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In the Birmingham Post Business Blog, Professor David Bailey, Director of the Birmingham Business School, writes an interesting rebuttal to the arguments against government help for Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) put forward today by The Times in agreement with last weeks suggestions from The Telegraph . Professor Bailey makes a strong argument that JLR is the major funder of Green R&D in the auto sector and concludes:

To sum up, it’s not a bail out, JLR is an efficient and successful firm developing many of the key green technologies of the future, Tata has and is investing heavily, and the costs of inaction could be huge. Lord Mandelson has said that the government is considering which strategic firms should be helped through the downturn. In the auto industry, JLR is about as strategic as it gets. Action will be needed early in the New Year.

Please accept with no obligation, implied or implicit, my best wishes for an environmentally conscious, socially responsible, low-stress, non-addictive, gender-neutral celebration of the winter solstice holiday, practiced within the most enjoyable traditions of the religious persuasion of your choice, or secular practices of your choice, with respect for the religious/secular persuasion and/or traditions of others, or their choice not to practice religious or secular traditions at all. I also wish you a fiscally successful, personally fulfilling and medically uncomplicated recognition of the onset of the generally accepted calendar year 2009, but not without due respect for the calendars of choice of other cultures whose contributions to society have helped make Canada great. Not to imply that Canada is necessarily greater than any other country. Please know this wish is made without regard to the race, creed, color, age, physical ability, religious faith or sexual preference of the wishee.

Will they, won’t they? There are more conflicting rumours about short term funding for Jaguar than there were about the sale of Jaguar by Ford … here are a few:

• The Daily Mail reports that Tata will “pump £670m into car giant Jaguar Land Rover”.
• The Hindustan Times reports “UK union expects Brown govt to rescue JLR”.
• The Guardian says that “Mandelson rules out early rescue for Jaguar”.
• The Independent suggests “Jaguar deal to be agreed within days”.
• And the Telegraph suggests a more cautious approach “Recession: Jaguar Land Rover must now turn itself into a viable business”.

Interesting times we live in.

Morgan Motors are celebrating their Centenary in 2009. A new model to be released in August as part of the celebrations is this 2/3 scale Morgan SuperSports Junior, a replica of the original car produced by company founder HFS Morgan.

The 3-speed crank pedal car, similar to a recumbent bicycle, features lightweight aluminium bodywork with hand formed louvres, an imitation cast V-twin engine, and a tubular chassis.

The project is dependant on receiving a minimum of 200 orders of the proposed 500 unit model run. Morgan is accepting non-refundable £500 deposits on their website now. The final price will be £2,510 excluding VAT and delivery charges. The website has a link to a downloadable brochure with lots more lovely pictures. If only I were 50 years younger!

Motor Authority reports that Tata Motors has announced it will be providing “tens of millions of pounds” to Jaguar-Land Rover’s operations to carry the company through the current lean times. There is still hope for a government bail-out for JLR though the UK’s business secretary, Lord Mandelson, has yet to make a decision.

Octane reports on the last V-12 Series 3 E-Type that has been assembled from boxes of parts that were originally bought from the Jaguar factory when the Browns Lane assembly line closed in 1974, and stored until recently.

Jaguar enthusiast Ray Parrot was offered the opportunity to buy the parts about two years ago when he was contacted by Mike Wilkinson of M&C Wilkinson Jaguar Spares in Yorkshire. They found that they had 95% of the parts to build a new car, and sourced original parts for the remaining 5%.

Finished in August 2008, after eight months of hard work, the car has since been MoT tested and currently awaits registration with a period registration number and chassis number.

Drool!!