Heritage

Jaguar Land Rover Classic enjoyed a double victory at the 2017 Octane Awards, held in London this week. The ‘Legends Continued’ Jaguar XKSS continuation was crowned 2017 Car of the Year and Jaguar Land Rover Classic also received the Manufacturer Heritage Collection of the Year accolade. Dubbed the ‘original supercar’, the XKSS was introduced by Jaguar in 1957 as a road-going conversion of the Le Mans-winning D-type racing car. Nine original XKSSs were earmarked for export to North America in 1957 but were sadly lost in a fire at Jaguar’s Browns Lane factory in Coventry that same year; meaning only 16 of the planned 25 examples were completed – until this year when Jaguar Classic set about completing the missing nine cars.

Land Rover has announced the launch of the new Land Rover Experience Center Heritage Program, a celebration of the history and legacy of the iconic Defender. The program will allow consumers to drive the Defender off-road at Land Rover Experience Centers across the U.S. As one of the world’s most recognizable four-wheel drive vehicles and a brand icon since its introduction, the enduring capability of the Defender lives on through the Defender Driving Experience. From September 2017, Land Rover enthusiasts will be able to experience the vehicle’s off-road abilities first-hand at Experience Centers in California, Vermont, and North Carolina.

The British Motor Museum has just redesigned their online shop to make it easier to buy Heritage Certificates.  These certificates are available for many of the leading British motor manufacturers including Austin, Morris, MG, Riley, Wolseley, Aston Martin, Rover, Land Rover, Standard, Triumph, BMC and British Leyland. The certificates are basically birth certificates for you car and pull from the original manufacturer’s records and will include details like the build and despatch dates, engine and body numbers, color scheme, and details of factory fitted equipment. Not all particulars are available for every car – much of this depends on the records kept by the original facility and the maintenance of those records over time by different companies. To celebrate the redesign of the museum’s e-shop, they are offering classic car owners a special deal this summer. From now until July 17, 2017 you […]

Continuing the positive momentum in the business, and as part of a long-term strategy, Morgan Motor Company has hit yet another milestone in a record year, with the re-acquisition of factory land in Malvern. At the Geneva Motor Show earlier this year Steve Morris, Managing Director Morgan Motor Company, announced a record trading year with a 14% revenue growth year-on-year. It’s the first of many positive steps planned in a long-term strategy for Morgan Motor Company under the guidance of Morris, the Morgan family and recently appointed Chairman Dominic Riley.

This just in from TVR Heritage … “Do you own a TVR? Is it a clean and generally unmodified example as the factory would have supplied? If the answer is yes then we would welcome you to make contact as we will be arranging a professional photoshoot to bolster the TVR graphic archives for some exciting future projects and your car could be the star! “Multiple photos will be taken of each vehicle involved, together with the recording of additional details, including possibly some video and this material will form a key part of a future presentation.

‘Racing improves the breed’ is an overused and often abused saying, but is totally apt when it comes to a number of products offered by British Motor Heritage (BMH). So, in addition the company’s long-established range of original specification replacement bodyshells and panels, a host of specialist items is also now offered by this versatile supplier, including: Competition parts for the MGB BMH’s managing director John Yea has now been successfully campaigning the company’s FIA specification MGB in a variety of high-profile historic race series for some nine years. His first-hand experience of ‘Britain’s favourite sportscar’ on the track has directly resulted in the following being made available from BMH: 4.1:1 crown wheel and pinion Close ratio gear set for ‘4-synchro’ transmissions Alloy door and boot-lid skins FIA specification alloy front valance Seam-welded replacement bodyshells Bespoke bodyshells featuring full-range of […]

Jaguar Land Rover is delighted to announce the renaming of its Heritage business to Jaguar Land Rover Classic. The rebranded division will continue to provide cars, services, parts and experiences for Classic Jaguars and Land Rovers and their owners. Tim Hannig, Director, Jaguar Land Rover Classic, said: “Renaming the rapidly growing global business to Jaguar Land Rover Classic best reflects the division’s overall capabilities in providing the best cars, services, parts and experiences for our customers. We aim to build an even more successful future by celebrating and nurturing Jaguar and Land Rover’s past.” Jaguar Land Rover Classic can now accommodate full restorations of classic vehicles at its UK sites, as well as providing a repair and maintenance service for customers.

