The 15th National Rally was held in Christchurch over Easter Weekend at the Air Force Museum of New Zealand, Wigram.
Our Club had 6 Cars attending, which for the size of our Club was a fantastic turnout. There were approximately 155 cars in the rally, ranging from Pre-WW2 through to the latest cars still available from Jaguar. There was a good mix of models with at least one of every type.
All our members who attended made their own way to and from Christchurch for the weekend, however we were all staying at the same motel and were able to meet up on the Friday (Cleaning our Cars) and then travel to the Rally Registration & Opening of the Rally with a light Dinner.
It was an early Start on Saturday at Wigram for the Public Display/Concours and then Break-Out Sessions in the afternoon (Viking Tours, Brian Devlin & John Miller talking about their Books on the Nelson Jag assemble Plant and finally a talk from Simon Allon from “Dye-Tech” Leather restorations). Saturday Evening there was the Dinner & Dance at Wigram.
Sunday Morning was the “Site Seeing” portion of the weekend where different attractions were on offer for us to attend. These ranged from Visiting Akaroa, Waimak Classic Car Museum then to Hamner Springs, Auto Restorations then onto Auto Haven, Lyttelton then to a Private Car Collection. If none of these tours were of interest, then it was free time to explore Christchurch for yourselves which some of our members did by exploring the city via the Tram system.
Sunday Evening was the final Dinner with the Prize Giving for the Concours etc. Our own Dave Ingrim was acknowledged as he and one other were the only people to have attended all 15 Jaguar National Rally’s. There was also entertainment with an “Andrews Sisters” type trio singing some of the old songs.
The Big announcement for the evening is where will the next (16th) National Rally be held.
TAURANGA has been put themselves forward for this. It will be held in 2027, but not at Easter as Tauranga is already holding a “Jazz” Festival that weekend and the place is already booked out. The date for the Rally is yet to be decided.
A great time was had and I believe those of us that attended really enjoyed the rally as well as the “adventure” of traveling there and back.
The Rallies are a great place to meet other “Like Minded” (Nutters 😉) Jaguar enthusiasts where we can gain more knowledge of our cars as well as making valuable contacts for any repairs/advise etc. we may require in the future.