Jaguar Breakfast Club at the British Motor Museum

In Brief.

The Jaguar Breakfast Club is a large but low-key gathering of Jags and their owners that meets monthly, often at the grand British Motor Museum. The Jaguar Breakfast Club meeting mostly seems to involve wandering around looking at each other's machines, with a chance to compare notes or experiences. The museum provides some more structured input, with a huge collection of British vehicles and associated stories.

The museum ... and some Jags.

What's Here?

Jaguar Breakfast Club gatherings tend to have themes; I attended the 10th Anniversary of the launch of the F-type, something that is guaranteed to be unique! Driving down, even from some way out there seemed to be an unusual number of supercharged Jaguars on the road and in service stations, and indeed there was a vast collection of F-types present along with a variety of other Jaguars, mostly modern but occasionally ancient, and a fair range in between.  Ahead of the meeting it was said that the club had arranged for some noteworthy vehicles to be displayed, and it may be the club that arranged a Project 7 prototype and the XJR Nurburgring taxi.  Note that, despite the name of the meeting, you might choose to have breakfast en route, as the cafe certainly ended up with long queues on my visit.

F-types galore.

The British Motor Museum is pretty much everything you could hope for in an organisation with that name, hosting a wide range of themed displays on the history of British cars and motorcycles in an imposing modern circular building. If you and your partner really like it, you can get married here! If you do, the guests can be entertained by displays on motor sport, on Land Rovers, on the history of Morris cars, on the Austin 7, etc, all accompanied by videos, wall displays, and of course cars.  Adjacent to the museum, there is also a Collections Center that includes a further 250 vehicles, including many from the Jaguar Daimler Heritage Trust and a more archival collection of other British vehicles.  Many of these are the first or last of their kind (e.g., the last E-type ever built), and a surprising number seem to have been owned by members of the Royal Family!

Having come to the Midlands rather early in the morning for the Breakfast Club, I also called in to English Heritage run Kenilworth Castle.  This is a huge but now largely ruined castle with a history dating from the 12th Century and an association with many kings and queens.  To maintain the car theme, the castle was saved for the nation by aviation and motoring pioneer John Siddeley, who is commemorated by way of an exhibition in the Gatehouse.  The cafe benefits from occupying half of the grand stables, which also host an exhibition on the history of the castle.

Kenilworth Castle Keep from the Elizabethan Garden.

Another blog describes a tour of Jaguar car manufacturing at Castle Bromwich.

Practicalities.

Distance from Manchester Town Hall: 133 miles

Drive Time: 2 hours 15 minutes

Price: $ 

Parking: There is onsite free parking.

Food and Drink: There is a cafe at the museum, but I decided to skip the queues. 

Retail Therapy: There is a gift shop selling t-shirts and model cars.

Child Friendly: Certainly I was into cars as a child, but some of the interest is in seeing things you recognise from long ago.

Toilets: Yes.

Do it justice in: The museum: 2 hours; Kenilworth: 90 minutes.

Inside-Outside: Museum 80:20; Kenilworth: 40:60.

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