February 2025 | Issue 775 | Page(s) 3 | Gaynor Cauter
Being British, the main topic of the moment is the weather and, where I live in the wilds of north-west Herefordshire, we’ve had ‘weather’… lots of it! As I write this towards the end of January, the temperature has plunged below freezing for the second time in as many weeks and our single-track lane is like a skating rink. This makes me all the more frustrated that I had to drag my poor X350, shivering and sulking, out of the garage for an urgent trip to London. I could hear it muttering: “Why me? Take the Land Rover!”
Sadly, the thought of rattling and freezing my way to The Smoke and back in a classic Defender panel-side 90, with no soundproofing, virtually no heating and no noticeable suspension was not a very attractive prospect. Instead, I now have a 3.5 SE that has been transformed from a gleaming Zircon Blue into a murky shade of Hereford-mud beige. Why haven’t I washed it, I hear you ask? Because the hose and standpipe are frozen solid! How have you been faring in this winter weather? Or have you done the sensible thing and locked the Jaguar away for the duration?
Weather apart, we have some exciting news in the return of our technical articles, hopefully, in April. Finding good technical correspondents who can talk you through manageable jobs on your cars, and inform you of how your garage should be tackling the more difficult ones, is very hard to find… but find one we have. I am delighted to welcome Rob Hawkins to the Jaguar Driver team.
Rob is a seasoned journalist with excellent connections in the trade and he will be working with a variety of specialists, including Matt Norbury at North Wales Jag in Llandudno, to bring you clear, step-by-step instructions for jobs on a range of modern and classic Jaguars. And it gets better because in addition to his regular features, Rob will also be running a Q&A service for you, our members. His email address will be rob.hawkins@jaguardriver.co.uk and you can write to him with any technical problems or queries you might have on your Jaguar or Daimler. Even if it’s not something you can fix yourself, at least you can go to your garage armed with the information you need. Rob will be including a selection of your questions in each feature, but he will also reply to every enquiry personally.
Finally, I’m sure you’ll like our front cover… but do you know what it is? An E-Type, obviously, but it’s not all that it might appear and our E-Type rep, Steve Hawke, would be interested to know if there are any more cars like this one out there somewhere. Want to know more? Then you’ll have to turn to Nick Evans’ report on the Bologna show to find out! In the meantime, let Rob have your Q&As and start getting those cars spruced up for the spring. We will be at the NEC on 21-23 March for the Restoration Show and at Stoneleigh on Sunday 13 April for the first Jaguar Spares Day of the year. See you there!
Gaynor
