The Lyons Roar

This is written on the eve of our visit to Moss Motors' new facility just south of Petersburg, which should be well attended. Moss is providing coffee and pastries , a 90 minute tour and a 10% discount, which should bring out the troops. We will follow that with a convoy to the Brickhouse Run in Olde Towne Petersburg for an authentic pub lunch. I am looking forward to a cool Old Speckled Hen, and I don't mean a rooster.

[Pictures from the Moss Tour are at the bottom of this page--EDITOR]

Planning for the 2011 JCNA AGM is firming up under the leadership of chair Dr. Ron Gaertner. We will be honoured by the presence of Norm Dewis, who was instrumental in developing the E-type as well as other key Jaguar models of the fifties and sixties. Norm is just about the last man standing of the Jaguar team that gave us such iconic models as the C and D type and the E-type as well as the first unibody saloons. As a bonus, he will be accompanied by Terry Larcen, famous for restoring and rallying the SS 90 and SS 100, C, D and lightweight E type. The event will be jheld at the Wyndham Virginia Crossings resort, just north of Richmond.

We are combining the AGM with a "XKExperience," to recognize the 50th anniversary of the stunning debut of the E-Type at Geneva in March 1961. We hope to get at least 50 E types, and will have an all-E car show concurrent with the AGM. We will need the entire membership to pull this off, so please email me or Ron to let us know you are willing to serve in any capacity, from manning a hospitality desk to helping with the silent auction, or arranging off-site activities.

Our "Concours on the Cobblestones" will be held Saturday, September 18th in the fountain area of Shockoe Slip per last year's successful event, with the Saturday awards dinner at Sam Miller's. Steve Kelley is chairing the Concours . The Central Virginia British Car Club (CVBCC) show "Classics on the Green" will be held on Sunday, September 19th at the New Kent winery. More information and the registration form is available on our website www.VaJaguarClub.com.

I don't have too much to add in the way of Jaguar driving experiences this month, Una's red 1995 and white 1997 XJ6s are both running well. I did have an experience of another sort, took my grandson on his first visit out West, we rented a SUV in Vegas and explored Toroweap, the North Rim of the Grand Canyon, Monument Valley, Lake Powell and a lot of great scenery between. The weather ranged from a blizzard near the N Rim to the seventies at Vegas. I did see some great old car junkyards out in the desert,though these are fast disappearing. See below for details and pictures of my trip.

Happy Jagging!

Like the cowboy, old fashioned junkyards are fast fading away, particularly in the East. In our fair state, Philbates out in rural New Kent is the one run the old way. It has about 4000 cars, many going back to the fifties, swamps, trees growing through cars, mosquitoes as big as bats in the summer and snakes. An EPA official would have a conniption.

The West still has a few cowboys, though these days they are more likely to ride the range in a jeep. The West also has plenty of old cars sitting out in the desert for the obvious reasons of lack of rust and lack of zoning. My recent trip to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon and Toroweap took me to the small towns of Fredonia , Arizona and Kanab, Utah. Fredonia boasts a genuine Model A and T junkyard, which also contains a 1932 Cadillac chassis converted to a haywagon, a fifties Hillman Minx as well as barnloads of T parts. A unrusted fifties "three on the tree" F-100 ex-forest service pickup in its original green paint was parked on Main street with a $2500 price tag. Just over the border in Utah was a hillside full of cars from the forties to the sixties, all for sale. Unfortunately, dragging any of them back to the East would cost about a grand. I had hoped to find an abandoned alloy XK 120 or a unrusted E-type but didn't see any, I suspect a Utah classic is more in line with the F-100.