Coventry

Jaguar Land Rover Classic, the new brand offering classic car sales, restorations, parts supply and driving experiences to Jaguar and Land Rover owners and enthusiasts, will have a new home later this year following the £7.5m acquisition and development of a new headquarters in Coventry, England. The new Classic headquarters is planned to open early in 2017, and will be based near to the Jaguar Land Rover SVO Technical Centre in Coventry – an all-new, £20m hub of specialist vehicle personalisation, assembly and finishing.

Jaguar Land Rover Special Vehicle Operations (SVO) today officially opens its new Technical Centre in the heart of the British Midlands. The innovative new £20m facility near Coventry will be the headquarters of SVO and will house manufacturing, paint, technical and customer commissioning and presentation zones inside the 20,000m2 facility. The new Technical Centre is a significant representation of the growth of Jaguar Land Rover Special Operations – the specialist division of Jaguar Land Rover created in June 2014 to build a business responsible for halo car products (SVO), Vehicle Personalisation, classic car programmes by Jaguar Land Rover Classic and an exciting range of Branded Goods. John Edwards, Managing Director of Jaguar Land Rover Special Operations, said: The new Special Vehicle Operations Technical Centre is a major step forward in meeting the desires of our most discerning customers. There are more […]

Coventry Transport Museum is offering a day of fun and discovery for visitors of all ages to see the newly refurbished iconic city-centre attraction officially re-opened, with a free public show, featuring stunts and supercars, beginning at 1300hrs. If you’re looking for a fantastic FREE day out for all the family, you can’t beat Coventry Transport Museum.  In the heart of Coventry city centre, this huge Museum is home to the world’s largest collection of British road transport, and a visit whisks you away into a world of stories of real people, real passions and real hope. Petrolhead presenter duo Amanda Stretton and Harry Metcalfe will be introducing a car show that will consist of the Trailblazing Cars of the World parade and two stunt shows from supercar stuntsman Terry Grant – famous for holding over 20 stunt related World […]

Our video this week takes us all the way back to the Jaguars of 1961. Back when the E-Type was just rolling off the line and the Jaguar Mark II was still a new car. “One Leap Ahead” is a tour of the Coventry factory. It is amazing to see so many of these cars in one place, much less in production and in perfect condition. For big cats that are so seldom seen in the wild today, they seem to be plentiful in their natural habit in this video. Certainly does make one wish for a TARDIS. If the behind the scenes story of manufacturing like this is your thing, you might also want to check out the book “Jaguar in Coventry: Building the Legend” by Nigel Thornley. This illustrated history offers a fascinating insight into the company and […]

An incredible fleet of Jaguar sports and race cars worth in excess of £40m were responsible for extraordinary scenes on the streets of Coventry this weekend, with heritage racers led by the 1988 Le Mans 24 Hour-winning Jaguar XJR-9LM opening the show at MotoFest 2015. The exciting procession of Jaguar cars driven on the Coventry Ring Road were joined by a unique new Jaguar sports car, as the Jaguar F-TYPE R Bloodhound SSC RRV made its world dynamic debut in Jaguar’s home City. This year’s event saw the Coventry ring road closed to public use in order to host a number of live motorsport activities and Jaguar took advantage of the occasion to show of a cavalcade of some of the most iconic race and road cars from its 80 year history. Winner of Le Mans 24 Hours in 1988 […]

Autocar Professional is reporting that Britain’s car manufacturing industry has received yet another financial boost with three major manufacturers announcing UK investments worth more than £1 billion  in the past six days. Honda, Jaguar Land Rover and the London Taxi Company have each made announcements of funding to build new vehicle models, amounting to a total of £1.05 billion.   The latest announcements come on the back of a total of £7 billion committed in 2013 and 2014. The UK is seeing a renaissance in car production. In 2014, more than 1.5 million cars were produced – an increase of 50% since 2009, and the sector’s best performance since 2007. The latest announcements include: Jaguar Land Rover announces £600million new investment into its West Midlands operations, covering Castle Bromwich and Whitley sites.Coventry-based London Taxi Company reveals a £250 million investment […]

For the video this week we are going to turn back the clock a bit. Well, a lot. Heck, we are actually having to throw the entire calendar into the way-back machine. We might even have to throw in a bit of Doctor Who‘s timey-wimey travel. Our video this week is of the Standard Triumph factory at Canley in Coventry back in 1965. Think of the Triumph Herald and the Spitfire. For an interesting aerial overview of the Canley factory, take a look at the Canley Triumph Works page over at the Triumph Herald Archive.

Ever since the halcyon days of Jaguar’s formative years the British car maker has had a happy knack of delivering some eye catching icons. As those early days of the 1940s and 1950s bore witness to the company’s founding father Sir William Lyons’ aim to produce cars boasting ‘grace, space and pace’ so the legendary big cats have continued to attract attention. The latest is the Jaguar XKR which has unreservedly set its sights on supercar status, proving in many people’s eyes, to be perhaps the best looking mainstream Jaguar model to date. There is very much a luxurious character to the XK and XKR body style, whether in hard-top coupe guise or the cloth cocooned convertible which is driven here. This is truly a sophisticated grand tourer with the power to move the sports car experience on to a […]