Download Arden British Day 2016 event brochure as a pdf
Report and pictures by Pim S….. (Holland)
The event was first organised last year, around the same time: late September.
2015 saw a rather informal meeting of around 40 – mainly Jaguars old and new – classics followed by a brief but fast rally through the German-Dutch border region.
2016 had similarities: same venue, same time of year, but….
There were differences aplenty: while Jaguars were still in the majority, many other brands were represented. This ranged from Triumph to Rover, and from Rolls Royce to Morgan along with exotics like a Lola T-70 track car (driven as a regular road car!), and an AC Ace. The event’s scale was different, too: over 150 cars present!
The final difference was the weather: 26+ degrees Celsius and an almost cloudless sky made a one-day event feel like a small vacation. The event took place in the grounds of Burg (Castle) Zelem, the Arden family house for several centuries. A brief tour of the House was available for the history buffs amongst the visitors.
A large Marquee provided shade, sandwiches and beverages, and the Moers CC regional cricket team had been recruited to add even more Britishness to this day out.
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Jaguar representation covered many models and years: half a dozen XKs, probably a dozen E-Types, MkIIs, a C-Type replica, and virtually every XJ generation ever built, including two wonderful XJ-Cs.
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“Ardenised” Jaguars were present as well, of course, including some of Jochen Arden’s most iconic creations. Two Arden classics were shown prominently, next to the marquee: the Arden AJ1, a highly modified ‘80s saloon in black and white and my personal favourite: the XJ-S based, V12 powered AJ3 Shooting Brake. Both are low-mileage cars, with only a 4-digit number on the AJ3’s odometer!
It was not just the classics, though: a facelift XK and Arden’s current showpiece (a modified and optimised F-Type) were among the other stars of the show.
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With Zelem being mere miles from the Dutch border the audience was quite mixed: probably ¼ of the crowd being Dutch, with the occasional Brit, some Belgians and a visitor from Luxembourg who had driven all the way up in his D-Type (replica?).