The Lyons Roar

First some VJC business. Your hard working board met over the holiday season to review VJC leadership, organizational and financial status, and to develop a plan forward for 2010, and for our hosting of the JCNA AGM in 2011. Results were reviewed with the attending membership at the January VJC meeting at the Murffs.

To help retool the VJC leadership for 2010 and 2011, Dr. Bill Massey has stepped down as Vice President, and I will myself step down after the 2011 AGM at the latest. Steve Kelley, who ran the highly successful 2009 VJC Concours, has agreed to step in as Vice President. Dr. Bill has served as VP for several years and hosts the fall interclub Car Show and luncheon lecture at the Williamsburg Winery, one of the area premier events, as well as Colonial Parkway picnic drives, and office parties much better than the ones I remember at Honeywell. I would like to express our thanks to Dr. Bill Massey for his service and support to the club over the years.

Continuing board positions are Bruce Murff as membership chair, Marian Murff as treasurer and secretary, Steve Kelly as Concours Chair, Wayne Estrada as Webmaster, Lyons Tales Editor and Concours Chief Judge. Regional coordinators are Don Jackson (East) and Maurice Maxwell (West). You will notice some double dipping and we very much need to broaden our talent bench. For instance I have been serving as events Chair since time immemorial. I have tried to have fresh and interesting events this years , and an updated VJC 2010 event calendar is posted in each month's LT and on the www.vajaguarclub.com website. Feel free to provide your feedback as to whether you want more/less/different events. A few months are still open and some others are negotiable. I would definitely recommend the Foshay Collection visit to Culpeper for those who missed last year's. .

Our 2011 AGM Chair is Dr. Ron Gaertner, joint national winner in his JCNA Concours class for his green XK 120, with no less than 100.00 points. Ron and Marcie have two national Concours champion cars, the other being his red XK 150, both cars have graced our VJC Concours as well as regional Concours in our sister clubs. He has brought great honour to the VJC with his Jaguars. Those of us who have daily drivers can only marvel at the investment in time and effort to bring a Jaguar to 100 points. Ron and Marcie will represent the VJC at the 2010 JCNA AGM in Indiananapolis, where he will also receive an award for his 120. Ron will also present our VJC proposal to host the 2011 AGM at the Virginian Wyndham Crossings, the previous Figge International headquarters just north of Richmond. Ron will be pulling together a 2011 AGM team. This will be an ambitious undertaking, will want do a first class job, and we will need help from all the membership to pull it off successfully. Ron and I will be contacting you every month to join or help the AGM team.

Much of the above was shared with VJC members who attended a most pleasant 2010 kickoff meeting at the Murff's. Thank you, Bruce and Marian, a visit to yuor lovely home not to mention Bruce's spick and span garage is always a pleasure . The event was enhanced by the Murff's new delivery, an XJ-SC cabriolet which was delivered by UPS (not in a box) just as we arrived for the meeting. Bruce drove it into the garage, resulting in so much tire kicking that the ladies became restless, and the meeting start was delayed. The XJ-SC is a rare car even in the V-12 form and it will be nice for my 1986 3.6 cabrio to have a buddy in the club.

Thhhhaattts all for now folks, Punxstawney Phil has just predicted 6 more weeks of winter, but keep those Jags running.

David Harrison

We all know that "Cheap Jaguar" is an oxymoron. But how about a hundred buck Jag? Not too much downside here. I found two XJS coupes on Jeff Davis which had been violated with Chevy V8 conversions and were now engineless and derelict. Our very own Bruce Murff bought the one which actually had wheels, rolled it home and removed the useful bits, such as the diff and trannie. I had picked the other one over for some little dash and interior trinkets, plus the boot lid. Right after the New Year I was offered the remains for a hundred bucks. I am not really into dropping diffs, butb there was still a lot of stuff on the car. So is it worth a hundred? Your advice or prediction is solicited. Will I go for it? Wait for the next LT.