Jaguar Journal March/April 2023

I am by nature optimistic. There’s no particular merit in this, it’s just how I’m wired. There are disadvantages as well as advantages to having a generally sunny disposition, chief of which is perhaps a tendency to ignore warning signs of something unpleasant or dangerous that is about to happen and failing to take an imminent threat seriously. Whilst not quite ‘cruising for a bruising,’ like Voltaire’s Candide, on balance I accept the occasional unpleasant surprise as the price for accentuating the positive and tending to seek out a constructive spin in most situations, however gloomy. You win some, you lose some. Lots of us were surprised by the suddenness of the late Queen Elizabeth’s death, albeit she was obviously not long for this world, given her age. What I…

The old saying “Half a loaf is better than none” is similar to the one about a glass being half full or half empty, depending on your point of view. In these times of major changes in personal transport, making firm predictions is risky but it seems likely that the current crop of internal combustion vehicles will eventually come to be seen as an anomaly in the coming world of zero emissions motoring. We could (and probably should) debate the true meaning and feasibility of ‘zero’ emissions but you don’t have to be Nostradamus to imagine a world not very far away where zooming around behind triple SUs that slurp premium gasoline will be frowned on (half a loaf?) or possibly even prohibited at certain times or places (none). If…

Full disclosure: Jaguar Journal has not covered JLR’s racing efforts as thoroughly as we might have. We covered the launch five years ago and have mentioned it occasionally since, but little more. Reasons/excuses include less than stellar results at first, combined with the risks of believing one’s own hype and subsequent underperformance of Jaguar’s last foray into Formula 1. Nevertheless, with Jaguar’s declared intention to sell some form of electric version of each model, their continuing presence in the Formula E World Championship series certainly fits the brand image and hopefully provides tangible technical and publicity benefits. At the end of 2022 the Jaguar TCS Racing team revealed their 2023 entry – the I-TYPE 6 – as the most advanced and efficient electric Jaguar race car ever, designed to win…

As 2023 moves forward, I want to take this opportunity to thank all of you for the support you have shown me as I work my way through steadying this organization for our mutual success. Many of you have approached me at events with positive comments and told me how happy you are that I accepted the challenges this job entails. I appreciate that. 2022 was a year that brought many challenges my way, especially when it came to keeping my promise of attending more North Central regional club events. As I prepare to attend the 2023 AGM, it seems like it was only yesterday that we were hosting the 2022 AGM in Wisconsin. Speaking of 2022, I was hopeful that the concours results report submitted as part of the…

The South Central clubs of JCNA continue the recovery from the covid outbreak. Concours, rally and slalom events have mostly returned to normal schedules and attendances. The major event in the South Central Region was the 2022 International Jaguar Festival that was held in Dallas, Texas, in October and hosted by the Jaguar Owners Association of North Texas (JOANT). The event was an overwhelming success, including a field of 70 vehicles entered in the concours, many models of which have not been presented for many years. The IJF was a truly international event, as the special guest was Tony Merrygold, manager of Vehicle Collections for the Jaguar Daimler Heritage Trust in Gaydon, England. Tony presented an insightful keynote presentation during the awards banquet. The 2022 IJF also provided slalom and…

At the end of 2022 year, the four Canadian JCNA-affiliated clubs conducted a review of the years and models of Jaguar owned by club members. The Ontario Jaguar Owners Association, Canadian XK Jaguar Registry, Jaguar Car Club of Victoria and the Canadian Prairies Jaguar Club together accounted for 693 ‘cats’ in the Canadian clowder, including three replicas. The Ontario club had the most, with 277 Jaguars (mostly in the greater Toronto area), followed by the XK Registry in the Vancouver region (196), the Victoria club with 155 and the year-old Canadian Prairies club with 65. The graph shows the numbers analyzed by model year, (with nine JCCV cars without a model year shown only in the table). While there are some specialty models of Jaguars, it was necessary to group…