Oh wow!
They're understated, they're elegant, they're always fast, they're always comfortable, and they're always beautiful, so that history to me is just seductive. I just have to own them.
Hi folks and welcome to Center Lane, I'm Bruce Hitchen. Today we have a very special delivery taking place. We are at Jaguar Richmond and Kim Trowbridge is taking delivery of his 2021 F-type, Heritage 60 Edition. The car has been on order for some time and it's very special. It is one of 60 cars like it in the world. Today he's going to be taking delivery of the car, we're going to unveil it, we're going to talk to the salesperson about some of the unique aspects of the car. Now, if you like this episode please click 'like' and subscribe to be notified of future episodes. Now let's take a look at the car.
I was just a little kid when I fell in love with cars. I really started to pursue the mark in my teens when I actually saw one live and I was probably about, between 16 and 18 years old. And since then, I just can't think of any other car as the most important vehicle in my world, is that mark. They were beautifully designed, they looked exquisite and they were also really fast, and they were affordable. So they were faster than than Lamborghinis, Ferraris, Aston Martins of the day, and they were anywhere from a half to a third the price so I felt it was aspirational. I felt it was a car that I could actually achieve one day. I have a '56 XK 140SE roadster, open two-seater. I have a 1963, it's a saloon car, it's a Mark II. I have a '67, which is over my shoulder, E-type. It's probably my favourite. And then I have a Series III roadster as well. And I have a Vanden Plas, a 2006 Vanden Plas, which I should be clear, was my mom's car. I bought it for her, for her80th birthday and she's passed but I have kept the car and will always keep that car. I have the Heritage 60 now. I was lucky enough out of 60 people worldwide to achieve one of those and it's the most modern Jaguar that I have. And it's significant because it celebrates the Geneva launch of the original E-type and the Series I E-type is is what I have behind me. The '67 is a Series I. '61-'67 those cars were made, and this 60th anniversary is significant.
The car was created to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the E-type launch back in March of 1961. And the Jaguar SVO Bespoke team, at the Special Vehicle Operations decided to make a limited run of 60 units globally, in both a coupé or a convertible.
It is kind of the modern aspiration of the mark for me and we all know that in 2035 they're trying to do away with ICE (Internal Combustion Engine) cars and this may be one of the last ICE Jags around. So for me, to own this is a real privilege.
For Canada we were able to secure a total of six units and and it turned out that we had three coupe and three convertibles imported into Canada. This is one of them, of course. It takes in a lot of elements from the original E-type. In this case, the first time they've reused the Sherwood Green, solid paint palette that they've not used since the 1960s and it would be the only time that you will find it on an F-type as well.
In terms of the underbody mechanicals it's an F-type R basically. 575 horsepower, 516 pound-feet of torque, 32-valve overhead cam v8, 5-liter v8. So that's all pretty much the same but then it goes to the SVO Bespoke team and they've chosen Sherwood Green as a colour that was only made for the Series I Jaguars in the 60s and then was retired. And they've brought that back to life for this special 60th edition and then it's retired again. So it'll be the only one out there in that colour, unless somebody obviously copies and repaints it. That's what makes it really special. Also, there's a Caraway Windsor interior which is a Bespoke colour, just for this car. And if you look at the car up close, on the centre pod, there's an imprint that is very specific. And it's not meaningful to anybody unless you know these cars, but it's the same pattern as on the rear view mirror on the original E-type behind me. And then of course it comes with badging and it comes with different things like that. But essentially, it's a Bespoke vehicle, it is not to be repeated, and it'll have a plaque that says one of 60 in it as well.
Obviously you have to be a Jaguar fan to appreciate the uniqueness of it and the collectibility of the car. And Kim is one of those. And the the drive, the performance of the car, the uniqueness of the car is something that I think only a Jaguar enthusiast would appreciate and enjoy owning.
It there's also some other really interesting things that go along with this anniversary and I'm talking about the watches and the whiskey. Could you tell me a little bit about how they've paid tribute to this car.
The watches are made by Bremont which is a UK company, owned by two brothers. They're English brothers trying to bring back fine timepiece making to Britain which is one of the places that it actually started which falls back to Greenwich meantime and all those sort of things. Timekeeping and and their their seafaring heritage was pretty significant. So they're trying to bring that back and they have had a connection with Jaguar since really they were younger guys. Jaguar when they wanted commemorative watches, they come to Bremont. So Bremont has made a number of them. One of them for the D-type which was a limited run of 300 watches, which I'm actually wearing right now. And then for the 60th celebration they made 60 watches one in each of two colors 60 green and 60 grey. And they made custom-made rally timers which, if you purchase the watch, they come with it as well. And that's to, you know, recognize the race heritage of the mark.
