The famous Jaguar museum in Coventry has been re-launched.  This follows the renaming of the Trust that owns it and the reopening of the famous gates on Browns Lane to the public.

The Jaguar Daimler Heritage Trust (“JDHT”), founded in 1983 as an independent educational charity, has been restructured and renamed Jaguar Heritage.  The museum holds a small but unique and valuable display of cars from the Jaguar collection.  This collection boasts more than 100 vehicles.

The display of famous cars from the Jaguar Heritage collection, together with improvements in the museum’s facilities, is the reason for the re-launch of the museum.  It will now be open to the public five days a week, and the last Sunday of every month, so that many more people will be able to admire the collection.

The link between Jaguar Cars, the Trust and the activities that it carries out around the world are an important part of the future of the company.

Mike O’Driscoll, the Chairman of the Trust and the Managing Director of Jaguar Cars, who re-opened the Museum, said:

“The collection is an important part of Jaguar’s heritage and allows members of the public and Jaguar enthusiasts from around the world to view the famous cars.  The structure of the museum has been re-designed so that visitors will gain a greater understanding of the fantastic racing history of our brand.  There will be closer links with Jaguar Cars, which is important for the company’s future.

“It is important that we maintain the link to our heritage and the famous vehicles that have gone before like the C-type and D-type.  They are not only part of the history but also part of the sporting pedigree that is Jaguar.”

He added:
“Jaguar is becoming a sports car company again and we have exciting plans for the future.”

The provenance of the famous museum is its unique collection of Jaguar cars, which tell the story of the company.  These range from the Swallow sidecar, with which the founder of Jaguar, Sir William Lyons, began his career.  Other cars include:

    * the first Jaguar badged car, a 1937 SS Saloon;
    * NUB 120, the famous Appleyard rally car, which was campaigned in the 1950s;
    * the penultimate D-type ‘Long Nose’ built in 1956, which won the Reims 12 hour race that year;
    * The 1966 XJ13 built to compete at Le Mans and one of the most beautiful racing cars ever designed, but which never took part in the famous race;
    * the last E-type S.3 V12 open two-seater; and
    * some of the company’s most important concept cars.

These are just a cross-section of the collection that attracts enthusiasts from around the world.

The museum’s gallery contains a bronze sculpture by Dame Elizabeth Frink, paintings by Peter Blake and Roy Nockolds, trophies from the 1950s and 1980s, and original posters.

The day to day running of the museum has been taken over by founding Trustee Peter Mitchell, OBE.  Peter has carried out a review of the collection of vehicles as the first stage in the plan to improve and develop the public display facilities at Browns Lane.

Peter Mitchell said:
“We want to make the museum an important call for tourists on the British motor heritage trail and ensure that the cars we maintain will fly the Jaguar flag, supporting Jaguar Cars at their launches and events, as well as operating at heritage events around the world.

“Jaguar Heritage is unusual in that many of the vehicles held by the Trust are regularly demonstrated at events in the UK, Mainland Europe, USA and throughout the rest of world.  It is not always possible to bring the public to the Museum, so we take the collection to the public, thereby fulfilling one of the objectives of the Trust in allowing far more people to see the collection than would otherwise be possible.”

He added:
“Vehicles from the famous collection are regularly seen at historic events around the world and regularly back up the launch of new vehicles.  We intend that these vehicles, which are great ambassadors for the company, will be seen at even more events in Europe and America.”