December 2013 - Jaguar Heritage

JAGUAR HERITAGE NEWS – DECEMBER 2013 REPORT
As the year draws to a close it is time to reflect on the past twelve months and look forward
to 2014 and what the future might hold. There have also been a few late season events and
other activities to keep the team busy…
2013 – The year of the F-TYPE:
The big news in 2013 was undoubtedly the full launch of Jaguar’s first true sports car in
more than 50 years. The story of the new F-TYPE could not be told without reference to the
wonderful Jaguar bloodline running back to the 1950s, bringing its forebears in the shape of
the C, D and E-type back to centre stage. The main Jaguar PR activity in the first half of the
year was all F-TYPE centric, with the press launch in Pamplona, motor shows in Seoul and
Shanghai, the speed trial in Jabbeke and the Mille Miglia all crammed into the three months
from March to May! On top of that, the first customer cars were coming off the production
line in April and the UK dealers were able to re-enact an event from 52 years earlier by
coming to Coventry to collect their first cars.
Jaguar Heritage played an important role in all these events, supplying appropriate cars from
its collection to sit alongside the new F-TYPE and remind the various audiences – media,
celebrities, dealers and customers – of where the inspiration for the design and performance
of the new car was derived. Here are a few pictorial highlights:
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2014 – The year ahead:
Given the recent reveal of the exciting new F-TYPE Coupé, it is likely that 2014 will continue
in a similar vein to 2013, the emphasis just shifting more to the coupé variants of Jaguar’s
many previous iconic sports cars. This promises to be an aesthetic treat as the coupé
bodystyle has always provided more scope for Jaguar’s designers, past and present, to
express themselves – and the coupé models are often regarded as being more attractive
than the convertibles. Expect plenty of events centred on the new F-TYPE coupé but with
the bloodline being reinforced by some of the fine models in the Jaguar Heritage collection –
notably the XK120 ‘7 days and nights’ record breaking car, LWK 707, and the two E-type
coupés, the 1963 Series 1 YKE 374A and the 1971 2+2 Series 3 V12 WHP 205J.
The three classic Jaguar Heritage coupés with the new
F-TYPE coupé for comparison
Another milestone that will be reached next year is the 60th anniversary of the D-type which
made its debut in 1954. The Jaguar PR team are already thinking about suitable events
during the year to commemorate this important birthday and the celebrations will start bright
and early in the New Year at the Autosport International show at
Birmingham’s NEC, which is taking place from January 9-12.
Jaguar Heritage is fortunate to own the very first D-type prototype,
chassis XKC-401, which was registered on May 4, 1954. This car will be displayed on the
Pistonheads stand at the Autosport International show, making the first of what will no doubt
be many appearances during the year.
The 1954 D-type Prototype as it is today and on one of its
maiden outings at Le Mans in 1954 where test driver Norman
Dewis broke the lap record by 5 seconds!
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Other anniversaries coming up next year include:
 60th anniversary of XK140
 50th anniversary of Series 1½ E-type (with 4.2 litre engine)
 40th anniversary of the end of E-type production (and Jaguar Heritage has the last
one made in its collection, a commemorative Series 3 V12 OTS)
 Jaguar Cars PLC was floated on the stock market as a stand-alone company in 1984
with John Egan as Chairman
 30th anniversary of Jaguar winning the European Touring Car championship in 1984
with Tom Walkinshaw in the TWR XJS (and Jaguar Heritage has the winning car in
its collection).
 20th anniversary of X300 XJ (launched in October 1994)
It is going to be something of a year for the Jaguar brand as all these important
anniversaries are celebrated alongside the market launch of the new F-TYPE coupé. The
events calendar is likely to get very busy, very quickly!
End of Season Activites:
The Classic Motor Show at the NEC in November tends to mark the end of the events
season for Jaguar Heritage, but the team have continued to be kept busy working on various
cars in the collection and supporting some more photo shoots for Jaguar Marketing and PR.
Although it is a part of Jaguar’s history that doesn’t get talked about very often these days,
nonetheless Jaguar Heritage owns a fine collection of Formula 1 cars from the years when
Jaguar competed at this level. The acquisition is an interesting story which had ramifications
that have been playing out for many years, but it is now nearing the end.
