Episode 93: An S-Type at Harewood Hillclimb

At the NEC Classic Motor Show back in November 2024, the JEC Team presented an episode of the Jaguar Enthusiast Podcast in front of a live audience . It was a chance to get the some of the show team together to look back over the past 12 months and also preview what is to come in 2025. The team consisted of James Blackwell (JEC General Manager), Dan Moffat (XJ40 model coordinator), Colin Porter (JEC Tracksport manager), Tom Robinson (JEC Technical Director) and Ray Ingman (Jaguar Enthusiast Magazine sub-editor). The panel was hosted by Jaguar Enthusiast Magazine editor and podcast host Wayne Scott. Enjoy!

Fergus Walkinshaw and John Kane met while on a road rally. Both had a passion for fast cars and Jaguars. Fergus's link to the marque is obvious. His father was Tom Walkinshaw, the man behind TWR and JaguarSport. The man who took Jaguar to victory at Daytona, then Le Mans in 1988 and 1990, built the XJ220 and XJR-15 and ran the Group C programme successfully for Jaguar, taking the brand to World Sportscar Championship status. Before all that - TWR revived ailing XJ-S sales in the early '80s by making the wafty big GT do things nobody could have imagined, like winning the Spa 24 Hours and Bathurst. TWR also created a line of XJ-S specials with body kits, performance upgrades, and bespoke interior accessories. These later morphed into an official collaboration with Jaguar under the ‘JaguarSport’ banner – resulting in the XJR-S and XJ40-based original XJR. Fast-forward to 2024, the 40th anniversary of TWR's winning the European Touring Car Championship with the XJ-S. The TWR name has once again become synonymous with 'off the peg' XJ-Ss with mind-bending performance and styling. Similarly, just as in 1984, the XJ-S has fallen off the radar somewhat in recent years. While values had grown steadily, the market has seemed to stop and plateau more recently. Moreover, a new generation of 'retro car' enthusiasts seems more obsessed with Porsche 'resto-mods' than with anything from Coventry. Car websites and social media channels are full of them, which is significant—as we will get to in a moment. Fergus Walkinshaw and John Kane embarked on this exciting journey together to shake things up in the 'resto-mod' market and get the Jaguar name back out there amongst newer generations of fans. The results of that journey are frankly staggering!

To celebrate the monumental milestone of both our 100th episode and the start of a new series of Jaguar Enthusiast Podcasts, we took the show out in front of a live audience at Podium Place, Newbury. We were recording in Podium Paddock, the private members’ club that inhabits the mezzanine floor above TWR’s workshops. As we spoke, the new TWR SuperCat was being built and in a later episode, we will share our interview with Fergus Walkinshaw.In this episode though, Richard West turns the tables on Wayne Scott, the usual presenter of the podcast, and instead puts him in the hot seat to be interviewed. It was a fun night reminiscing on the moments in Wayne’s life that led to him not only presenting the best Jaguar-focused podcast on the internet but also relaunching Jaguar Enthusiast Magazine as editor. This was recorded earlier this year, in May 2024.

The Jaguar Enthusiast Podcast has created a tradition of gathering the team together at the end of each year and reviewing the highlights of the past 12 months of Jaguar activities together. This year is no different so, on this special episode, we will be sharing some personal memories and looking forward to the amazing calendar of events yet to come in the New Year.Join James Blackwell, Richard West, Colin Porter and Ray Ingman - hosted by Wayne Scott for our fun review of 2023. 

The Jaguar Enthusiast Magazine Podcast visits a well-known Jaguar business in Somerset for a behind-the-scenes tour of their workshops and facilities. Swallows Racing has built up over four decades and three generations of the same family to the position they are in now with huge facilities for car servicing, major repairs race preparation, full restoration and even bespoke parts and engineering. Tom Robinson takes us for a tour round and explains how they are growing to meet the increasing demands of their customers. 

The JEC Podcast continues with part two of an exciting interview that investigates the background and lives of the two drivers who took Jaguar to victory at Le Mans in 1953, Tony Rolt and Duncan Hamilton. Find out why Duncan Hamilton carried satsuma in every race car, how the 1953 race unfolded and how Tony Rolt’s legacy is long-lasting to this day with all-wheel drive. Wayne Scott talks to Stuart Rolt (Major Tony Rolt's son), Caroline Lee (Duncan Hamilton's daughter) and Dominic Hamilton (Duncan Hamilton's grandson). This interview was reproduced on the JEC Podcast with the kind permission of the Jaguar Daimler Heritage Trust and was originally filmed as a video for their archives. 

At last, the JEC Podcast returns and we are back in fine style with part one of an exciting interview that investigates the background and lives of the two drivers who took Jaguar to victory at Le Mans in 1953, Tony Rolt and Duncan Hamilton.We investigate the fascinating and heroic lives of these Jaguar icons with their descendants, as Wayne talks to Stuart Rolt (Major Tony Rolt's son), Caroline Lee (Duncan Hamilton's daughter) and Dominic Hamilton (Duncan Hamilton's grandson). We also take the opportunity to explore the myths surrounding the lead-up to the 1953 Le Mans. Did Rolt and Hamilton really head down to a bar to drown their sorrows and end up having to sober up and jump straight in the cars? Or was it all just an elaborate story to sell more copies of Duncan Hamilton's Biography, Touch Wood? The answer is within this podcast! This interview was reproduced on the JEC Podcast with the kind permission of the Jaguar Daimler Heritage Trust and was originally filmed as a video for their archives.  

Pioneering renewable fuel specialist, Coryton, recently launched the UK's first publicly available sustainable fuel. It is a fuel that could secure the future of the classic vehicle movement and historic motorsport. The SUSTAIN Classic range allows regular combustion engines in our Jaguars to be fuelled by environmentally friendly, plant-based petrol without the need for any engine modifications. Now available from launch partner, Motor Spirit at Bicester Heritage, with more stockists to follow, there are already classic cars on our roads using the fuel and a number of rallies and motorsport events have also utilised the fuel. In this podcast, we speak to Andrew Willson, CEO of Coryton and Business Development Director David Richardson about their vision of the future, the details behind how the fuel is made and how it might be scaled up for future use. There is a lot of optimism, realism and innovation in this podcast - so we hope you enjoy the insights it offers!

On this bumper episode, we meet Josh Tyler from the north-east of England who decided during lockdown to leave his job as a Jaguar main dealer technician to educate himself as a specialist diagnostics for modern classic Jaguars. Having started up on his own as a new business he has quickly grown to a business that is helping keep Jaguars from the 90s and 2000s on the road. Plus, we get tips from Ray Ingman, our ARDS instructor on the perfect lap of Blyton Park in the club’s Jaguar XF Sportbrake as we embark upon another awesome TrackSport fixture.