And then there's the whiskey. Tell me about the whiskey? Well Glenn Turret is the oldest distillery to never stop operating in Scotland and they have an affiliation with Jaguar as well. And they made a 60th anniversary commemorative whiskey and it's it's kind of interesting because what they did, if you see the bottle, it has it has that beautiful silhouette of an E-type on it. Each bottle is numbered, it's a specific run of 265 bottles and it's 265 bottles to represent one bottle for each of the horsepower in the original 1961 E-types. My heritage is British, the car's heritage is British. I love history and that whole history for me is significant it is whether I'm acquiring wine or vehicles or whatever it is, the lineage and where it came from matters to me.
Oh, wow! Those are beautiful. Thank you, thank you. It is definitely a halo moment for us.
Oh yeah. This is gorgeous. Thank you, thank you very much.
And here we have a very unique car, offered by Jaguar, to a very enthusiastic Jaguar owner. It is absolutely a celebration. I can't wait to see the the look on Kim's face when he takes ownership of the car.
I'm trying to actually bottle it up and hold it. I just want to giggle like a little kid on Christmas morning. Truthfully, I'd sit in the car and pretend I was driving it. But yes, it's exciting.
I know that this car is in the break-in period but let's give it a little bit, as much poop as you feel comfortable giving it.
Oh yes! And I love the little...the back exhaust is just really nice isn't it? Yeah. This car has a tremendous amount of horsepower for its weight doesn't it? 575 horsepower at 500 rpm I believe and 516 pound feet of torque. The torque of this vehicle is reminiscent of, back in the day when I was driving muscle cars, in order to get torque like this you had to be in a big block. Yeah. So my 1970 GS 455 was 455 cubic inch big block engine and it...it was a torque monster for the day, 510 foot pounds. Whereas this is probably, you know, unnecessarily powerful. Now, I don't think that, you don't think that, car guys don't think that. How can you have too much power? Yeah, there's no such thing. In reality a lot of these cars are starting to get much more horsepower than they truly need. It's not more than we need.
Horsepower is a funny thing because you know it wasn't too long ago 300 horsepower was a tremendous amount of horsepower. I know. And then it became 400 horsepower well that's you know...That's gone by the wayside. And it's going up, and it's going up, and then now we're getting cars that have 650, 700 horsepower. Yep. And so you know if you want a real muscle car these days, they've got 650 horsepower or more. Yes. Sort of 500 is sort of the entry level. Right. That's, now you're into a car that can be termed powerful. Yes.
This car is very nicely laid out. Beautiful interior finishes in here. Very driver focused, very driver oriented. Yeah. You have this bit of a divider between the passenger and the driver. You see them doing that in a lot of cars these days I know. Even the C8. Yeah I'm interested in the Corvette C8 has the same kind of idea, although they have a row of buttons along here but it's the same kind of idea. Same kind of idea. It's separating the cockpit from the passenger. You just got your Porsche Spyder and took delivery of that a few days ago. How does this compare do you think? In terms of...
you know, Porsche's always been known for the fantastic finishes on the inside of the car, but this doesn't take second fiddle to anything. No, it doesn't. It definitely is not a step down. It's competitive with it. I think you could you could actually argue which one's nicer and it would come down purely to subjective taste. I believe so, yeah. That's what it would come down to. It's, it's like saying, you know, which of your beautiful children do you like the best? They're both beautiful and... Right. You know, and also the Spyder belongs to my wife technically,
so I like this one better.
I love the nice wide screen in here. I don't know if that's a thing that I uh in your Spyder. I think it's got sort of the regular dimension screen. Yeah, this...the one in the Spyder is a half that size. Yeah, so it's got a nice big wide screen and then it continues over onto your dash panel
with an entire digital dash. Yeah,
But a great feel, nice sound to it. Yeah. And, and tight, smooth power delivery. Well and no cowl lift. It sits flat and just goes. Yeah. You know you don't feel the front end pick up or anything like that. And the colour of this car. Well, the colour combination, I should say, in this car. The really muted green, kind of greenish grey colour is exceptional on the outside. And I really like this this beige or tan or whatever you call it. It's kind of almost a taupey, kind of a beige colour. The interior colour is called Caraway, Caraway Windsor. I have no idea why it's called Caraway, unless that's what a Caraway seed looks like. I haven't never seen one. I've never seen one or at least not one that I recall but whatever the, whatever the name of it is, it's a perfect match with the exterior colour. There's a certain elegance to it. It doesn't have that kind of boy racer, kind of attitude to it. No, it doesn't at all. No. The perfect palette for a mature person. Thank you, thank you for the mature part. My wife would have said for an old guy.
Keep me in nice cars and having fun. Well it is a lot of fun and you know, to be able to go for a ride in a car like this with the top down, on a sunny day like today. You can't beat it. Oh, come on, how does it get better than that. You know, for guys our vintage, cars are part of growing up in North America and I, I'm still addicted to them.