Editorial

I was shocked and greatly saddened when Doug Nye emailed to say our mutual very good friend Adrian ‘Hammy’ Hamilton had died. I had the great pleasure of interviewing his father Duncan, the 1953 Le Mans winner,
in the early ’90s. Ever since I read his hilarious autobiography Touch Wood (I used to keep a spare copy to lend to friends), he had been one of my heroes.

One day in 1994, the phone rang and it was Duncan. ‘Not very good news, I’m afraid. Not got long to go. I’d like you to come down and stay with us, and write my obituary.’ I went down. We drank a lot of gin. We joked and he reminisced. With dinner, we had a great deal of fine claret...

XKs in the News

A short-nose D-type sold for £799,000 at Bonham’s Goodwood Revival sale on 18 September. Chassis number XKD 570 was assembled in 1956 but then dismantled for parts by Jaguar.
Beyond that brief initial period as a completely assembled and finished car, it has no further 1950s history.

Andrew Whyte, in his book Jaguar – Sports-Racing & Competition Cars from 1954, records that XKD 570 went into the Jaguar Service Department ‘in bare metal state, 18 July 1956, with instructions to remove engine and gearbox and pass them to Bob Smart, the man in charge of Service Dept engine and gearbox administration.’ Whyte noted that the timing of work on XKD 570 coincided with repairs on the badly damaged XKD 403, which led him to suggest that XKD 570 (or XKD 548) may have been used for part of...

Classics at the Palace

James Page picks his highlights from Salon Privé Week, which included a couple of new elements for 2021…

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Salon Privé returned to its early September date this year, having been held slightly later in 2020 due to the pandemic. Unfortunately, that meant it clashed with the Hampton Court Concours of Elegance this time around, although the concours element of Salon Privé was held on Wednesday and Thursday, with the Best of Show winner – a 1938 Mercedes-Benz 540K – being announced on the Friday.
There were various new elements dotted around the Blenheim Palace venue for 2021.

On the cricket pitch in the middle of the South Lawn was the Red Collection, a mouthwatering group of 12 cars that included a Ferrari 250 GTO (chassis number 4399 GT), plus a McLaren F1, the Ferrari 166 MM that won the 1949 Mille Miglia and Le Mans 24 Hours, and the Alfa Romeo 8C 2300 Monza Spider that claimed Best of Show at last year’s Salon Privé Concours d’Elégance. Perhaps next year therewill be a ‘Green Collection’ featuring significant Jaguars…