Did any S-Types or 420 come with velour interiors? I have run across 2 RHD, a S-type and a 420, with velour covered seats and wondered if they were original? I would assume that if they did come that way they would have been CKD cars where local content laws come into affect.

 

Maybe a customer requested a custom interior from these people at the time.
If it was Parkertex, it would have been expensive.

Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow - Parkertex (rrsilvershadow.com)

 

As far as I am aware the S type only had two types of interior seat material. Leather that was standard up until around 1967 when BL took over and leather became an option with a vinyl material called "Ambla" being standard.
There might have been an option, if the car was being exported to a hot country, where the leather or Ambla material would have been too hot after sitting in direct Sun light to sit on that a cloth material might have been supplied. This is only speculation on my behalf and I have no knowledge of this being the case. Glyn might have more info as he has a vast collection of S Type photos from around the world.

 

Hi Guys,
Thanks for the reply. The 420 that had the velour interior was from New Zealand and imported to the USA through California many years ago. I agree that Glyn has a lot of knowledge on S-types and CKD kit cars, so he might have some insight into interior options.

Thanks Again

 

If you wanted velour interior Jaguar would accommodate you by sending the car out to the likes of Radford and many others as they would do with special colours like "New Red" ~ None of this activity took place at Browns Lane. It was all farmed out. Only standard combo cars came out of Browns Lane ~ which were as below. I have a pic of a velour interior somewhere but my filing system sucks. It should be under "Interior Reference" but isn't.










Example "New Red". Carmen Red was disliked by many.



Radford even built this supreme beauty. Recently been through a pristine restoration.

 

Hi Glyn
Thanks for the info. Do you know if the CKD kits if the sent the entire interiors? Or, was it procured locally.
Thanks

 

All interiors were locally produced (but to UK pattern with roll etc). Attractive brush stroke headiining/rooflining and many with woven pattern seat centres more prominent than Daimlers' perforations. That is why I restored my car to British standards right down to the crappy Shelley jack. Those old materials are no longer available. Our Local Content program was by that time 53% by weight (later changed to value). Lyons did a deal with government that blank blocks & heads etc. were sent to SA. We did all the machining & assembly of engines on the latest state of the art machinery for the era paid for by the SA Taxpayer. Our engines were far more accurate than those out of Browns Lane that were built with ancient rubbish, much from the Daimler buy-out & Standard.

e.g. our hydraulic jack that came in a leather case. (I still have mine).

 

Hi Glyn,
Its too bad that the old materials aren't available any more. I would have love to see them.

Any idea what happened to the engine machining equipment? Did it get scraped or shipped to England? I would guess that it was sold off when Jaguar stopped assembling cars there.

Thats a interesting jack, did other makers use that jack to?

Thanks

 

The jack was unique to Jaguar. The Engine machining equipment, as was car production, was moved from CDA East London to the Jaguar plant in Blackheath Cape Town where Land Rover was also built. We built the XJ6 here including body pressing by then. The equipment saw out it's useful life in the Blackheath plant. It is amusing that Jaguar Land Rover was to become one company many years later. In the intervening time a brand spanking new Land Rover plant was built on the same site that the Queen came out to open. We have a thriving Automotive industry here much for export. Benz, BMW, VAG (VW), Toyota, Nissan etc. etc. all have large plants here. Many SA built Mercedes Benz cars in the US as an example. We build a damn side better car than Tuscaloosa. The SA Benz plant frequently wins the QC round robin much to the disgust of Bremen & Sindelfingen.

The fully upgraded CDA Plant in East London is now the home of the state of the art Benz plant.

 

Re the Jaguar velour story.
In 1983 I had an Australian delivered 1974 XJ12L with an original Jaguar Factory supplied velour interior.
Cheers

 

Hi Glyn,
Thanks for the info!

Hi Bill,
Do you know if the XJ6 was built in England or somewhere else?
Thanks,
Bob

 

Bob
It was an Australian delivered car.
As far as I know the Australian distributor only sourced Jaguars from England.
At one stage New Zealand was producing Jaguars from CKD but I understand it was only assembly and not serious manufacturing as in South Africa.
For info.in the 1970s Australia was manufacturing its own cars with GMHolden, Ford, Mitsubishi and Nissan. Now they are all gone.
Cheers

 

Hi Bill,
Thanks for the information about the XJ6 being sourced from England.
I knew that NZ at one time assembled Jaguars but I don't no when or what models. I think they assembled S-types and 420's, but not sure.

Ford used to have a engineering center and a good size assembly plants in Australia until the tax laws changed and car production moved to China/Twain and engineering center shrunk.

 

My records show that from 1971 to 1978, the New Zealand Motor Corporation assembled 1404 XJ6 Jaguars and 108 XJ6 based Daimlers at their Nelson factory on Quarantine Rd. ~ No S Types were ever assembled in New Zealand so I surmise the same would apply to the 420.

 

Hi Glyn,
Thanks for letting us know that Jaguar CKD were assembled in NZ in the 70's and not before hand.

 

Yes ~ We built Mk1, Mk2, S Type, 420 & XJ6 in SA.with ever growing local content. GM, Ford, Chrysler were all built here. The Chrysler Valiant was the best selling car in the country for many years. Today it's the German Big Three & Toyota.

 

My 420G came from the factory with a velvet interior, so I'd imagine it was possible to get the same option on the 420

 

Glyn:

your colour charts do not list one colour which became available for the 1964 model year and later years: Pale Primrose. Is that because this colour was not offered on the S-Type (because it most definitely WAS offered on the Mk2)?

 

Yes Prof Gregory. My charts are S Type only.

 

I do not have all Mk2 colours. Hence chart only starts late 1963 and is S Type.