ENGLISH ADDITION

William Lyon’s first small Jaguar in 1955, the Mark 1, laid the foundations for what was to become one of the great British sporting saloon cars on road and track. Jaguar Mark 1s are pretty thin on the ground in New Zealand these days, especially complete road-registered examples, so Mike Bish’s car will soon be a welcome addition to the numbers.

Mike actually had two Mark 1 body shells, the first of which he rescued from a shed in Titirangi owned by Warren Strong in 2013. This was a 1956 model with the small grille (nine bar). “When we got it home and checked it, we found that it would need completely new floors and sills and it really was too much work to do,” Mike said.

Back in the 1970s, Mike worked for a wellknown motor industry identity, Ross Jensen, at Ross Jensen Motors in Auckland. Mike admired the Mark 1, Mark 2s, and Daimler V8-250s coming through the garage, and this kindled his liking for the distinctive Jaguars. When he learnt of a well-stored Mark 1 in Tauranga four years ago, he arranged to buy it with the aim to use its better body.

“The car belonged to a Douglas Graham Bell, and he had owned it since 1971. He worked overseas and kept the car registration on hold while it was stored in his father’s barn,” Mike told us.

Built between 1955 and 1959, Mike’s second car is a 1957-registered example, but he decided to stay with the earlier 1956 narrow-grille look, which he preferred, and this is how the car is about to be completed and registered.

“I’ve still got the original registration papers and it shows that Bell owned it for quite a few years,” he said.

In 2015, Mike attended the 50th anniversary of the Mark 1 saloon held at the West Sussex Mike Hawthorn Museum, opened by Nigel Webb in 2009. His father was a friend of 1958 world champion Formula 1 driver Mike Hawthorn, who died in a road crash while driving his Jaguar in 1959. The museum is home to a substantial collection of memorabilia and race cars, including Jaguars.

“There were some 60 Jaguars from all over Britain and Europe at the anniversary, so it was quite a turn out. We had to send the chassis number of our car to receive an invite,” Mike said.

The anniversary was also attended by former Jaguar test-development driver Norman Dewis. In addition, Mike added that “[t]he grandson of Jaguar designer Bill Haynes was also there, along with Jaguar founder William Lyons’ grandson, who brought with him the original blueprints for the Mark 1.”

While in Britain, Mike contacted specialist upholster Aldridge Trimming and purchased a complete interior kit in the original red leather for his car. As is often the case, the foam inserts in his car needed replacement, and he entrusted Joel Gibbons of Traditional Upholstery Waimauku to complete the interior.

Fitted with Jaguar’s short-stroke 2.4-litre six-cylinder engine, Mike’s car appeared to have had quite a bit of money spent on it.

“When we first turned it over, it was showing full compression on just two cylinders. I poured some transmission oil into the cylinders and left it a few days. We tried again and it registered 150psi on every cylinder,” he explained.

Generally in good shape throughout the main body area, Mike found that Douglas Bell had also done a bit of work on the doors with repair sections fitted, and the body had been cleaned up by the media blaster.

“We had to make repairs in all the usual places for one of these Jaguars; for example, the area where the Panhard rod mounts, and I strengthened that,” he said.

Sourcing parts had been the most challenging and time-consuming task in restoring the Jaguar, and Mike had made regular enquiries at Jaguar specialists Martin Robey and SNG Barratt in Britain. “I completely rebuilt the front suspension. I also ordered a heap of rubber bits from Basis in Renwick which just arrived,” he said.

The Mark 1 came standard with drum brakes all round, and Mike has decided to keep these. “I wanted to keep the car as close as possible to original so the brake drums were kept, and I had all the wheel cylinders fitted with stainless inserts. The only other modification is I have replaced the generator with an alternator,” he said.

This particular car is fitted with an overdrive gearbox, which makes cruising just a little less strained for the 2.4-litre engine, which is not renowned for torque. Mike said, “I’ve driven the car around the yard a bit under its own power and it seems to be going fine.”

Assisted by his son, Nigel, the Jaguar is now painted in the correct factory Olde English White colour, and the car is starting to take shape, in spite of a lot of detail work that still needs to be completed. For example, rust has destroyed a lot of the original window runner channels inside the doors and these will have to be remade. “Like the cars it shares the garage with, a Ford T-bird and a GT Falcon, it will be a dry-weather car,” he laughed.

A bonus for longer trips will be the longer range flat-glass headlamps that came with the car, and he has fitted these with halogen bulbs. Many Jaguars have the more common oval glass–type headlamps.

Once completed, Mike is looking forward to longer trips, especially to the South Island.