Bicester Heritage Jaguar Event
Discussion
Rain falling steadily here this morning , there will be a lot of Jaguar Men reluctantly taking their cars to this Event dreading the prospect of drying and repolishing their pride and joy , Thats life as Sinatra used to sing , The Great British Summer.....you can never depend on it .
Had an early start taking my son to football on Sunday, with wipers on I saw loads of Jags on the A3 heading towards the M25... particularly enamoured with the 30 something chick driving a XJS convertible... almost had a trouser moment. in the afternoon near Chertsey I saw 2 XKs, 120/150 returning home.... shame I missed it, oh well I m off to Goodwood on Friday, anyone else??
did you take any photos...? What was your car of the day...I was busy all day with organisational stuff. The C-type in the Jaguar Drivers Club area PUR 120 is always pretty special but the car that stole the show for most people was the kid in miniature racing overalls driving around an electric E-type pedal car all day 
I think that was definitely the most photographed car of the day.
I think that was definitely the most photographed car of the day. V12 Migaloo said:
LOL I'm looking at that e type thinking, but man something doesn't look right, the tyres are narrow and the steering wheel huge, then I read your post!!
haha, I guarantee he got the most photos and videos. The car has a proper ignition key and produces a puff of smoke on start up. The boot opens for... erm... storage and it does 7mph. Yours for 14k Had a great day there, thought it was well organised but a little disappointed there was little to see in the hangers.
My ride there c/o my great friend Ted and Christine
In amongst the glitter and chrome this was my favourite the Eagle
The car of the show however was not a Jag at all but rather this unique Aston
My ride there c/o my great friend Ted and Christine
In amongst the glitter and chrome this was my favourite the Eagle
The car of the show however was not a Jag at all but rather this unique Aston
reddiesel said:
Car of the Show an Aston ?? Surely not . 
It looks like some Pricey Zagato concoction .
Indeed! ..well it was for me anyway. It looks like some Pricey Zagato concoction .Edited by reddiesel on Tuesday 6th July 05:55
I'm a real Jag nut, have been since early teens, I've had more than a few and I've even been lucky to work at JLR both Whitley and Gaydon so I don't really think my politics are in doubt.
There were a plethora of Jag's on display; it's why I wanted to go, but after a while, "sameness" creeps in.
There was a lovely white Series 1 (1.5?) E Type, once owned by one/two of the Dave Clark Five, lovely patina to it. There was also a very original early white DHC which I thought fabulous and then there was a sherwood green FHC 1.5 with silver painted wires.
Which way do I turn next? - Oh yes ...Walkinshaw's XJS , Paul Roach's Mk1 Hawthorn tribute and I even sat in a '66 4.2 Mk10- now that brought back memories and even a moist eye as it was Dad's old car and one which I cherished and polished through my myopic adolescent eyes as to it's faults as a young teenage boy.
So why do I say the Zagato was the star for me? It's because, and I say this not to heckle - it's just my point of view, nothing had moved forward with the exception of the Eagle Speedster that I pictured above.
I really like good design. A few years ago I posted in another PH forum the merits of the Voisin thinking perhaps it might enlighten a good discussion, alas I got flamed and accused of having a dram too many late at night...as if one could ever say that of a man with Irish genes..tsk tsk ...
A contributor to another forum said that Ian Callum ruined Jaguar design. I think there was merit in that statement although I think the damage was done by styling clinics and a Ford push towards retro. The XK8 that we went to Bicester in was a lovely "wafty thing " but as a std XK8 was a mile away from my own X150 and I do acknowledge the technological advances and speed differences of the product lifecycle in bringing them to market, but why retro?
Mr C's, push toward a Jag being an exhaust popping and banging car is something I left behind when I fitted twin Peco exhausts to my TR6 (a Callum favourite) and of which he demonstrated in his own CMC Mk2 - it just looked "rock n' roll" to me, far to far from a Jag and the countenance of fantastic dynamics by Mr Cross got hidden- the XE in point. Was this the fault of design or marketing?. . I was so looking forward to watching Julian Thompson emerge from the metaphorical chrysalis; such a crying shame he had to hang on his XJ sword.
This is not a character assassination on Mr C, far from from it. Product design is no longer the preserve of a single man , rather a whole product/project team governed by milestones and gateway's. Ford did well to bin the XJ42; project management was one of the many assets/disciplines they brought to Jaguar and I applaud and thank them for it.
But I opened by stating that the Zagato was the car of the show for me at Bicester and the reason why is because to me,it pushed forward on those boundaries that exemplify good design; the overall aesthetics, the line, the details (Z embossed grille and seats) the acknowledgment of the past (double bubble roof) whilst pushing the design envelope further forward without it becoming a pastiche. Quilted seats and aluminium turned dashboard in the Mulliner Bentley Azure a case in point.
Good design pushes forward in performance as well,not just aesthetics e.g. lightweight E Types and that's why I really admire the pastel blue/cream speedster E Type; not because of the price tag, because that's the price if you want engineering integrity but rather that it pushes the performance envelope and yet acknowledges it's pedigree.
Good design pushes creativity, desirability and performance in a package, and that to me is what Jaguar has always been. Yes for sure , sometimes off mark (pun intended) but more oft' than not, on the money, and we know the lineage...
Bicester, for me, was an admiration of the past, but to the future and therefore the car of the show, hidden amongst everything else in the "common" car park was the Zagato.
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