Did any member visit the London Classic Car Show this year? If not, read on. Your scribe and Steve Potter from the Club plus our friends and fellow petrol-heads, Dennis and John, took a tube to Olympia on Sunday, the last show day, to view the goodies on display in […]
Neil Shanley
We all know Lester, a long standing club member. However, not many may know that his familiar white Jaguar Mk2 is not his only classic. He has a small collection of other marques, mostly in original condition and with a story to tell. Firstly, a bit of background. Lester’s family […]
Following on from last month’s Parked in Palm Springs part 1... We were hoping to see the 26 foot tall Marilyn Monroe statue just off Tahquitz Way, but it was on loan somewhere in Connecticut. Still, not to be thwarted, we saw this excellent mural on Lulu’s California Bistro on […]
If you take Interstate 15, heading south from Las Vegas, then go onto the scenic route via Kelso in the Mojave National Reserve desert, you will pass through Amboy (of which more later) and Cleghorn Lakes / Sheephole Valley Wilderness, then onto the Yucca Valley on Route 62, passing through […]
Just before boarding one of Ryanair’s finest Boeings, I received a text from our very own Warren – Doug, actually – requesting an article on the Warren Classic and Supercar Show that we attended in late September. Well, October sees my time taken with completing HM’s tax return, leaving little […]
A last look at the Louwman Museum Welcome to our final review of the Louwman Museum in The Hague. Along the way, we will take in some fine examples of luxury, racing, lavish and downright odd designs from our motoring heritage. So, fasten your seat belts and enjoy the ride. […]
Lunch over and, before we revel in the delights of the luxury, sporting and downright ostentatious exhibits, let’s take a look at some of the collection’s more off-the-wall offerings. First in the queue is the 1932 Blue Streak Coupe and Curtiss Aerocar Land Yacht. American banker, Hugh McDonald, used this […]
Richard has already written about our trip to the Netherlands this spring (see: ‘Going Dutch‘). The trip was not only fun, but educational. For example, why do I often refer to Holland as The Netherlands? Well, it turns out that The Netherlands comprise twelve provinces and North and South Holland are […]
Following my earlier spread in the July Newsletter on classics spotted during my travels in Seattle, I was inundated with a request for more. So, for this piece I decided to take a look to see what could be found on Vashon – an island nestling in Puget Sound just […]
Seattle,with approximately three quarters of a million inhabitants, is not big by American standards but it is the largest city in Washington state and one of the fastest growing cities in America. Surrounded by vast forests it is easy to see why the early European settlers made logging its number […]
Late last year, the Club night Raffle, I won a prize. My winning ticket wasn’t the first out of the hat, nor even the second, in fact there wasn’t much left when I reached the table to collect my winnings, but there was an unassuming white envelope, looking a little […]
Have you ever experienced one of those days when you are doing a job you have successfully done a hundred times and one that you could teach your pet hamster to perform……and then it all goes wrong? May first, 2017 was one such day. It would have been appropriate if […]
Thursday couldn’t come around soon enough for this was the day my ‘out of office’ reply came on and stayed on for the following four days. This was the day that Steve, Brad and your scribe would head for the Midlands to enjoy the 2017 Classic Motor Show at the […]
The 20th anniversary celebrations of the XK8, well recorded last year in many magazines’ pages, somewhat overshadowed that of another, if less glamourous, of Jaguar’s products. It was, of course, the 50th year since the introduction of the Jaguar 420, marked by Paul Skilleter in the March 2016 issue of […]
Since the publication of the first part of my article on this inspiring venue in April, I have received a deluge of requests from two members asking when the next instalment of the museum trip would be published. Wait no longer, because here it comes. But, before we begin, let […]
Having been let down at the last minute, the chaps at Jaguar World found themselves without a Jaguar 420 to be a photographic model in their spread on the 50th anniversary of the car. Doug was contacted to source a replacement, so “who’s he gonna call…?” A few phone calls […]
Faversham (in Kent) has attracted its fair share of visitors over the centuries. Crucially, it was situated at the head of a navigable creek, offering quick and easy access to Europe, pure spring water and a dry temperate climate well suited for growing crops and grazing cattle. All this lead […]
Some of you may know that Sue and I visit Seattle regularly to catch up with our eldest daughter, who lives out there on the West coast. It’s a great place to be, with an abundance of sights to see and places to go – from the futuristic Space Needle, […]
On 28 February some of our members and partners treated ourselves to a Sunday lunch at the Fox and Goose on the A414 near Chelmsford. The pub has recently been refurbished including an expansion of the existing space and the addition of The Bake House which serves breakfast, light lunch and […]
Like many an old car, when you are thinking of buying an XJS, you need to consider its inherent faults….and there are a few. If you ignore the misguided comparisons that were made at the time with the much-loved, though long in the tooth, E Type that it superseded – but which, […]
A couple of months back Dave Flyn, who runs a well-known fit-out company, called me saying “Clear your diary for September 25th”. “Why?” said I. “Factory visit” came the response. We do a fair bit of that in our line of work, so no surprises there then. Something to look […]
Great Leighs is famous for its brand new, state-of-the-art, horse racing venue, but it is also the home of a much older property. It’s the location of St. Anne’s Castle Inn, now just The Castle, which is believed to be the oldest inn in England. As with many ancient buildings, […]
The penultimate gathering of this popular informal mix of classics and exotica saw a lower turnout than usual, but, as the weather, dull at best, improved to a brighter shade of grey, via a light drizzle, so did the attendance. The Porsche fraternity fielded various iterations of their evergreen 911 […]
A day trip to the Heritage Collection sounded irresistible if, like me, you can’t get enough of car museums. So it was with great anticipation that I set off with our club convoy of Jaguars from Grange Motors in Brentwood in the direction of Warwickshire. Arriving a couple of hours […]