The 'E' Type Forum

Been meaning to post up about this for a little while now

Back in June I was privileged to park the old girl in a line-up honouring the E-type's 60th birthday at the London Concours, held across three rare hot and sunny days at the Honourable Artillery Company in the City.

The organisers wanted representative fixed-head and open-top examples of Series 1, 2 and 3 cars, together with couple of select examples illustrating the car's competition history. Being the owner of a Series 2, and living reasonably close to the HAC, and having enjoyed past london Concours events as a spectator, I was happy to oblige......








The slightly surreal experience of finding my humble S2 in a line-up with 'E-type royalty': 77RW, 1 VHP, and HDU 555N. Any thought of 'Oh well, at least the S2 OTS next to me is reasonably run-of-the-mill' was quickly banished when I got chatting to its owner, Michael Quinn, the car having been gifted to him by his grandfather... Sir William Lyons. Michael was a truly lovely guy, and a real pleasure to meet.





Here's my jalopy looking her best for the public. Despite 'only' being an S2, she was really well received, and I spent a lot of time answering questions (from the public, other display car owners (not just E-types), and the organisers. The nice thing about a general car display like this is that if a car's well turned out and has an interesting story, folk are really appreciative regardless.







Living and working reasonably nearby, meant that I could arrive early each day and check the car over before the public arrived. On the second day it also meant I had the unique pleasure of having a whole 'field' full of some of the most wonderful machinery all to myself By the way, for those who don't know the HAC, it's owned by the army and is in the heart of the City - making the 'field' reputedly the second most valuable cricket pitch in the world (the most expensive being the one that occupies prime Hong Kong real estate).





In the photos above you'll have noticed the utterly gorgeous 250GT SWB Ferrari. This was its filler cap. You just can't buy provenance like that.....





Messrs Hammond and Metcalfe discuss the finer points of Harry's Espada. Later, I managed to accost Mr Hammond and remonstrate with him for the way he thrashed my integrale on Top Gear some years back. He was suitably apologetic







Finally, getting ready to leave the morning after the show closed, having spent the night bunked up with one of the CUT 7s and the Lindner-Nocker car I have to say, the Old Man, rest his soul, would have been chuffed to pieces to think that his car, which his son used to be so rude about , should one day end up lined up with some of Jaguar's finest.

All in all a great event, helped enormously by being blessed with some fabulous weather, and from an owner's point of view superbly organised, with a good flow of communication from the organisers throughout as well as very well laid-on hospitality. Recommended.

Simon

Your S2 looks stunning!

What a great day

Simon, having seen your car in the flesh it is the other cars that were in exalted company!
Though, as for the driver

Cheers

Geoff

You're both too kind

As a footnote, come the Friday morning, when it was time to take the car home, I of course found myself in the rather bizarre position of having to pay our beloved Mayor for the privilege of taking the car out of 'his' city

Naturally, imbued with a sense of British theme-park mentality ('I've paid, therefore I'm damned well going to go on every ride'), I decided to make the most of my London Freedom Pass, and spend a few hours driving her round the landmarks of the City, West End, Mayfair, Hyde Park and the Mall. In this sense I think the Congestion Charge is surely a bit counter-productive, because in the past I would have simply driven home by the shortest, quickest route possible.....

Anyway, very enjoyable it was too, and as these days the pass covers you from 7 in the morning to 10 at night, I'm planning on going back later this summer and making a full day of it. At £15 for a full day taking in some of the world's finest photographic backdrops, it seems remarkably good value!

I'm also not quite sure what our beloved Mayor's issue is with older cars. I may be biased, but I didn't really get the feeling that an E-type upsets the aesthetics of 'his' fine city.....

Your S2 looks rather classy Simon against the architecture of our fine Capital.

Funnily enough, as that's Horseguards, there are signs up expressly telling you not to park there.

So I pulled up behind an armed response vehicle, hopped out and tapped on the window (I realise that in a lot of countries doing that would probably be your last ever action on this planet ), and asked if they'd mind awfully if I parked my car there for a moment to get a photo.

"Absolutely not. No way", came the answer, followed by the officer then looking in his rear view mirror: "Is that your car Sir?" "Yes, it is Officer" "Oh go on then. Be quick"......

Looks perfect…..