Day 4: A Journey At Jaguar

Spending the day at Jaguar was an absolute treat for a petrolhead (as I’ve learned they call gearheads in the UK). From the top down it’s a car company that feels infused with a rather glorious type of passion and it’s an extremely contagious emotional experience. Especially when you spend part of the day in a new XKR – which is not only a stunner of a car but the fastest production Jaguar ever built!

We spent some time with both Bibiana Boerio, the managing director of the company, and Julian Thomson, who’s the head designer of the advanced design studio. Both struck me as unique individuals in that they dispensed with the usual PR catch phrases and instead spoke with their passion for the brand. The folks at Jaguar refer to it as having “the green blood”—their way of recalling the British Racing Green paint on racing Jags from the past. As I’ve come to realize there are many forms of passion in this world, but true automotive or motorcycle passion is something that tends to transcend a mere love for a vehicle and enters into an actual belief and/or belief system. The folks at Jaguar truly believe not only in their products but perhaps more importantly their history. In the greater automotive industry I tend to think that’s not always the reality.

This was highlighted when we left the advanced design studio and traveled to the Brownes-Lane factory location where the current Jaguar museum is located. What we found inside was spectacular. A Jaguar historian named Neil took us on a journey through the company’s history, starting with the very first Jaguar product – a sidecar for a motorcycle!

I had read about it before we had arrived, but had no idea how shocking it was to see the very first product in person. Most folks would probably never believe that such a quintessential British car company would have gotten its start making a motorcycle product, but they did. Of course back then they were not called Jaguar, but rather Swallow Sidecars, which obviously eventually changed to the now household name Jaguar. From there we glanced at all sorts of various machines including several of the famed racing Jags.

My absolute favorite was a rainbow colored Formula One car that was painted to show where the greatest forces hit the car when it’s racing. I’ve seen a lot of tricked out cars, but that was special. Not so much for the paint job, but rather for the inspiration behind it. Very cool.

Finally we got to spend some time with Ian Appleyard’s famed NUB XK-120 car. It is perhaps the most famous Jaguar of all time. The car won the Alpine Rallies of ’51 and ’52 and the Tulip Rally in ’51 and thus became one of the most successful rally cars of all time.

When you get a chance to see such a famous car in person it’s a very strange experience. On one hand it’s just a motionless object that’s sitting in front of you, but once you run your hand over the bonnet and actually feel the car it becomes something quite different. The act of tactile communication reveals the uniqueness of the moment and you find yourself imagining just how it must have felt to bounce around on the far less well-paved asphalt of years gone by on the way towards victory.

The preservation of this kind of history is a magnificent thing to see and the folks at Jaguar take the task very seriously. But not to the point of excessive museum artwork. When I asked if it was possible to have the car moved for our interview, the attitude was not the typical ‘oh we can’t touch the car’, but rather, ‘absolutely! Where do you want it?’. As a car fan, there’s nothing I enjoy seeing more than people who love their history but feel free to use it. How wonderful is that?