CRY Jaguar

I had a boyfriend in 1967 who used to pick me up in a British Racing Green Jaguar Mark II saloon. One day he arrived in a borrowed, black, E-Type Jaguar coupe. My mother looked out of the kitchen window and said, "What on earth is that?" Not the sort of wheels we were used to seeing in the sleepy Dengie Hundred. What a thrill for me!

I therefore pricked up my ears when I heard that Philip Porter, author, publisher and automotive historian, had organised an E-Type Jaguar Club Round Britain Coastal Drive to raise funds for Prostate Cancer UK. He has recovered from the disease. Stage 17 started this morning from Maldon, where I was born and I was there to see the beautiful big cats off.

I looked cursorily at the map and noticed that the premises of JD Classics, who were hosts to the club this morning, are near Maldon Salt. I thought I was going to Heybridge where Maldon Salt's classic, black weatherboarded sheds are. Good job the SatNav told me to turn off by Morrisons. JD Classics is a vast and impressive organisation in new, purpose-built premises. (Maldon Salt is in the new building opposite.) I drooled at the cars through the showroom window and the workshops were an Aladdin's cave of automotive delights.

My pic is of Philip Porter's 848 CRY, which featured in The Italian Job film. The Mayor of Maldon has the Union Flag ready to wave the cars off on their way to Folkestone. I think the pic has quite an Italian Job feel. Michael Deeley the producer says it was the first Eurosceptic film and its whole point was the kicking of European ass. The three Minis were red, white and blue and many of the incidental themes are based on British patriotic songs. Matt Monro, who sang the opening theme, was an occasional vocalist for one of the bands MrQ played in.