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Story and photos Paul Skilleter William Walmsley founded the businesstram which sprung Jaguar. It all startedin the seaside town of Blackpool, but thecompany today is a worldwide one, in that

its products are sold in more than 30 differ-ent countries. In this context it's interestingto reflect that within four years of the Swal-low Sidecar Company starting in 1922 its

Yes, it's yet another anniversary year, but2012 is the 90th since William Lyons and

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products were being marketed abroad,with the very lirst Swallow agent overseasbeing Emil Frey 01 Zurich, Switzerland.

This was very much in my mind when mywile June and I travelled to Switzerlandlast June at the invitation 01 the JaguarDriver's Club 01 Switzerland, because itwas in this country where Jaguar's ex-port drive effectively began - and in duecourse exports became absolutely vitaland allowed Jaguar to grow and Ilour-ish. That has never been more true thantoday; a strong home market is important,but Jaguar's growth in the 21 st centurycan come only lrom selling overseas, toNorth America and also in the huge newmarkets which are now developing ataste lor quality British products.

But it all started in Switzerland, a country Iwas now visiting lor the first time in manyyears, although lor quite a long period inthe late 1960s and early 1970s I was therealmost annually, covering the famed Ge-neva Salon - where, of course, the E-type

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was first launched.My host, ChristianJenny, now ownsthe very car thatwas on Jaguar'sstand back inMarch 1961, af-terit had beenrevealed to pressand dealers at therestaurant belore-hand. Some of youmay know that Christian has one 01 theworld's most select car collections, whichalso includes the original round-tailed SS90 prototype sports car, SS 100, C-typeand Lister-Jaguar.

It was the 50lh anniversary 01 the showingof the E-type in Geneva wh ich the clubwas celebrating during our visit, alongwith the 351h birthday of the JDCS itself(an independent club, by the way, with nolormal ties with the UK's Jaguar Driver'sClub). Christian Jenny was lor ten yearspresident of the JDCS, and is still much

involved on the organizational side, alongwith such as Urs Schmid - who will beknown to those of you who take a seriousinterest in the XK 120, because Urs haswritten two astonishing books on the car,with more volumes to come.

Our visit beg an at Zurich airport wherewe were met by Michel Tingeuly whoworks for Emil Frey - yes, the same or-ganization still handles Jaguar importsinto Switzerland, and while Emil himselfdied a number of years ago, the familystill controls the business. During our

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journey Michel reminded me how Freycame to be associated with Swallow - asa young man he raced motorcycles andthen opened a motorcycle sales busi-ness in 1924. This brought him to Londonand the Olympia Show, where he saw thegleaming Swallow sidecars. An agencysoon followed and today the Frey orga-nization is vast, its automobile divisionimporting a large number of differentmarques and maintaining an averageinventory of some 2,000 cars.

We were chauffeured by Michel in anew XJ, and as there five of us - ourparty included Norman Dewis and JohnButterworth who had flown in to Zurichseparately - I had the new experience ofbeing the centre passenger in the backseat. After two hours I have to admit tobeing a bit sore, because while there wasroom enough, the centre position lackspadding. Other than that, this black su-percharged XJ took us to our destinationin fine style.

The celebratory event was centered onthe Steigenberger Hotel at the ski re-sort of Gstaad-Saanen (though it is alsoknown for hosting top-level tennis tourna-ments). This and another hotel nearbyaccommodated around 200 club mem-bers who brought with them so me 135Jaguars. There is a huge enthusiasm forJaguars in Switzerland, much of it cen-tered around the JDCS which publishesthe Tribune, a magazine of quite amazingquality. The members often own a clas-sic Jaguar alongside a current model,though of course for an event like this,the "classics" predominated.

The sight of these old cars tacklingpasses and assembling at various beautyspots in the Swiss Alps was inspiring,especially when the rain stopped and thesun shone on the clean green grass andsnowy mountain tops. This was weil be-fore the skiing season started, of course,but we did ascend one mountain in acable car, a new experience for June andme - the nearest we'd come to it beforewas when we were hoisted up Washing-ton's Mount Rainier in a ski lift, courtesyof the Seattle club some years ago (agood memory - thanks, Mike and NormaMarkey!). The views were magnificentalthough vision was a bit restricted bygentle mists.

The event itself was run with the efficiencyyou would expect from the Swiss, andadhered to a formula which is pretty much

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universal - scenic tours during the dayusing well-illustrated road books, with din-ners in the evenings. We weren't the onlynon-Swiss present by a long way - whilethe car that had travelled the furthestto the event was an E-type 2+2 (it hadbraught a family all the way fram Finland),John Elmgreen fram Sydney, Australia,would have won the award for the personwho had travelled furthest. He was on hisway to the US on a fact-finding tour, col-

lecting even more information to augmenthis stupendous archives on XKs.

Then also from the UK, was Rose Eaton;aged 101, Rose and her late husbandFrank used to own an XK 150 and Roseonly recently gave up driving her X-TYPEsedan ... She was hosted in Switzerlandby Jaguar parts and restoration special istGeorg Donni and his wife Simone, enjoy-ing some rapid wind-in-the-hair motoring

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alongside Georg in his XK 150 roadster!Martin Emmison was another UK visitorand always interesting to talk to, as he

is a lawyer who specializes in cases ofalleged fraud and suchlike involving oldcars and their identities. With sometimes

millions of dollars at stake, such disputes(though fortunately rare) are serious busi-ness these days! •