THE CAR, THE TWIG AND THE PRINCE

An alarm shrieks its banshee wail of urgency. It’s 4:45am, May 8th – Ring! Ring! Down in deepest Dorset nothing stirs except in the Pett household, as John and Penny get ready for the big day. After a quick breakfast for the humans, “YUS” – the 1948 Jaguar 3-5 Litre Saloon Mark IV – is awoken for its longest journey to date- 115 miles to Windsor Castle for the “Great Day Out” and return in one day.

It is 8:00am and we find ourselves lost in Windsor. Two other beautiful Parade Jaguars pass in the other direction: these are quickly flagged down and we turn around and follow them to the Long Walk.

Having parked, the bonnet was opened to allow the engine to cool down after the long journey and before the Parade (which was now in about 90 minutes time). On looking at the carburettors, it was evident that the automatic choke in between them was somehow loose and missing a retaining spring! When attempting to restart the engine, petrol vapour poured out of the choke and we felt that our trip to Windsor Park had come to an end and we would not make the Parade.

It was at this point that those Jaguar stalwarts Brian Gibbins and David Chappell from their 1933 SS1 came over to see what was going on. On inspection they asked if I had a piece of wood! I replied that I did not, wondering if these gentlemen were on the same planet as myself. David then went over to the Royal hedge, removed a twig and brought it back. Asking me for masking tape and string, which I did have, they proceeded in 5 minutes to repair the choke by putting the twig across the choke and binding the twig appropriately which held the choke tightly in place. The choke was now sealed and the petrol could continue to flow. I fired up the engine and presto! With ten minutes to go before the Parade we seemed to be well placed. The hope was that the twig would hold in place.

After the Parade had finished Prince Edward came round to look at the cars and on seeing YUS came over and I lifted the bonnet to show him the emergency repair with part of his Royal Garden. He was much amused and commented that you could not do that with a modern car!

When we got home some friends rang to say we had been on Sky News at 7pm with Prince Edward looking under the bonnet at the repair. For the three of us, Penny, myself and YUS, it was our five seconds of fame and evidence of our attendance!