Jaguar club
Ronnie Russell
Car Clubs are very very popular and lots of people get a lot of enjoyment from restoring classic cars and exhibiting their pride and joys at Car Shows all over the country. Car Shows are a great day out for all the family and something they look forward to every year.
There are all types of Car Clubs in the UK and a Car Club name that keeps popping up is The Jaguar Drivers Scotland Car Club which attend over 30 Car Shows around Scotland. They are well known throughout Scotland for their impressive show exhibits of all types of Jaguar cars from Vintage cars, Classic cars and of course the latest Jaguar Performance cars. They are always attracting crowds onto the Club stand at events as Jaguars are a popular attraction at Car Shows.
Jaguar Drivers Club currently has over 69 Areas. These Areas operate as far away as Italy, Switzerland and Turkey, all organising Jaguar displays at car events. Jaguar Drivers Club Scotland’s base is, surprisingly, in Prestwick and the Chairman is Ronnie Russell who has been involved in developing Jaguar Drivers Club for the past eight years. Some of you will remember that Ronnie Russell was presented with the Jaguar Drivers Club Chairman’s Trophy last year. This is a very prestigious award as it is the actual steering wheel from Le Mans from the Lister Costin Le Mans Coupe built by Williams & Pritchard and driven at Le Mans 1963 by Peter Sargent/Peter Lumsden.
There were 69 Areas eligible to win this Chairman’s Award and Ronnie Russell of Jaguar Drivers Club Scotland, based in Prestwick, scooped this legendary award. This award was presented to Ronnie for his work on developing the Jaguar Drivers Club Facebook and Instagram pages. There are now over 60,000 followers on these sites which have been built up over the last three years.
Ayrshire has some amazing Classic and Vintage cars hidden away in garages which only come out for special occasions. Local businessman, Bobby Caldow, has one of the most famous Jaguars ever built. It was a Jaguar Works rally car that was presented by Sir William Lyons to his son on his 21st Birthday. The ex-John Lyons Jaguar XK120 has all the legendary Jaguar rally history, having competed in all the famous rallies back in the day, including the very first RAC Rally. This legend is now owned by Bobby Caldow who won Best Car in Show on the Jaguar Drivers Club Stand at Kames Classic Car Show at Kames Motorsport Complex at Muirkirk the same year that Jaguar Drivers Club Scotland won the Best Car Club Stand Display.
We attended events all over Scotland and Bobby Caldow won The McMillan Jaguar Gold Trophy at The RSAC 3 Lochs Classic Event with the ex-John Lyons Works Rally car. This event, although not local, was extra special as the RSAC Motorsport Club had obtained permission to use the famous Rest and Be Thankful Special Stage that was used for the Scottish International Rallies and the RAC International Rally.
This was a great moment for Bobby Caldow to get the opportunity to drive at speed on this legendary Special Stage that John Lyons had driven on in the RAC Rally all those years ago where he was recorded in history on the very first RAC Rally as second-fastest on the Rest and Be Thankful Special Stage. Bobby had the opportunity to drive his ex-John Lyons Jaguar Works rally car on this legendary Special Stage with big smiles all around that day.
Ronnie Russell received a Major Award this year from Tom Sleigh, the grandson of the founders of Rossleigh Jaguar, who were the distributors of Jaguars in Scotland and North of England. Tom presented The Rossleigh Merit Award to Ronnie Russell in recognition of everything Ronnie had done to promote Jaguar Drivers Club Scotland. Tom was especially impressed with the two-page articles that Ronnie has written every month in the Jaguar Drivers Magazine for the past three years. Tom Sleigh said that he felt these articles and stories had put Scotland on the map and made the Jaguar Drivers Club Scotland name recognisable when people talked about Jaguars in Scotland.
