THE ANNUAL collaboration between the Jaguar Daimler Heritage Trust, the Jaguar Breakfast Club and the British Motor Museum is now in its third year, but naturally the 2022 event was always going to be something special. After all, with a certain pandemic having interrupted car shows for so long now people were keen to get out and of course there was also the small matter of the Jaguar centenary to celebrate.
The 100 years proved an ideal opportunity for the JDHT to bring out into the late summer sunshine some of the icons from the earliest days of William Lyons’ automotive career. Regular BMM visitors will have seen the collection’s Brough Superior with Swallow sidecar before and at Gaydon it was joined by a similarly Swallow-equipped Norton wearing the firm’s ‘Super Sports’ Model 4 design.
Nick Shakespeare’s 1946 MkIV earns its keep as a wedding car. This Norton 16H with Swallow Super Sports sidecar could be yours: it’s in the Bonhams motorcycle sale on October 16. Swallow-bodied 1931 Seven had a lovely patina and was driven to Gaydon from the South coast. Andy Barron’s 1980 XJ-S is the first to use the ‘P Digital’ injection. Watch out for a full feature in JW soon. A highlight of the day was hearing the XJ13’s quad-cam V12 fired up, the car performing several demo runs up the driveway. Lovely V12 Daimler coupe was enhanced by a manual conversion using a periodcorrect four-speeder. A right-hand drive car, it has a curious history in that it was supplied originally to the USA.An XJ40-era XJR was a rare sight, this 1994 example having only recently been recommissioned. Acting as escort for the XJ13 was the JDHT’s recently restored police-spec XJ-S, a period demonstr
