Jaguar XJ6
John goes Dutch with a fellow XJ6 S1 enthusiast at JLR Classic
1972 JAGUAR XJ6 4.2 SWB SERIES 1
The event I was most determined my Jaguar should attend over summer was the Jaguar Enthusiasts’ Club’s ( JEC) XJ50 celebration, held at Jaguar Land Rover Classic on the Saturday and Wroxall Abbey on the Sunday. It started with a rather depressing record, though – filling the car’s twintanks with high-octane cost me a wallet-bending £111.52, the most I’ve ever spent on petrol in one go.
The Saturday visit to JLR Classic’s new facility in what was the old Rootes/Peugeot works at Ryton-on-Dunsmore was a great start to the weekend. If any government minster ever doubts just how massive – and thus important – the classic car industry is to UK plc, they should be marched around this place and made to understand it. It’s an amazing homage to JLR’s glorious past and by developing new technology for old cars, as has been done with the E-type Concept Zero, JLR Classic is also keeping the history alive as a developing entity rather than just preserving it. That a major manufacturer should be prepared to invest in a facility this impressive shows foresight and imagination. TATA really does expect to run JLR forever, and that kind of commitment means long-term plans and investments can be made. As a long standing lover of all things Jaguar, I reckon that’s to be applauded.
Being able to look through the huge and eclectic James Hull collection, albeit at a distance and without a camera, was also fascinating. From a Citron Yellow Austin Allegro to Mike Hailwood’s bright yellow Iso Grifo (by far the non-JLR car I most wanted), a Buick surf-wagon and many more, it’s a truly astounding group of cars.
I parked up at JLR Classic next to a silver left-hand-drive SWB XJ6 Series 1 manual overdrive – very similar to my car, but with a black interior – and was delighted to meet owner Marisca Urbanu and husband Roland who had driven from southern Holland to attend the weekend.
Marisca fell in love with the S1’s shape as a child, just like I did. She said: ‘I bought her in 2015 after looking for years. I wanted a Series 1, an original Dutch car and a manual as I don’t like automatics.
‘The man selling her cried because he had to sell her after 30 years, and I cried because I could buy her!’
My car completed the weekend without any major issues but has since developed a strange noise when changing gear, and a regularly flattening battery. Preliminary investigations seem to point to a sheared rubber in the gearbox mounting and more woes with the seemingly incurable ignition switch.