Produced between 1997 and 2006, the Land Rover Freelander 1 remains one of the brand’s best-selling models and is now officially a Land Rover Heritage vehicle. Land Rover Heritage specialises in cars, services, parts and experiences for classic Land Rover models and the Freelander 1 becomes the brand’s eighth Heritage model. The others are Series I, II and III, Range Rover Classic and P38 Range Rover plus Discovery 1 and 2. A Heritage model is defined as a product that has been out of production for longer than 10 years and the Freelander 1 was first produced in 1997 and its production run ended nine years later in 2006 when Freelander 2 replaced it. Ever since production of Freelander 1 concluded, Land Rover continued to support owners through the supply of spare parts. Now, owners will be supported by the […]

The all-original and complete set of body panels for the Series 1 Jaguar E-type and selected parts of Series 2 and 3, are now available to order from Jaguar Heritage Parts. In order to provide world-class quality for E-type customers, Jaguar’s skilled technicians and engineers employed state-of-the-art scanning technology to digitally map every inch of an E-type in 3D. Once scanned, the highly detailed scans are transferred to CAD images to create a complete and virtual model of the car to ensure perfect panel alignment. The exact dimensions and shapes of the inner and outer surfaces and recorded to within a fraction of a millimetre. Once the entire car is digitally mapped, Jaguar Heritage is then able to test the quality and accuracy of each panel plus the original tooling used to make it.  Each part is meticulously measured on […]

Heritage Motor Centre said the British Motor Industry Heritage Trust at Gaydon had gained “designated” status from Arts Council England, confirming its vehicles were of national significance. It shuts for the work from 30 November and will reopen on 13 February. A new £4m Collections Centre, featuring about 250 vehicles, mostly previously unseen, will open on the same day. Heritage Motor Centre, which claims to have “the world’s largest collection of historic British cars,” said visitors would be able to “look under more open bonnets” and enjoy new interactive content including sound and film, following the revamp. The new museum will boast zones telling the cars’ stories in more detail, a new entrance and a new area for education programmes. For more information, check out the official British Motor Museum website.

Jaguar and Land Rover have used iconic cars and moments from the rich heritages of both brands to inspire new merchandise collections, which are available to explore and order online and at Jaguar and Land Rover UK retailers from today. The exciting new collections include a variety of new and innovative products ranging from top quality apparel to stylish watches and branded accessories. Lindsay Weaver, Director of Licensing and Branded Goods for Jaguar Land Rover, said: “The new Jaguar and Land Rover collections combine exceptional design and originality with outstanding quality. In addition to a stunning range of heritage-inspired products, we have also created new core and lifestyle ranges which continue to be stylish and relevant”. The Jaguar and Land Rover 2016 merchandise collections build on an accomplished variety of premium products launched to date, that have proved increasingly popular […]

Our video this week is courtesy of Aston Martin. Normally we don’t use purely promotional videos as our VotWs, but this one is simply too cool to pass up. As the last remaining airworthy Avro Vulcan prepares for its final flight later this month, the iconic 1950s British V bomber has been united with its modern namesake: the Aston Martin Vulcan. Vulcan XH558 – currently being operated by the charitable trust Vulcan To The Sky – is due to retire from ‘active service’ in October, going on to form the centrepiece of the educational Vulcan Aviation Academy & Heritage Centre at her home base,  Robin Hood Airport near Doncaster. Ahead of that final flight, the famous Cold War-era long range bomber was paired with the Aston Martin Vulcan – the new track-only supercar – via a special fly-past at Elvington […]

Aston Martin is today unveiling an authoritative new  Assured Provenance certification programme which, for the first time in the brand’s 102-year history, comprehensively assesses the background of its heritage sports cars. Created to offer a true blue riband service to heritage car owners and collectors, and drawing on the unrivalled knowledge of a committee of authoritative Aston Martin experts, the pioneering Assured Provenance certification programme is administered and run by the brand’s world-renowned in-house heritage car facility – Aston Martin Works. The first official authentication programme to be provided in-house by Aston Martin, the new scheme offers four levels of verification to take into account not simply all-original examples, but also sports cars that have been modified by Aston Martin itself over the years. As part of the painstaking procedure of examination and authentication, all cars submitted to the process […]

