AlanBrand.com

This year marks the 60th Anniversary of the redoubtable XK engine, first mounted in 1948’s Jaguar XK120.

The International Jaguar XK Club have announced two events to celebrate:

• July 29 – Aug 7: XK60 Diamond Tour of the UK
• August 8 - 10, 2008: XK60 Diamond Weekend at Goodwood & Cowdray Park.

The Diamond Tour offers XK owners from around the world the chance to really put their cars to the test over 1200 miles of great driving roads. The routes will explore the very best of England and Wales’s diverse countryside from the isolated grandeur of the Yorkshire Dales to the idyllic postcard beauty of the Cotswolds, the haunting valleys of Wales to cosmopolitan Cardiff. The Tour culminates in journey that passes that most iconic of all British landmarks, Stonehenge, as the cars journey eastward from Wales to join up with the other classic XKs and XK-engined vehicles participating in XK60 at the home of British Motor Sport – historic Goodwood.

This would make an excellent vacation trip!

Motor Authority updates its earlier report of Tata planning to sell on Jaguar by telling us that talks with the Jaguar union, Unite, have been concluded and:

Tata has totally ruled out offloading Jaguar.
…

Meanwhile, Automotive News bravely reports that:

Tata Motors will announce its purchase of Jaguar Land Rover on March 5 or 6.
…

The council of the London Borough of Lewisham has just voted to implement a blanket 20mph speed limit, according to the Evening Standard. Green Party councillor Sue Luxton proposed the plan as a way to encourage people to walk or cycle and to promote a shift away from cars. Can the man with the red flag walking in front of every car be far off?

My last job in England before emigrating in 1967 was in Lewisham - I seem to remember that nothing moved much faster than 15mph in Lewisham back then!

Edmunds InsideLine reports that Tata is not really interested in the Jaguar part of the Jaguar/Land Rover deal and that Jaguar will be “spun off almost immediately” after the purchase, leaving Tata with their main target, Land Rover.

While the workhorse Land Rover may seem like a better fit for Tata than the premium Jaguar, this story really does get stranger every day.

Automotive News (subscription required) reports that Jaguar Cars Ltd. has taken 10,000 customer deposits worldwide for the new XF, which goes on sale on March 10. Given that 3,000 of those are in the USA, where total Jaguar sales are running around 650-670 cars per month of late, this would be an amazing turnaround.

According to The Times of India, the latest delay in the sale of Jaguar Land Rover by Ford to Tata is thanks to the labour union, Unite, who are demanding job security and production guarantees.

This sounds to me like the tail wagging the dog … I suggest that they look to the recent history of unrealistic expectations of the British auto workers unions, and try not to send Jaguar down the same path as Rover, Triumph, MG, et al.

Jeremy Clarkson’s review of the Jaguar XF in The Times is an interesting read. He goes from generally condemning Jaguar in the last thirty plus years …

The problems began in the mid1970s, when Jaguar was part of the Communist party. Back then, everyone at British Leyland was so enamoured of the Soviets, they came within an ace of renaming it the Large Car Division. I’m surprised they didn’t settle on Zil.

… claiming that Jaguar is great today because of something it did in the 1950s is like claiming Egypt is a world power because of the pharaohs. The fact is that in my lifetime Jaguar’s forages into the realm of brilliance have been few and far between.

… to listing his disappointments with the latest model … including the styling, the light switch, the lights, the sat nav, and the gearbox … before coming down in favour of the car and giving it 4/5 stars.

It may have the same engine as Noah used in his ark but as a car for covering ground, on A-roads, my God. You can forget your BMWs. This is fanbleedingtastic. Balanced. Meaty.

Vintage Jezza, either love him or hate him!

Update: 23 February, 2008 : The column referred to here appeared in today’s Toronto Star.

There’s a new Jaguar XF television ad available on YouTube … with a soundtrack of “Hush” by Deep Purple. Who says that Jaguar isn’t into Retro?

just-auto.com reports that Jaguar executives have presented plans for three new models to Tata management … a two-seat sports car (the F-Type), a two-door coupe version of the XF saloon, and a four-door version of the XK luxury coupe.

Things certainly appear to be moving in the right direction at Jaguar these days.

I was going to let the whole Super Bowl thing slip by without comment, but the news that both Tom Brady and Randy Moss have pulled out of the Pro Bowl game … the day after they were beaten in the Super Bowl by the New York Giants has changed my mind.

Everything about the Patriots organisation has been totally tasteless and without class for some time … be it the piling on of points in the fourth quarter of games in the regular season when a lesser team has already been soundly beaten, the illegal videotaping of other teams defensive coaches, the leaving the field before the game was over, the trademarking of 19-0, or just the general smugness of the team and the fans. This is not the behaviour of Champions. Bill Belichick’s post-game interview was a classic - the pre-game self-satisfaction was replaced with a monosyllabic muttering from the husk of a beaten bully.

And now their run for glory is over … it would take a major miracle for them to come back next year with a run at a perfect season … all that’s left is the scorn and dislike of the fans of other NFL teams.

The New England Patriots’ era started with the outrageous Tuck Rule call in 2002 and ended with the first sack by Justin Tuck in 2008. Tuck ‘em, I say.