Where I've been and those I've shot along the way.

1956 Jaguar Mk1. Photography by Vernon T. Williams

It’s hard to believe that when this car was introduced in 1956 it took the British racing world by storm.  The Jaguar Mk1 was the first real star of the British Touring Car Championship, which has been going strong for over a half-century and has always featured some of the most spectacular driving the world of motorsports has ever offered.  The early years of the BTCC were what racing is all about; daily drivers tuned for high output screaming sideways on skinny tires.  And the Mark 1 and Mark 2 Jags dominated this world until the American muscle cars came onto the scene in 1965.  This was the favoured car of Roy James, the legendary get-away car driver who was at the wheel in 1963′s Great Train Robbery.

Richard Hammond gives us a brilliant history of the BTCC in an episode of Top Gear and shows us what this car is capable of.  He takes the wheel of a Mark One that could be the twin of this car, all blaring throttle and four wheel drifts as he throws it around the rain-soaked track.  I just watched that episode again tonight and it breaks my heart to see this specimen decaying slowly into the forest floor.  Would that I had the means to rescue this big cat and give it the loving restoration it deserves.