'Don’t just polish it – use it!’

[Jaguar Owners Club]

 

Norman Roper in his 1952 Jaguar X120 in the Teton Mountains near Yellowstone National Park

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  The group of cars parked outside one of the rustic hotels on the Rally through the Rockies tour.

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  San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge provides the backdrop for Norman Roper and his 1952 Jaguar XK120 during the Rally through the Rockies tour.

  
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  Rally cars shipped from the U-K outside a hotel in Cranbrook, B.C. during the Rally through the Rockies tour

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  : Norman Roper and his 1952 Jaguar XK120 at Pebble Beach in California.

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  Isle of Man resident Norman Roper and his 1952 Jaguar XK120 alongside the Queen Mary in Long Beach.

  
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  Norman Roper driving his Jaguar XK120 into Afton, Wyoming during the Rally through the Rockies tour.

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  Norman and Mary Roper with their restored 1952 Jaguar XK120 at Death Valley National Park.

   

VANCOUVER – It is no coincidence that the Club of Ancient Automobiles & Rallies began a 7,000-kilometre tour in Vancouver last September. There would be a rally through the Rockies and then into the U.S. with many stops along the way, including Las Vegas, Death Valley, San Francisco and Los Angeles. The trip took 32 days. The club motto is “Don’t just polish it — use it.”

 

Organizer Norman Roper, a retired newspaper publisher from the Isle of Man, just happens to have a cousin living in Vancouver from the branch of the family that immigrated to Canada a century ago. Norman visited his cousin Cliff Haller at his Delta home where he builds street rods and is currently working on a modified vintage Ford woody station wagon.

 

Norman and his British car buddies had their classic cars shipped from Southampton to Tacoma, Wash. on a giant roll-on roll-off car freighter to begin what they call the Route 89 Rally. They picked their cars up on Sept. 2, overnighted in Seattle and then drove north to Vancouver’s Pan Pacific Hotel to prepare for the beginning of the rally.

 

“Touring at a leisurely pace in your old car is a wonderful way to see a country, observe its culture and meet interesting people along the way,” Norman says of his 16 years in the club. His first rally with wife Mary in their 1936 MG-TA was a 5,800-kilometre tour from Halifax to Florida.

 

“Since then, we have been well and truly bitten by the rallying bug,” he says. With the 35-member Club of Ancient Automobiles, the couple has visited 26 countries including a European tour of the Baltic region. The clutch shaft of his MG broke on the return trip through Germany and the car was “sent home in disgrace.”

 

For the West Coast trip, Norman and Mary chose their 1952 Jaguar XK120 modified for long-distance touring. outfitted with a Borg-Warner T5 five-speed transmission. He restores his cars himself as “therapy” and is just finishing a 1962 Jaguar MKII saloon.

 

Club members meet twice a year for long weekends to decide where to go next. For the Route 89 Rally, members shared the tasks of arranging the route, car shipping and hotels as well as marine and driving insurance. A “road book” is given to each participant, but the route is only suggested and participants can take side trips.

 

Cars participating in the Route 88 Rally included the Ropers’ 1952 Jaguar XK120 roadster, two Jaguar E Types, a 1965 Alfa Romeo Spider, 1966 Alvis TF, 1957 Bentley S-1 Continental and a 1964 Sunbeam Tiger.

 

After picking up his Jaguar in Tacoma, the car began to misfire and finally stopped on Interstate 5 heading to Seattle. It was an early test of the roadside assistance that had been arranged because the special dual battery setup was not charging and was completely dead.

Norman had already researched North American sources for parts and had a pair of new batteries shipped to the Seattle repair shop within 24 hours.

 

Once the rally began in Vancouver, the route would take the seven British participants and one from New Mexico through the Rocky Mountains to Lake Louise and then south into Montana where they would pick up Route 89 and visit Glacier National Park, on through Wyoming to Yellowstone, then to Salt Lake City and into Nevada.

 

The convoy of classics turned west leaving Route 89 heading into the Mojave Desert to Las Vegas and then into the searing heat of Death Valley.

“Within 24 hours, we would see snow on the Tioga Pass as we entered Yosemite National Park,” Norman says.

 

The final leg of the journey was to San Francisco and then a tour down the Pacific Highway 1 to Long Beach where the cars would be shipped back to England. The group overnighted on the Queen Mary ocean liner in Long Beach.

“This proved to be the best possible choice for us to stay for the finale of our rally,” Norman says. “We had a spacious first-class cabin which, like the rest of the ship, was fitted out with its original 1930s fixtures and decor.”

 

With cars delivered to the dock for the trip home to England, the group had their final dinner together on board in an opulent private room in the Sir Winston’s Restaurant on Oct. 3
and then said their goodbyes the next day.

A jolly good end to a smashing trip, they might say.

 

Alyn Edwards is a classic car enthusiast and partner in Peak Communicators, a Vancouver-based public relations company. Contact him at aedwards@peakco.com

 

By Alyn Edwards, Driving