Jaguar will celebrate its glorious history in style at the Goodwood Revival this year, with the presentation of a selection of famous heritage sports cars, new products for heritage car owners and the opportunity for festival visitors to race heritage cars of the electric-powered kind on its stand within the Earls Court Motor Show enclosure. Jaguar is celebrating its 80th anniversary in 2015, and Jaguar will present iconic and award winning Jaguar sports cars on its show stand. In addition, Jaguar invites festival visitors to compete using scale model historic race cars on a custom-built Scalextric race track, which will be positioned on the main stand. The 1938 SS100 Jaguar 2 ½ Litre is one of the rarest of the breed with only 191 examples ever made. Also on display is a cherished piece of automotive history – the 1950 XK120 wearing […]

Following a hugely successful Mille Miglia in 2015, Jaguar Heritage has released a film of this year’s rally, giving viewers an in-depth look at an event once described as ‘The most beautiful race in the world’. In the year that Jaguar celebrates its 80th anniversary, the official Jaguar Heritage team headed to the start in Brescia with three C-types, three D-types, two XK120s and an XK140 driven by famous faces from the world of motorsport, TV and music. Following the Jaguar Heritage cavalcade were a group of media guests driving various examples of new Jaguar XE and latest generation of F-TYPE sports cars. Supported by an expert crew of Jaguar Heritage technicians, the nine Jaguar entries ran smoothly throughout the gruelling four-day event. Driven by the likes of supermodel David Gandy, model and TV presenter Jodie Kidd, and musician Elliot […]

Jaguar Land Rover launched its new Land Rover Heritage division at the Techno Classica show in Essen, Germany a few weeks ago. Body, trim and extended servicing items are available for Range Rover Classic, while for Range Rover P38 and Discovery 1 and 2, Land Rover Heritage supplies salvage and extended service parts to ensure customers’ cherished cars are maintained to the highest possible standard. For Series l, ll and lll, selected Land Rover Heritage Parts are available and the brand will gradually reintroduce more original part numbers – all made using original tooling methods and all items supported under warranty*. Land Rover Heritage forms part of Jaguar Land Rover’s Special Operations division and has been created to support the brand’s passion in nurturing and preserving its rich heritage of vehicles and supporting its loyal customer base across Land Rover’s […]

The inaugural race of the Jaguar Heritage Challenge 2015 is set to begin at the Donington Historic Festival over the May bank holiday weekend. The first race of the Jaguar Heritage Challenge – run with the Historic Sports Car Club (HSCC) – will feature a full field of 34 Jaguars including a 1957 MK I saloon driven by 1988 Le Mans winner, Andy Wallace. The series is open to all Jaguars manufactured before 1966 including the XK-series, C- and D-types, MK I and MK II saloons and E-type. It complements the growing portfolio of Jaguar Heritage activities, which also includes the recently launched Jaguar Heritage Driving Experiences and factory sourced Heritage Parts and restoration – all under the expert direction of Jaguar Land Rover’s Special Operations division. John Edwards, Managing Director of Jaguar Land Rover Special Operations said: “We are […]

Octane Magazine is reporting that Jaguar Land Rover is to expand its Heritage division in what senior executives are referring to as a ‘complete change of mindset’ within the group, clearly aiming to emulate the success of Aston Martin Works and Ferrari Classiche. The revamped division will be based at Jaguar’s spiritual home, the Browns Lane factory site in Coventry, where production was based until 2005, when it moved to Castle Bromwich. The first of six ‘continuation’ Lightweight E-types is currently in build there, as revealed by Octane in May, but the buildings are now being equipped with service and restoration bays. These will allow owners of classic Jaguars to have their cars serviced, repaired and restored at Browns Lane. All classic Jaguars will be catered for, not just the traditional XKs and E-types, and there will be particular emphasis on […]