Thirty years of Jaguar XJ40: great celebration in Dunkeld (Scotland)
Introduction
September 2016
In 1986 the Jaguar XJ40 was introduced. Its development in fact already started after in 1968 the Jaguar Series 1 was introduced, but partly due to the big problems in the English motor industry and the unfortunate merger of all English car companies in British Leyland, the successor of the Jaguar XJ6, already in its 'Series 3' incarnation, would only see daylight in 1986. This model, called XJ40 within Jaguar, would become the car that saved Jaguar, because its built quality was substantially better, the workers were more quality conscious, and several thoroughgoing managers. Moreover, it was a car with a modern, straight appearance and yet with the classical Jaguar interior and a sublime driving comfort.
So in 2016 it is thirty years ago that the Jaguar XJ40 was introduced. Rory Semple, member of the English forum xj40.com of which I am an active member, proposed to celebrate this by organising a meeting at the location in Scotland were in September 1986 the press presentation took place: in Dunkeld. Together with Naki Kouyioumtzis, forum coördinator of xj40.com and XJ40 representative of the Jaguar Enthusiasts' Club (JEC), Rory put an enormous lot of effort in organising this celebration in the way it became the success it really was.
On sunday 28 and monday 29 August 2016, the meeting took place in and around the Dunkeld House Hotel, beautifully located on the estate at the river Tay, exactly on the spot were in August and September 1986 the press presentation was. While back then the specially prepared press cars were neatly parked in a row in front of the hotel, the XJ40s that were taken to this meeting were now in exactly the same setting. A remarkable view with a historic meaning!
Never before so many XJ40s were seen together on a meeting: 37 examples! Furthermore, many people noticed that XJ40 owners in fact without exceptions are such nice people. It was so striking that it was explicitly mentioned by several attendees. This is exactly what stuck us when we were at the Beaulieu meeting, two years ago.
There were presentations by a few people of Jaguar that played a role in 1986: very special that the organisers managed to get these people together. Also fantastic was the rally through the Scottish landscape, partly over the route the press in 1986 also saw proposed. And the great un-Scottish weather was a nice bonus.
Overview
We combined this great event with a holiday tour with our Daimler Double Six through Scotland. We enjoyed the landscape and the places worth seeing very much. As an introduction I included some photos here.
On the English forum xj40.com I contributed a first short impression of this meeting to the 'topic' or 'thread' on this meeting (see here). Later on, just like some other members, I wrote a more extensive story, illustrated with many of my photos. But then we are already on page 53 of the forum topic. I have published my messages also on this website.
Later on, with my own photos and data of some forum members, I drew up a list of all cars that were present and their owners.
Of the more than fivehundred photos Sabine and me took during the meeting in Dunkeld, I used several tens in the extensive report on this website. But I omitted photos of individual cars, for example, while I did photograph almost all XJ40s that were present (I missed only one or two). These photos and many others that are not presented in the article (in total about 400 photos) are presented on separate web pages in a way that they can be conveniently browsed.
A few photos of our holiday in Scotland
The programme of the Dunkeld meeting
My first impressions of the meeting in Dunkeld
Extensive report with tens of photos
Overview of the 37 XJ40s present and their owners
Photo album with 400 photos to browse
Kind regards,
Rens Swart