‘People tell me I was born in the wrong era’
Started after his modern Porsche 911 let him down, Jayesh Patel’s unusual collection has been driven by chance and impulse, rather than any plan
‘Santander thought there might be fraudulent activity on my bank card. But I’d bought another car’
Yes, I suppose it is a bit of a strange storage solution,’ says Jayesh Patel as he leads me through the lush woodland behind his North London home to an elongated carport. Collectors usually favour rustic barns or high-tech industrial units, but Jayesh and wife Ameeta prefer the natural setting surrounding their modernist house. The cars hide under breathable covers finished in green to match the garden, or lurk tantalisingly behind shrubs or artfully weathered depictions of Hindu Gods.
‘My passion is for driving, enjoying and sharing the cars,’ Jayesh explains. ‘I drive each one every week to ten days. If they were locked away in a garage I wouldn’t have the same urge to go and drive them, or just appreciate them. I can drive any of them straight out on to the road without manoeuvring anything out of the way.
‘People tell me I was born in the wrong era, but I’ve no desire to live in the past – I’m not sure we would’ve appreciated cars like these in the way we do now.
‘My first classic, bought 20 years ago, was an Aston Martin DB6, back when they were cheap. It would overheat at some point on every drive, and every trip to the garage cost me £2000. I ended up selling it for £14,000, a small loss, but it gives me sleepless nights because it’d be worth £250k today even in that state. But at least I owned a DB6.’
Jayesh and Ameeta went through a trial-anderror period. A mouldy £5000 Mercedes 190 ‘Fintail’ to which Ameeta proved allergic was soon replaced by an imported Mexican VW Beetle, which ended up being wrecked by a careless motorist on a wet road in Reading. A nearly-new Porsche 993 replaced the Beetle and was Jayesh’s only car for four years. Bitten by the 911 bug, he traded it in for a secondhand 997.
‘The intermediate driveshaft bearings went – a problem seemingly known to everyone except Porsche,’ exclaims Jayesh. ‘It cost so much to fix, and I also realised that for the price of that one 997 I could have a whole collection of classics.’
Mercedes-benz 300 SE ‘3.5’
‘After selling the Fintail, I still fancied a Mercedes, but I didn’t want to spend £70k-£80k on a 280 SE 3.5,’ Jayesh recalls. ‘But Chelsea Cars was selling a similar-looking 300 SE for a lot less, so I called my friend Keerti and we went round to have a look. When I left the house, Ameeta said “Don’t buy anything!”
‘It was tucked away at the back of the showroom, didn’t seem to be a nice colour, and had been fitted with a 3.5-litre V8 from a 1971 car. I decided to take a test-drive anyway, and as it moved into the sunlight I just thought “wow!” Even at low speeds on Chelsea roads I knew I couldn’t leave without buying it.
‘Not long after, I got a call from Ameeta. “Santander just called saying there could be possible fraudulent activity on your bank card,” she said. “Er – I’m afraid I’ve bought a car…” I replied. To celebrate, I booked a table at Hakasan, my favourite Asian fusion restaurant in Mayfair, picked Ameeta up and had a fantastic Friday evening. It felt right; everyone young and old loved the car wherever it went. Then on Saturday morning the gearbox failed.
‘I stood on the driveway thinking “What have I done?” and thought about selling it when David, a neighbour of mine drove by and screeched to a halt. “Just have it fixed – what have you got to lose?” he said. I called Chelsea Cars, which honoured the warranty. It hasn’t gone wrong since and starts every time. It’s not a proper 280 SE 3.5, but it does everything that a real one does, plus I prefer the earlier big-grille shape.’
Jaguar E-type 2+2
‘I was playing golf with my friend Bob, and he said there were two cheap E-types for sale in the Jaguar Owners’ Club magazine – which was the wrong thing to tell me, obviously,’ jokes Jayesh. ‘This one is a 1970 2+2 automatic with period power steering. Not the most desirable, but it’s completely original with only 14,000 miles from new. This made it different – nearly all E-types are restored and as-new these days. ‘It was for sale in Edinburgh and I booked a one-way flight, which says a lot. Just imagine my surprise when I arrived and found myself face-to-face with John Cleland! At the time he ran a modern Jaguar dealership and had a local client – Dr Irene Prosser – who had owned this E-type from new. It was bought for her by her father after she graduated from medical school. She drove it around London but put it into storage when she moved to Edinburgh – hence its low mileage.
‘Cleland bought it and drove it himself for a couple of years. He took me out on the local lanes and drove it like the touring-car champion he is. I was especially surprised at how responsive the gearbox was. After he demonstrated it, I wasn’t put off at all.
