My Friend Mark & His New Car!

I have written 2 articles for Driveline on Mark Davenport whose dad is the global Jaguar restoration guru. When Tata Corp bought Jaguar from Ford they sent their executive staff to Mr. Davenport’s farm in south Cambridge (England) for a historic orientation of the marque.

The restoration facility consists of several out-buildings that probably contain tens of millions of dollars of very old and very rare Jaguars.

Our trip this time had to do with seeing 1 particular Jaguar that Mark is having restored by his dad….a car he intends to keep!! The story is that a client requested restoration of a Jaguar given to him while studying at Cambridge University. The original cost of the car was $225.00USD prox.. Apparently, money ran tight and the restoration project was never completed. And so the car sat with Mark’s dad – for 15 years!

As Mark’s own interest in these cars is very high (see pic of Mark and me with his 19?? Bentley and his 19?? Aston Martin) he had watched this car sitting for many years wondering who the owner was and whether it could be bought. After several conversations with “dad” the paperwork was brought and the owner contacted. At this point the owner was incapacitated and in a special facility. Mark negotiated a very fair price for the car and the deal was signed by both owner and children.

The car is a 1937 Jaguar SS 100! It is one of only two produced by Jaguar in Lavender Grey. It raced in the 1938 Jaguar Car Club Event held at the Brooklands. It is an absolute piece of art!!

Ps – The “SS” model nomenclature was dropped by Jaguar in 1939 due to it being copied by some German folks



The car worth a bit more than its $225.00 purchase price today. A healthy 6 figures in fact

~~Ralph Arata