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Visit to the Jaguar Heritage Museum 17 May 2012
Once again our journey takes us north to the Midlands, and in particular the capital of the once great British Motor industry, that is Coventry/Birmingham, more specifically Browns Lane, Coventry the home of Jaguar, or what is left of it. Since being bought by Ford, this famous British Company now linked with Landrover, has moved to Castle Bromwich. The Museum remains the last bastion of this once legendary car manufacturer, in the middle of an inevitable new housing development, but surprise surprise, the Museum is also due to relocate shortly, no doubt a greedy developer (don’t you just love em ?), has made Ford an offer that they can’t refuse. Shortly after our arrival, the Curator of the Museum stepped forward to present a “potted’ history of Jaguar from the days of its foundation in Blackpool, through the pre war days as ‘SS sidecars’, and the then cars built in conjunction with other manufacturers, i.e. Austin, Standard,
etc under the name of Swallow, not forgetting of course the SS100, which now sells at Auction for prices approaching £250,000..
Post war brought of course the birth of the legendary ‘XK’ engine, and with it the pure design genius of William Lyons expressed in such beautiful models as the Xk120/140/150, and of course one of the sexiest cars of all times the E Type. Not surprisingly many sporting achievements were to follow, and the inimitable designs carried through almost to the current day. By now I think that you may have got the impression that I am a bit of a Jaguar enthusiast ?.
The Curator should be congratulated, his knowledge and attention to detail was immaculate. There followed of course, the inevitable opportunity for photographs, of which the following are but a very small sample of the beautiful cars on display
1968 XJR9 : 1988 Le Mans winner
1938 SS100
1932 Wolseley Hornet Swallow
SS 11 Coupe
1966 Daimler Corsica
2002, R3 F1, Stewart(Jackie) Ford
The Museum has around 120 cars in its collection, but, with a number out on loan, at various other locations, e.g. Coventry Transport Museum, there was probably only 40/50 during our visit, but what a collection. Our visit took about two hours, so Jerry & Julie decided to take us for a flying visit to Coventry Transport Museum for those that hadn’t visited before. from the reaction that I heard, I think that a future visit may be imminent.
Austintatious