected]

© Jaguar Heritage Trust – October 2015

www.jaguarheritage.com

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