A Trip To The Jagma Hall
Let's face it. Jaguar drivers have it rough. Mustang lovers can make a pilgramage to Detroit. Corvette fans have Bowling Green. Duesenberg fans can trek to Auburn, Indiana. But us Jag aficianados have a bit of a tougher trek to get to the birthplace of our favorite mode of transportation. So being stationed in the UK, I counted myself lucky that I was going to be able to visit Coventry without having to spend a camel-choking sum of money flying there.
The official museum of Jaguar is managed by the keeper of Jaguar history, the Jaguar Daimler Heritage Trust. Their facility is located at the old Browns Lane plant in Coventry. It's just a short 1:45 minute drive from RAF Alconbury where I live which put it high on my list of things to do while in the UK. However, being that the museum is only open the last Sunday of every month, fitting a visit into my schedule was a bit tough. An opening in March finally arose and I siezed it. Accompanied by my friend and co-worker Stacy (who decided to come along anyway even though there were no motorcycles involved) and a printout from Google Maps, I headed west to the closest thing to a holy site a Jaguar fan can have.
Getting there was a fairly easy task; we only got lost once, stumbling onto Coventry Transport Museum while we were at it so I now have another reason to visit the city. Once we located the musuem on the west edge of town, we made a U-turn and backtracked looking for some lunch. Having not seen anything resembling a good place to eat on the way in I was just about ready to make a bee-line for McDonalds when Stacy pointed out a pub that was right at the turn-off for Browns Lane. We decided to check out The Tollgate Pub and Carvery and were glad we did. For £8.50 we each loaded up on fresh cooked ham, turkey and roast beef plus a wide assortment of seasoned vegetables and a pint of ale. I declared everything excellent to which Stacy concurred by cleaning her plate. Mind you, this is the only time I've ever seen that happen so the chef at the pub should be justly proud of himself.
After stuffing ourselves, we decided to walk some of it off and headed for the museum. After passing through the visitor's gate, we followed the looooong yellow line to the museum which is located on the back side of the now empty Browns Lane plant in a rather small but very nice building. Driving to it does give you a good view of what was once Jaguar's prime factory, though.
Now I don't know about Stacy, but I was suitably impressed by the sight that greeted us as we entered. The collection of cars is loosely organized in a chronological fashion starting on the left and proceeding in a semi-circle. Beginning with an original Swallow Side Car, the collection takes you through each and every model Swallow and Jaguar ever built including the Daimlers. Along with standard production cars like the fairly "ordinary" XKs, there are one off models like the R Coupe show car as well as several nifty engine cutaways (which in this picture neatly shows how far we've come since the 1914 Daimler 14HP Tonneau Tourer in the background).
The staff at the museum are very friendly and quite knowledgable about the collection. One car had an information sign in front of it stating that it was a 2005 S-Type. It most definately wasn't and when Stacy asked one of the staff members about this, he apologized for the confusion and proceeded to tell us all about the beautiful black 1949 Mark V 3.5L Saloon we were looking (drooling) at.
One of the best things about this museum is that none of the cars are behind any sort of barriers; you can get right in there and examine every external detail without having to resort to your camera's zoom lense. This allowed Stacy to get up close to her declared favorite, the XJ220. And although you are not allowed to touch the cars, each one of them has a window down allowing you to peer in and take a good up close look at their interiors (and get a good whiff of what your car might smell like in about 60 years).
Besides being a museum, the facility is also the archival repository for all things related to Jaguar manufacturing. If you visit the place don't forget to bring copies of your Jag's registration. For £30 they will take that information, research your vehicle and send you copies of everything that have on it. It's a keen way to learn details about your car and a nice compliment to it should you ever want to sell it (but why would you want to do that?).
After browsing the collection of hallowed cars we headed into the small gift shop. Since admission is free, this is where the museum makes a tidy portion of its money. There we learned that the museum will be moving to a new building that is being built near the Jaguar Engineering Center in Whitley on the southeast side of Coventry. This new building will be large enough to house the entire car collection which is something the current facility can't do and the reason I didn't get to see one of my car's bretheren, their 1987 Series III 4.2L Sovereign. And it was a downer to find out that the storied Browns Lane plant was now empty of everything Jaguar related except the exterior signs and various bits of office furniture.
So after all this fun and frolic (and me buying a couple of souvenirs to help out the cause) we decided to head home. Again, I don't know about Stacy but the two hour drive was worth it for me. I was completely satisfied with my trip to the one true shrine of all things Jaguar. And I can't wait to go back when the new facility opens.
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