Jaguar's heritage museum to close...
...And no plans to re-open Browns Lane Museum in a new site
Our chums over on Classic & Sports Car, who have been known to enjoy a trip or two round a museum of old cars, confirmed yesterday evening that Jaguar has no plans to create a new publicly accessible museum.
Jaguar says it will work hard to keep the cars in the public eye at motoring and motorsport events (a la Goodwood Festival of Speed), but that the 'proper' museum must go as part of Jaguar's planned run-down of its Browns Lane site.
But although the closure is bad news it could be worse: Jaguar has not ruled out re-opening the 150-strong collection of cars to the public, should it find a suitable site.
"It is an important collection and though there are no immediate plans to relocate it to a similar facility, as far as we are concerned our Heritage Centre is not closing at all - it is business as usual," a Jaguar spokesman told C&SC.
"In fact, there are very exciting plans for the collection in terms of activity, even if there isn't going to be a central museum for the moment."
Which sounds lovely, but how about a new 'Jaguar wing' at the Motor Heritage Centre in Gaydon - you own that, don't you, Jaguar?
PS I don't mind keeping the XJ220 in my garage if Jag are short of space!
I hope their plans are ways of making the heritage collection more widely available to the public.
I hope their plans are ways of making the heritage collection more widely available to the public.
Compare and contrast this to Mercedes , with their Brooklands centre, or Porsche with their centre at Silverstone.
Big mistake this.
Note to Jaguar - do not close the centre. PROMOTE the centre. Or relocate it to Brands Hatch or something.
The truth is, I did'nt know it even existed. Now I do, I want to go there.
Better to house it where more people will see it in the future.
I also think we do have to realise that this isn't in any way or form a UK company these days. Tata chooses to keep production and most development here and that is a great thing - but everything that could mitigate against some profitability has to be seen as being of little interest to a company like Tata (or any other multinational) and while I might get all misty eyed about the great days at Browns, most purchasers barely know where their cars are built by continent, yet alone town. So history will only be seen to be valuable if it adds to the brand value - and does a collection of cars few people see and most don't know about add to that value?
What if Jaguar were to loan special cars to it's dealer network? A main agent could hold small exhibits of a couple of cars for a month and then swap them over for a different pair and hopefully let their customers (and potential customers) know what will turn up when.
Obviously this would need to go for their American, European and Asian dealers too so 150 cars isn't really that many and Jaguar wouldn't have to hang on to them all at the same time.
Madness
However, the collection isn't being sold, shelved, or scrapped. It's simply not going to be in that location anymore; and at this stage JLR do not have a suitable public venue in mind. The Heritage Centre would appear an obvious solution, but that's near capacity already and I believe there may be planning resrictions on expansion. Anyone who drives near there at rush hour will tell you there's not much more capacity for extra traffic volume!
A wing on the new engine plant in Wolverhampton may be a solution, perhaps?
Compare and contrast this to Mercedes , with their Brooklands centre, or Porsche with their centre at Silverstone.
Big mistake this.
Note to Jaguar - do not close the centre. PROMOTE the centre. Or relocate it to Brands Hatch or something.
The truth is, I did'nt know it even existed. Now I do, I want to go there.
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