Road - A good day

Some days are better than others. Today was one of the good ones. Jaguar was in Scotland with a selection of the latest F-Type models for members of the Association of Scottish Motoring Writers to drive and assess.

The mid cycle model refresh outwardly shows changes to the nose, tail and light clusters while the chassis has been tweaked based on feedback from the SVR. The V6 engine has been dropped in favour of a new 450PS supercharged V8 while the 575PS supercharged V8 has been retained.

Naturally the job was to drive them all and appraise their merits ahead of the 2020 Scottish Car of the Year awards.

On one of the jaunts I stopped at Polkemmet Country Park to take some pics. So there I was, crouched down on my hunkers, trying to be creative with the camera when a big black nose poked its way into my lens. It belonged to a Labrador, all wet nose, big eyes and wagging tale. Its owner, an elderly, tall, but stooped, white haired gentleman approached apologising profusely.

There was no need of course, it was just a lovely, big black lump of canine friendliness. But the chap asked what I was up to, not in an officious nosey way, but curiously interested.

Then I found out why. Although he had arrived at the Park in a beat up old Shogun he told me that back at home he had a 1992 Jaguar XJS V12 and a 2002 S-Type R amongst his collection of 5 cars. He was also a long time member of the Jaguar Driver’s club, hence his interest.

So I filled him on the spec of the car I was driving and answered as many of his questions as I could. I nearly missed my lunch!

That capped a lovely day out in the snow (!) with some of the UK’s best examples of British engineering and automotive excellence.

Personal favourite was the 450PS AWD car. The grip was phenomenal and the performance ferocious - even on dry-ish roads. We-ell, somebody's got to do it!