The William Lyons history

[christopher storey]

There is a new project launched by the JDHT giving a virtual tour of Lyons's life and creations which is well worth an hour of your time . It is not by any means perfect with the content having rather a lot of holes - notably nothing that I could find about the transition from wooden frame to all-steel bodies which nearly brought the company to its knees in 1937/8, and very little if anything about the Mark 10 which was, relatively speaking, one of Lyons's few failures ( and yet of course it paved the way for his greatest success in the shape of the XJ6) . Also, some interesting stuff that I had never seen, notably the Partnership Deed between Lyons and Walmsley is introduced, only to find that there is only the opening and closing pages! Since this document is something that most of us are unlikely ever to have seen , this was a disappointment . The technology is also a bit sketchy , with rather nauseating swerves through the museum "building" and , infuriatingly, no means that I found of leaving the "museum" without inadvertently signing out of Windows. Nevertheless, don't let me damn it with faint praise because even for a computer incompetent like me I found it absorbing and will go back to it

The link is https://sirwilliamlyons.com/en/?contextKey=en

[Gfhug]

Christopher, thank you for pointing us towards this. I shall admit my experience viewing it on an iPad was disappointing as many of the photos overlaid the captions. But, like you, I shall Percy Vere.

Geoff

[mystery type]

Tried 10 minutes then gave up.

[christopher storey]

Paul : was it the (lack of ) content or the presentation which you disliked ?

[DWW]

Watched in full but the presentation is awful, not friendly or particularly intuitive. A video with the content, photos and narration would have worked a lot better.

[mystery type]

Chris it was the presentation I disliked, i love to watch anything jaguar related, but found it annoying to watch and navigate. I watched it on my iPad so maybe an issue there.

[christopher storey]

I have brought this thread back to life because in today's Jaguar Enthusiast magazine there is a rather self congratulatory write up about it by the people who have designed it, and I wondered whether the reservations which we all had about it are shared by others, or whether more computer literate people than me have found it to work o.k.?

[rfs1957]

A classic example of people thinking their Computer-Graphics skills are more important than the content.

How could someone with presumably unfettered access to company archives produce something so shallow, superficial, and dull ?

And even the clever graphics are actually crap.

The waltzing pages are simply unnecessary, and annoying ; closing down the Info windows with the X also happens to be in the same zone as the Menu, so you often have to navigate back to where you were ; the cameo videos are too small, and you cannot make them bigger, nor pause them and then continue ; when I have to click to go up a level in the virtual museum, do I really need to click again when I get to the intermediate landing - or might I have been happy to go and hide there to get away from the rest of the presentation ?!

Lyons would have fired anybody who so completely ignored his job-sheet.

But in this world where inclusivity is more important than being any good at your job, we can expect this kind of rubbish to be the New Normal.

PS how long will it be before JLR go tits up anyway, Heritage or No Heritage ?

[DWW]

Strong words my friend but true, as time progresses, very few can do their job properly if at all nowadays.

[Nick]

Matthew Davis, the MD of the Jaguar Heritage Trust at Gaydon, gave his email address at the end of the article in the JEC magazine. "Have a look at what we've built & if you enjoy it, please email me."

I was going to ask him whether I wasn't supposed to be able to read any of the words on the 'Dewis and the Dash to Geneva' panel. Whichever way I tried it wouldn't come crisp enough to read on my laptop. I wanted to read the words not look at the squiggly line. Eventually I copied the graphic and read it fine outside of the 'virtual museum'.

Apathy then got the better of me & I didn't bother Mr Davis. The graphic is attached if you didn't get this far (Split in half & reduced a bit to fit the 256kB forum limit). Another question I had was where does this route come from? Bob Berry detailed his route in 9600 HP, but I don't recall Norman Dewis mentioning all the towns he went through. Invention or are these pukka?

Nick

[Heuer]

Excellent work Nick. If you email me the full resolution images I put them up on the Forum in all their glory!

[rfs1957]

Lac Leman, and Geneva’s position on it, has changed considerably since 1961 then ?!

Tectonic plates, right ?

[christopher storey]

No wonder Norman Dewis was nearly late if he was using that as a map !! Too much artistic licence in the last 100 kms perhaps ? Also, Geneva is shown where Lausanne is in reality !

[Heuer]

[Gfhug]

Is this taken from an in house Jaguar publication from 1961? Just wondering.

Geoff