When Jaguar pulled out of F1 at the end of the 2004 season and the team was taken over
by Red Bull, Jaguar Heritage acquired a large collection of cars – some more complete than
others and all without engines – as well as a vast array of other diverse items ranging from
racewear to a number of scooters that the team used to use for riding around in the paddock
area! After a full assessment of the inventory, it was
decided to sell off many of the cars and chassis to
interested enthusiasts but to retain one car from each of
the seasons that Jaguar competed (2000 – 2004) as well
as one interesting development car.
Some of the other parts and assets
(including the scooters) were sold
privately or at auction, but the Jaguar
Heritage Trustees did a deal with
Mark Hemsworth to be sole agent for
the sale of the surplus F1 cars and
parts as well as most of the driver and pit crew clothing.
Mark had a long history in motorsport starting out with Tom Walkinshaw, before progressing
into the tight-knit world of F1 where he ended up as assistant team manager at Arrows.
When the Arrows team ran into financial difficulties in 2002, Mark set up a company called
F1-247.com to sell off original F1 parts left over from the team to members of the public. In
due course the business expanded to include the Jaguar, Williams and Red Bull F1 teams –
and Mark is still actively selling parts today via his website http://www.f1-247.com/. In
addition to acting as the sales agent, Mark was also asked to undertake a progressive
refurbishment of the cars that were being retained by Jaguar Heritage as these were not
generally in a very good condition.
This programme has been going on for several years – the process of finding (or sometime
re-manufacturing) missing parts and re-painting in original livery being very time consuming.
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However, the end is now in sight as Mark recently completed work on the R5 from the 2004
season and is now working on the final car which is the R4 from the 2003 season.
The refurbished R5 car from the 2004 season as
driven by Mark Webber and Christian Klien
The refurbished R5 being swapped for the R4
(minus front wing) at Mark Hemsworth’s premises
These two cars were swapped round in November - the R4 having to be collected initially
from the Coventry Transport Museum where it has been on display for the last few years. It
is hoped that the R4 will be finished by the spring of next year, at which point Jaguar
Heritage will have the full set of refurbished cars from all five seasons as well as the R3 CFD
(computational fluid dynamics) development car. The R1, R2 and CFD cars are currently on
loan to the Donington Museum where they can be viewed, and the R3 is on display in the
Jaguar gallery at the Heritage Motor Centre at Gaydon.
NTV Film Shoot – December 12:
In the last week, Jaguar’s PR team have been hosting a film crew from Germany who are
producing a short piece for the German news channel NTV. Jaguar Germany has for some
time had a relationship with Stefan Szczesny, a famous painter and sculptor who is also a
Jaguar Brand Ambassador. Given Stefan’s artistic background, the producer wanted to film
him in the Jaguar design studio together with Ian Callum, Jaguar Design Director, talking
about some of the latest Jaguar products – and their inspiration from the historic models.
To provide the appropriate backdrop for this,
Jaguar Heritage was asked to provide two
E-type coupés from its collection – a 1963
Series 1 and the 1971 Series 3 V12 2+2 that
was originally a Jaguar press car. The venue
chosen for the shoot was Wappenbury Hall,
former home of Sir William Lyons, but now
owned by Godfrey Hall, a local businessman.
Stefan Szczesny posing with the 1963 Series 1
E-type coupé at Wappenbury Hall
The cars were duly lined up on a beautiful
morning and filmed both on their own and
together with an F-TYPE convertible (the new
coupé still being under dynamic embargo).
Jaguar Heritage volunteers Dave Palmer and
Chris Bennett did the driving duties and were also interviewed on camera talking about their
respective cars. We are looking forward to seeing the final edit! For more information about
the Stefan Szczesny Jaguar Art Project, click here.
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Vehicle Collection Update:
Lots of end of season fettling has been going on to bed the collection down for the Christmas
break. One vehicle receiving some attention was the Broadspeed XJ12C which had a
recent outing at Blyton Park as reported in last month’s newsletter. The cooling system on
the car was in need of some cleaning out but while this work was being done, we were
contacted by a company called Manthorpe Engineering, one of whose directors Paul
Pochciol is campaigning a replica Broadspeed XJ12 in various classic car race series.
