3 minute read
The Car That Just Had to Go
Editor: Following last months feature on the ‘S’-Type, Victorian members Janita and Julian Roberts sent us the entertaining story of their ‘S’ Type that went to WA and back and only travelled 2.5 miles. The Car That Just Had to Go!
We went to the 2018 Albury/Wodonga National Rally and enjoyed it so much we organised to go again, this time to Perth for their National Rally in October 2019. There was a great deal of organisation to do to accomplish this. Friends in Perth that we had not seen for a few years were told and they in turn were making plans to see us. In February, the “Juguar” (1965 Jaguar S type) was booked to travel in style as older Jaguars do not do well in the heat and we did not relish crossing the Nullarbor in it. The Juguar was duly readied for the trip, cleaned and polished. Then the location of the reverse gear was blue tacked as a note on the ash tray, to avoid confusion with the earlier Moss Box. We have a 1964 halfpenny on the wooden gear knob, rather than the shift pattern as the original Jaguar Emblem had disappeared. This was to protect the gear box as it was shifted around. The Juguar duly left our house on the back of a lorry early in March to allow time for it to be shipped to Perth in time for the Rally. Travel to the shipping depot, Truganina was the first leg of the journey, after which it was to be put into a high-class cabin (container) for train travel. We had booked ourselves in for the Rally, travelling in more conventional style (then) by plane. Bookings were made, payments were made for the Rally, Events, Accommodation and Airfares back in October. All was under control until the news began to filter through of the pandemic issues that eventually resulted in the cancellation of the event. On March 14th, before the event was cancelled, we had second thoughts about the travel, and checked the car’s location using the company’s tracking service. As the car was still in Melbourne, even though nearly two weeks had passed, we decided to cancel the shipping requests. Being a Saturday morning the message to cancel did not make it to the Operations people in time and off it went on the Monday 16th at 6:30 am. We suspect the car was not going to miss out on one of the longest trips in its history so it HAD TO GO. Because of the cancellation, we had to go through the process of notifying planes, hotels, events and disappointed friends. The eventual cancellation of the event entirely meant that refunds were relatively forthcoming. We are the proud owners of several credit vouchers with various airlines. The Juguar came back to the Melbourne depot on April 3 and we agreed to fund the return home, as the $200 for the trip was a lot less than possibly 3 times $1600 fines due to non-essential travel. Then there was the wait until it arrived back home. We were advised it was scheduled to arrive on Monday 20, again a long delay in the Melbourne depot at Truganina. When it didn’t arrive, more phone calls rescheduled it to April 6. The lorry had parked around the corner in the larger road and the driver drove about 500 metres to our house with the Juguar. We were very happy to see her returned in good condition and she has not said how the dust and bird poo came to adorn the roof. Overall, the only out of pocket expenses were the trips to and from the Depot for the car and the Jaguar Club Rally Registration, and we are OK with that. We had ordered Rally caps and were happy to receive them. They may become collector’s items, who knows? Oh, and I left the e-Tag in the car, so it cost us while it was on the back of a truck, too. Traps for young (or old) players. In the 52 days and 7,000 kilometres (4,300 miles) that the Juguar was absent from home base, her speedo moved 2.5 miles according to the trip meter. A lot less than other cars and travelling in luxury!
