By Harry Newton At the Louis Vuitton Classic in New York a couple years ago, a Jaguar XK120 C-Type was one of the 50 diverse world-class vehicles exhibited. The C Jag has been one of my personal favorites ever since the early 1950s, when I first saw Gordon MacKenzie competing, appropriately attired in his clan’s…
Dear Howard, I guess that five trips to Italy in as many years to cover the Mille Miglia retrospective qualifies YT as a “junkie”. I admit having become an addict. Our report to you on last years trip touched on a number of British marques that we came across in our travels through Italy. This…
By the mid-1950s, the MG and Jaguar nameplates already were well established in the United States market… synonymous with the term, sports car. But, you knew that already. Two additional nameplates appeared toward the middle of that decade in a quest for sales in a market just above the entry level MG and below the…
Usually, I take a fairly strong position about most topics…at least, those I deem worthy of an opinion. For the past year or longer I have been working up a head of steam on several subjects. Allow me to share my thoughts on one of them with you. You might look upon yourselves as my…
There has been quite a lot of recent correspondence between my headquarters here in Marina Del Rey, California, and England, Australia, and Louisiana, the subject being the XK120’s 50th Anniversary. Jeremy Broad, a Jaguar parts specialist in England, is organizing a gathering of early aluminum bodied examples for some festivities at Donington Park in June. As a…
A few months ago, I had the pleasure of re-familiarizing myself with a couple of cars from my younger days. One, a Jaguar Mark II sedan, was the subject of an article that appeared in the February/March issue of Sports Car International. The car belongs to Southern California collector and vintage racer Jerry Rosenstock. Our…
Lensman Dave Gooley has found himself a significant other, Susan by name. Regular readers of this column probably know that Dave does most of the photography that illustrates my articles. What makes this Susan particularly significant is that she loves to travel. Last May, she spent nearly three weeks careening through France and Italy with…
A few months ago, I was invited to Goleta to serve on a panel assembled to judge a number of British enthusiast club publications. It was to prove a gratifying experience, one that left me optimistic regarding the future of the sports car fraternity (sorority, too). I was reminded of my tenure decades ago as…
Recently, when I was asked for a description of the MG TC’s place in automotive history, a response was easy: “If it weren’t for this car, I would probably be in a different line of work.” No other car could have captured the American market the way this jaunty sportster did right after WW II….
I recently came across the invoice from Perry Fina for that wonderful cast aluminum, three branch “cut out” exhaust system he sold me for my first MG TD, the green RHD car that got me hooked on this addiction that dictated the course of my life. Among other activities, Fina’s mid-Manhattan garage served as the…