Paul Pochciol with JH technician Richard Mason
admiring the Broadspeed’s intake system
An underside inspection together with Jeremy
Welch from Dennis Welch Motorsport
Paul uses the services of Dennis Welch Motorsport to prepare the car, and they wanted to
come and look at an original car to understand what modifications had been made to the
engine and chassis by Ralph Broad. They were under the impression that the Jaguar
Heritage car had a dry sump V12 but in fact this car, chassis 3, has a modified wet sump
system. However, looking through the archives, it transpired that its sister car, chassis 4,
was modified to a dry sump system late in the 1977 season. This car was disposed of by
Jaguar Heritage at a Brooks auction back in 1997 as there was not felt to be a need to retain
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more than one example (and the chassis 3 car had the better race history); it is believed that
the chassis 4 car is the one now owned by JC Classics which is often exhibited at classic
motorsport events.
The Jaguar Heritage team would like to wish Paul and his team well with their racing exploits
next year!
Another exciting project that will be
undertaken in the New Year is pictured
here. More of this in future newsletters,
but for the time being it can be this
month’s teaser. No prize for identifying
the brand, but the exact model might be
trickier!
…and finally – the teaser:
Last month’s teaser was probably rather too easy for any real classic car enthusiasts, but for
those of you who didn’t recognise it, this car is a Swallow Doretti. The history of this car is
interesting and, as might be guessed from its name, it has an early heritage that is common
with Jaguar.
The Swallow name of course goes back
to the Swallow Sidecar Company set up
by William Lyons and William Walmsley
in 1922. As the company grew and
diversified into car design and
manufacture, so the name was changed
initially to the Swallow Sidecar and
Cocahbuilding Company and later in
1933 to SS Cars Limited. In 1935 a clear
division was established with the Swallow
Coachbuilding Company (1935) Ltd
producing the sidecars and SS Cars
Limited producing all the cars.
The war years put all motor car production on hold as the factories were converted to
weapons manufacture and it also signalled the end of SS Cars Ltd, the name having
acquired a dark and sinister connotation! Immediately after the war, when car production
resumed, the decision was made to change the name of SS Cars Ltd to Jaguar Cars Ltd. At
the same time Lyons decided to divest himself of the sidecar business and concentrate his
efforts on motor vehicle production.
Negotiations about the disposal of the
Swallow Coachbuilding Company
resulted in the sale of the motor-cycle
sidecar business to Helliwells, a
manufacturer of aircraft components
based at Walsall Airport. Production of
Swallow sidecars continued at the
Walsall Airport works along with
the Swallow Gadabout, a motor-scooter
designed by Frank Rainbow.
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In 1950 the Helliwell Group, including Swallow Coachbuilding, was acquired by Tube
Investments Ltd, and Swallow became a wholly-owned subsidiary of the giant TI Group.
In 1952, with the market for British built sports cars booming in the USA, a project was
conceived for Swallow Coachbuilding to produce its own sports car on a Triumph chassis to
fill a market niche between the Triumph TR2 and the Jaguar XK120. Frank Rainbow was
given approval to start work on the car in January 1953, with the proviso that the first car had
to be completed in nine months - and he delivered on time. The new car, which was named
the Swallow Doretti, was unveiled at the 1954 Motor Show where it received a very positive
reception.
The Doretti sold well and about 280
cars were built between 1954 and
1955 with a workforce, which never
exceeded eighteen people, including
design and office staff.
However, production of the Doretti was
abruptly halted in 1955 - allegedly
when Jaguar gave the TI Group an
ultimatum; if they continued to market
a rival sportscar to the XK 120, Jaguar
would go elsewhere for the many
components TI supplied!
Of the 280 cars built, over 180 survive and there is an International Register established in
1975 under the auspices of the Triumph TR Register. For further information visit:
http://www.doretti.co.uk/index.htm
That’s all for this month.
A very happy Christmas and best wishes for the New Year
from all the team at Jaguar Heritage.
Contact Reminder and Update:
Just a reminder that all enquiries relating to Jaguar Heritage vehicles or event support
should be sent to [email protected] or to our general enquiry number
+44 (0) 24 76 564420.
For further information on any of the items in this newsletter, please contact:
Jonathan Partridge on +44 (0) 24 76 564431 or e-mail [email protected]
Please attribute any images used to 'Jaguar Heritage' except where indicated otherwise.
© Jaguar Heritage – December 2013
Watermark: The famous XK 120, NUB 120, contesting the 1950 Rallye des Alpes (Alpine
Rally) which it won in the skilled hands of Ian Appleyard who was accompanied by his wife,
Patricia (William Lyons’ daughter) as navigator.
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