JAGUAR MARK 2 ('The Car's the Star') 1 of 2

what is it about this old jag almost 40 years old and it still makes us go all misty-eyed is it because we remember it as the getaway car a police come a racing car or just Daddy's car other old motors just grow into quaint old curios but this one's special this one's mellowed into a blue blooded national icon there's more romance in this old jag than in a Barbara Cartland novel a tale of cans and Spivs suede shoes and tonic with plenty of gin you see we love this old glamour puss because it reminds us of an age before political correctness when it was okay to indulge in a bit of mild mischief there were no speed limits and you could drive like a bounder and everybody just scuttled out of your way vogue ish roguish raffish yet respectable Jaguar pulled off the big one when they made the mark - because they created the perfect product the mark 2 story begins with one man Sir William Lyons but the age of 21 he had his own business building swallow motorcycle side cars but before long he was giving shape to some of the most voluptuously styled cars in the world and establishing a design philosophy that was to stay with him all his life elegance that almost anybody could afford but the end of the Second World War Sir William had moved to Coventry called his new car company Jaguar and the rest as they say is history the Jaguar production success in the 50s had been built around two cars the SK sports car which was strictly a two-seater very very fast good performance and was great for the gallabat town the sporting man the manor wasn't married and have kids and of course you have the gargantuan Mach 7 Margate saloons built for the company chairman that people like to be chauffeur driven people have families who are well-to-do old money if you like but in 1955 Sir William offered all things to all men with his new jag mark one quick elegance in accommodating it was the world's first compact sports saloon and the first jag without a chassis soon everybody who was anybody was piloting Britain's most glamorous motor in a brilliant piece of product placement Jaguar put race ace Mike Hawthorn in a modified three-point for instantly it became a celebrity car but soon it hit the headlines for all the wrong reasons on the Guildford bypass he skidded bantha lorry careered onto the verge hit a tree it was all over at 29 world famous he met death Hawthorne's death may have been a national tragedy but it gave the Jag a dark halo of excitement speed and danger the mark one had been immortalized it was time for the mark to in 1959 Jaguar performed one of the most skillful facelifts in the history of the motorcar with a few gentle tweaks and tucks they made the junior jag even more stylish rakish and desirable suddenly the mark ii was one of the best-looking cars on the road at the time there was a saying that no matter which way you pointed a camera the mark - it looked good from any angle at a stroke it rendered most other British saloons upright and dumpy with tensed rear haunches arched back roofline and a grill that looked like it could bite the mark 2 had a predatorial brutality the initial public reaction to the mark - Jagga range was one of delight at the car and surprised at the price the two-point-four came in at about fifteen hundred and something the three point four at sixteen hundred something and the three point eight at seventeen hundred something which made them comparable with an upper specification in a ford range despite the success of the mark ii series it was apparent to Jaguar that there were still a lot of people who whilst aspiring to own a Jaguar assumed that they couldn't afford one and it was because of this in 1966 we launched a specific advertising campaign to tell people that the 2.4 was available at thirteen hundred and forty one and they could enjoy the Jaguar kind of motoring at that price the Jag started like that he respectively adored by the martini mixing middle classes the driveways of Surrey became known as the Jag Belt plush moneyed and terribly glam it was a monster hit but who would have predicted that the mark twos grace space and pace would appeal to a completely different market before their along the brave new jag had fallen among thieves trying to lose on these corners copper keep going keep going he's really throwing his car around these corners now he's going absolutely mad on screen and off the mark two had earned itself a reputation serious villains motor the mark 2 was perfect for us it was the perfect Chrome's car it had grace the spice and pace we weren't particularly interest in the aesthetic of the glaze but certainly the pace was very important actually and also to space because we needed to have four people sitting in it or if there were goods to be carried obviously had the room we did have an alternative plan when we committed by Train Robbery we were going to use ten mark two jagers this was ruled out mainly because we thought it would be highly suspicious ten Jaggu is part up and a little back line the major drawback with the mark two from our point of view was the fact that they were too popular if you were more than two up you were liable to get stopped by the place as being suspicious and you could also have your own stolen car stolen in turn again from you and that actually did happen to me at one particular time it was the supreme road car the police never had anything to touch it once they'd got the mark - of course then things on equal footing there was probably better drivers and we were but of course they didn't have that will to survive the whole amor criminal career was tied up with mark two Jaguars and subsequently perhaps even ironically I was taking in the police Jay go to court to receive my sentence of 25 years in Manchester to the police here in the mid-sixties we had the Jaguar 3.8 Mart to the criminals didn't anyone who was caught in a stolen car which was a blessing for formance in this once the jugular got behind for off the knot they stopped in gable the trouble with these was at the handbrake is on the right-hand side of the driver's seat when you turned up an incident and put the handbrake off as you got out quite frequently kitchen the handbrake book and the handbrake would release you felt a bit foolish if you cast on this diode rolling the way in front of the public can't even say his handbrake proper today this chart would be no good as a traffic car it would be far outperformed by virtually everything its ponderous it's relatively slow but in its time it was nothing to beat this car back in the sixties the 3.8 model with a wired car the legendary straight-6 twin-cam XK engine could push out 220 horses and if you depress the big accelerated of the floorboards it could max at 130 miles an hour and many did because it was hard to resist and big bonnet rising and watching the needles on white on black gauges saw for a moment you were king of the road

Channel: jamestheposh

Views: 213,890

Keywords: JAG, MK2, jaguar, mk, ii, quentin, willson, top, gear, classic, car

Id: 1IB2i_SNHPM

Length: 9min 10sec (550 seconds)

Published: Wed Mar 24 2010