The Jaguar drew up on the starting grid resembling a giant gift-wrapped birthday present. With effortless cool the driver broke into a toothy smile of sly invitation, dribbling slightly onto his lacy cravat and pimped out polyester suit as he breathed the words “Yeah Baby”.
I was daydreaming again, visualising myself as stunt double to Tom Cruise on the set of “The Leaping Spy”, an imaginary Austin Powers movie with a Jaguar theme. Back to reality and it isn’t half bad, because the real world does actually see me on the track at Goodwood, in the Austin Powers XK8, thankfully minus the polyester and with Tom Cruise nowhere in sight. However, extraordinary good fortune has come my way as I have blagged a few minutes for a photoshoot in the company of the Goodwood ARDS Instructors. This is the power of big-screen stardom. Not mine naturally, but the Jaguar’s.
As a classic Jaguar enthusiast visiting the British Motor Museum, you will have been drawn by the Jaguar Daimler Heritage Trust’s (JDHT) vehicle collection on view, amongst which this Union Flag bedecked XK8 normally