‘I drove it all the way back from Edinburgh to London, an amazing trip down the east coast, stopping off at a friend’s house in Nottingham en route. He was amazed that such an old car had made it, but it’s fantastic to drive. It suits my height too – people often struggle with older cars, but I can’t say I have that problem! ‘Nowadays it’s the only one of my cars I keep in a proper garage, in order to preserve its originality. Ameeta doesn’t like the plastic headrest covers but they are Seventies originals. As is the cigarette burn on the centre console and the blown-in patch on the bonnet – during an earlier recommissioning a mechanic left a tool under the bonnet before shutting it, which made a dent. I could get it fixed but it’s all part of the car’s story.’
Ferrari Mondial
‘An uncle of mine had a Mondial in the Eighties,’ says Jayesh of his Ferrari-enthusiast family. ‘Again, I wasn’t looking for another Ferrari, but I drove past West Sussex Sports Cars en route to Goodwood and this silver Ferrari Mondial 3.2 was parked outside looking slightly sorry for itself.
‘I like Ferraris, but I don’t want to feel like I’m making a statement – one of the reasons why neither of mine is red. This was only £17,000, one of just 92 right-hand-drive examples, and I loved it. It’s got four proper seats, a proper boot, and the passage of time is making its shape retro-cool. I had to buy it.
‘But I’m considering selling it, because when I want to drive a Ferrari I take the 348. Also, I ended up putting a cigar in there to create a particular smell. I’m not a smoker but I love the smell of a cigar, and it just suited this car with its red leather and the era it was built in. It’s got a very strong leather smell that needs covering with something else – Ameeta won’t go near it.’
Chevrolet Corvette Stingray
Jayesh’s collection follows no particular pattern, but even then his orange Corvette stands out. ‘We were going on holiday to California, and I thought we’d stop off at some classic car dealerships while we drove the Pacific Coast Highway,’ he says. ‘I started to do some research online beforehand to work out where the best ones were. Before I knew it I was negotiating on this Corvette online with an American Ferrari specialist, who had bought it to restore.
‘When I called in during the holiday, I just picked the colour I wanted and went home.
‘The specialist was a really passionate guy but the restoration took for ever, and when it arrived in the UK it looked nice but underneath things weren’t right. I took it to American Specialist Cars and had a phone call later saying “You need to come down here.” Odd things had happened, like a suspension rebuild in which the worn-out bottom bushes had been replaced but not the equally bad top ones, and the hydraulics controlling the headlamp pods and windscreen wiper cover weren’t working. It wouldn’t pass an MOT test. It’s fantastic now but the bills really piled up.
‘With its T-roof it’s totally different from my other cars. NASA astronauts were given them - I’ve got a photo somewhere of the Apollo 11 crew with theirs. I took it to the Goodwood Revival last year where it was well received. It needs to be louder, though. It’s great, but it needs to be more, well… orange…’
Aston Martin V8
‘As with many of my cars, I wasn’t actually looking for an Aston Martin V8 when I found it, but I was missing my old DB6. They’re unaffordable now, but V8s were still just about within reach.
‘I tried one for sale at Runnymede and hated it, even though I was assured it was a good example, and ended up buying a Jensen Interceptor instead after reading a Classic Cars comparison feature. But the Aston is handbuilt. Over a year or so I drove three, and they were all different owing to their handbuilt origins.
‘A guy called Peter had this one. He operates Aston London, based in an unlikely location under a railway arch. I spotted it after driving past, went in and learned it was for sale. It broke down on the test-drive and we ended up having to push it back, but I loved it. It wasn’t Madagascar Brown – the Seventies colour that I really wanted – and in the Nineties it had been bought by a banker who had it restored by Goldsmith and Young as a 1977 Vantage lookalike complete with badge, even though it’s otherwise still a standard Series 2 V8. The thing is, it’s these imperfections that encourage me to use it. I’d get too precious about it if it were perfect. I wasn’t sure about its aesthetics at first but now it’s my second-favourite after the 348.’
Ferrari 348 GTB
‘If I could only keep one, this would be it,’ says Jayesh excitedly of his deep blue Italian supercar. ‘I love the way it looks, obviously, but what’s surprising is how comfortable it is. It’s not hard-riding or cramped at all. We’re planning to take it on a trip to Italy, to Maranello and the Amalfi Coast. It’s one of just 14 right-handdrive 348 GTBS – the later version with various modifications and quality improvements over the original 348tb. It’s very raw – no power steering or ABS – but I like that. People say the F355 is better but they’re just very different cars.
‘Another uncle had a Testarossa in the Eighties. I didn’t appreciate it the way I perhaps should have back then; I was clearly too young. But now I love the design. It’s the baby Testarossa, and does everything I want a Ferrari to do.’