The classic car season culminates in the indoor event of the year for the Jaguar Enthusiasts’ Club as we scoop the “Event of the Year 2017” award. The end of season event was the perfect time to celebrate all the hard work that the team at the JEC put in to the amazing “Royal Windsor Jaguar Festival”. Graham Searle, Richard Kidson, Ralph Speth and Peter Purdom show off the winning award and get ready to draw the winning raffle ticket.
New year, new stand.
2017 has seen the Club embark on some changes to its event presentation, starting back in March of this year with the Restoration Show. Celebrating the 25th Anniversary of the XJ220 we wanted to stand out from the crowd so when the organisers the theme as being “Family ties” we knew as Jaguar enthusiasts’ we had the perfect answer, after all the XJ220 was “the” super car when launched at the NEC 25 years before. So super cars were the order of the day. Enter a new bigger events team and we had all the ingredients to put a stand together that not only wowed in terms of the cars, but in our presentation too.
Lindner Nocker Lightweight
Once we had the idea of presenting some of Jaguar’s more iconic cars we then had to get the cars. First up on our list was the E-Type, most cherished of Jaguars past, but none more so than the lightweight E-Type. With only 12 originally built this was the unicorn of the design, so when Peter Neumark heard our idea, the famous Lindner Nocker was ours for the show. Not only that, but a member of CMC would be on hand everyday to help talk people through the car and its almost as famous 7000 man hour Restoration. 1 down, 5 more cars to find.
More speed
Next up Don Law gave us a choice. Do you want the original wooden mould for the XJ220, XJR12 another XJ220? Well for us it had to be the “Bud Light” XJR12, winner of this years Festival of Speed at Goodwood. Winner of the 1990 Le Mans 24 Hours. We are talking about super cars after all, and not many cars can claim to have won Le Mans, unless you mean Jaguar, there are quite a few in its proud history. The XJR12 was confirmed and presented on our stand, race scars an all. Plus we had footage of this years run by Justin Law on our screens for visitors entertainment.
It is its birthday after all
XJ220, it was the cars 25th year so we had to have one. None are as much fun seeing as Colin Manconi’s, this car is a popular attraction wherever it appears and he is never too shy about letting it out for people to enjoy seeing. Driven up from his home it arrived and that was only the start, next we had to make it float! Well, not exactly float, but we had given it pride of place on our turntable. This proved to be just the attraction we thought and crowds flocked all day to see our floating masterpiece.
The future
Originally released to the world in 2010, this car is still a crowd pleasing future concept, the C-X75, kind courtesy of Jaguar themselves. This is one of my personal favourites, classic Jaguar lines, mixed with a futuristic power train without being (as “Phil Bell” said) “too retro”. The car recently appeared in James Bond’s last outing in Spectre, all be it with a 5ltr V8, not the 850 BHP 1.6 ltr that we had on our stand, yes I did say 1.6 ltr. Finished off in the perfect blue its lines and appeal have made this an instant classic and the performance figures qualify it as a super car what ever the year.
Original Super Car
The early Jaguar’s were super cars of their time, breaking average speeds at Le Mans, developing technology, pushing boundaries and the C-Type was the first Jaguar winner of the famous endurance race Le Mans back in the 1950’s. We tried to get an original example, but with recent rises in the value of these cars it proved to be very difficult and given the volume of people through the event weekend, we took the decision to accept the kind offer from Twyford Moors to use their C-Type accurate recreation as a way of show casing this original Jaguar Supercar.
Draw the crowds
When we proposed our new stand idea we knew we would draw the crowds, but did not think for one minute we would be as busy as we were. The crowds poured on to our stand to enjoy getting up close with the iconic Jaguars and to enjoy the history we presented. We were also really encouraged by the amount of children who were excited by the display and none more encapsulated this than the photo taken by Ian Seabrook, Classic Jaguar magazine. Thank you Ian for sharing this wonderful photo with us.
Event of the Year Winners
Friday night and we were invited to the Classic and Sports Car Club Awards, hosted by Lancaster, shortlisted as finalists for “Event of the year”. We arrived in hopeful spirits and were not disappointed as the Jaguar Enthusiasts’ Club “Royal Windsor Jaguar Festival” scoped the coveted prize. Rover fest and Triumphs unique F1 drivers parade pushed us hard, all wonderful events in any other year would have won the award. The deciding factor being the incredible amount we have raised for our charity through the event to date £95,000!
