Stirling Moss takes to streets of Bradford in Jaguar D-Type

Hundreds of people lined the streets of Bradford on Thursday April 24th to see motor racing legend Sir Stirling Moss drive a long-nose Jaguar D-Type to Speedmaster in Greengates, where he opened Europe’s first motoring themed conference centre.

Sir Stirling headed a cavalcade of historic Jaguars from the Jaguar Daimler Heritage Trust, that were given a police escort from Bradford’s City Hall to the new conference centre in Greengates.

Years of planning had gone into the design and building of the new 20,000 square foot conference and training centre which will be used for a variety of purposes by businesses throughout the north of England.

James Hanson, Managing Director of the new centre, said: “We were honoured that Sir Stirling opened this new complex which is already attracting conference and meeting organisers from across the region. It was great that he drove the D-Type and that hundreds of people turned out to see him and the other cars.”

A Jaguar C Type, that took part in the famous Mille Miglia in 1953, was driven by racing driver James Hanson. Other cars that were driven in the cavalcade included the James Bond XKR from the film “Die Another Day” and an XKR “Shaguar” used to promote the Austin Powers film “Goldmember.”

Tony O’Keeffe, Curator of the Jaguar Daimler heritage Trust said: “It is not often that people get the chance to see famous cars like this actually driving together on ordinary streets. The fact that Sir Stirling Moss headed the convoy in the famous D-Type that won the 12-hour race at Reims in 1956, made history in its own right.”

More than 200 guests welcomed Sir Stirling Moss and the cars when they arrived at the conference centre, which is also the site of the Speedmaster collector and race car showroom, where several million pounds worth of classic cars were on show.

Jarrots, the famous picture library, have been commissioned by Speedmaster to provide images to fill the “Great British Racing Drivers” feature wall. So far provided are some 33 stunning images and more will be added over the coming months.

Motoring artist Michael Turner and his son Graham have provided both originals and motoring prints, which will be on show and for sale at the centre.

Whatever happened to the British car industry?

The British car industry: Who owns who; what names might return; and whatever happened to Austin, Rover and Morris?

Name

Comments

Validation	Please enter the text to the left (case sensitive)
Reload