In my previous article, I wrote about my first Concours d’Elegance for my 1963 E-Type FHC. Since that time, I have taken this car to its second concours. As background, I have spent the last 5 years restoring my E-Type to as close to the way it left the factory as possible. This is the stated goal of JCNA concours events. It can be a difficult goal to achieve, both due to the level of detail required and, let’s face it, the cost. It has been a challenging goal for me but I have learned a lot and I have fine tuned my restoration skills.
This second concours was associated with the Nation’s Capital Jaguar Owners Club (NCJOC). This is a much smaller club, membership wise, than our CJC club. They chose to conduct a toned down event. They combined their concours with a larger all British car show, held on George Mason’s Gunston Hall plantation, just a stone’s throw from the Potomac River, south of DC. The original Mason home served as a pleasant backdrop to a large field full of a variety of British cars. Unfortunately I didn’t have time to check out all the cool cars, as I was not only showing my car, I was serving as a judge.
This one day event began on a cool and windy Sunday morning. As with the last show, I had trailered my car up from Raleigh. I’m getting a little more used to towing but it still has it terrifying moments. It turned out there were only two trailered cars at the event. The other one held the “recreation” D-Type that Jaguar Journal editor Pete Crespin has gradually been putting together for the last few years. It was good to see Pete and he was justifiably proud of his creation. I saw lots of future car buffs being given “seat time” behind the wheel. They were usually very excited.
I pulled my car into its assigned position on the showfield. Shortly another Etype, a convertible also painted in Opalescent Golden Sand, pulled into the slot next to me. So we had a nice pair of “OGS” cars for spectators to pick from.
I was excited to learn that I had been assigned to judge a small group of cars consisting of XK-120s, XK-150s, and a 1963 S-Type sedan. Very cool. Although the market value of this generation of cars has fallen off in the last few years, I find them very compelling as visual art. Fun fact- did you know that there is only one Phillips head screw on the XK-120? It holds on the inside door lock handle. All other screws are straight slot.
At some point, I peeled away from judging to have my car judged. This time I passed the Operational Verification check without issue. Thank goodness for that. My score for this event was 99.720. Not bad but I’ve still got some work to do.
As an interesting side note, there was another trailer in the parking lot of the Holiday Inn on Saturday night before the show. The photograph below is taken of a large image posted on the rear door of the trailer. He was apparently entered in the all British show, as he left the showsite at the conclusion of the show on Sunday, just ahead of me, having driven from the Holiday Inn in this grand old car. I still don’t know exactly what kind of car it is but maybe one of our readers will be able to identify it.
I have a roughly two month break before my next show in June in Richmond. And then our CJC concours at Little Switzerland will be up shortly thereafter. I can’t wait!
New Hill Garage 
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