List
We now know that Bob D is an Anglophile who just happens to have been
delivered in to the land of the free - so he benefits both ways - good
motors (and what a list of desirable Brit cars it was) and a good life,
close enough to the salt flats. Maybe those same Aliens could abduct me
and deliver me to Nevada? One of the fastest UK TR8's ran at Le Mans (or
atleast tried to) so it will be intersting to see an American
interpretation of the model on the salt course.
Yes the Berkely may lack much of the original parts and motive power - what
could you do with a 750cc BSA or Triumph motorcycle engine? - but when the
SCTA class rules 'force' the design to be based on a production shape and a
US racer then has freedom to choose any shape from across their own country
and the world, it is comforting to note that they chose a British make.
As to a Jaguar being a 'Ford'. I would suggest it is the heritage and
history of the design team and assembling workforce that put together the
product that make it what it is. Not yet is it a shape with the new owners
stamp throughout and a different badge on it nose. Is the European Ford
product range - from which some of the latest Jaguar base structure is is
made - any where near the Ford products you have in the USA anyway? So what
is a Ford - to me its a Fiesta or Focus to you in the US it may be the '05
Mustang.
And how quickly does it occur for the displacement of the independant
Jaguar qualities? I guess the closure of the Browns Lane manufacturing
site near Coventry City is the latest sign and perhaps the last, that the
new owners do not want to retain any links with the pre-Ford Jaguar
products (such as the SK series, E types etc...).
What's in a name?
Malcolm Pittwood, Derby, England
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