Jaguar buys the largest British car collection in the world. 27 years ago, James Hull started his dentistry business in a small town in Wales. Today his dental empire reigns across 50 locations across Great Britain, tweaking the teeth of self-conscious Britons to the tune of nearly 7 million pounds per year ($11.8 million) and a business value of nearly 90 million pounds ($152 million). Theres a lot of money to be made, evidently, in overthrowing a British stereotype. Mr. Hull -- cricketer, cancer survivor (3 times!), and self-confessed workaholic -- spent this fortune quietly amassing one of the UKs largest car collections: a whopping 543 cars, scurried away in an airy, skylight-laden warehouse in Hertfordshire, north of London. Theres the wood-panelled Mini Traveller owned by one Lord Mountbatten. Theres a ruby red 1966 Jaguar 420G built for Sir William Lyons himself, used to chauffeur the great man to the Coventry office. There are cars owned by Mike Hailwood, Winston Churchill, Sir Elton John. (When Hailwood wasnt dominating on Hondas, he drove an E-Type. Churchill drove a humble Austin; Sir John, a humble Bentley.) Theres the Morris Minor Series II convertible which was Hulls first car, purchased 35 years ago. Then, a Jaguar Mark II 3.8 -- once, one of the fastest cars on the road, which earned its attention among ruffians and miscreants, catnip to British car collectors, according to Hagerty. There are Mille Miglia winners. Does any man need five Citroën DSs? Hull does. Hull hoards like a man who truly knows what hes doing. He claims to have sold just five cars in his 35 years of collecting. This wasnt just an assemblage of cars, stacked together in a warehouse -- this was a mans life work, painstakingly curated to the tune of $170 million. Thats how much the collection was worth when Hull put it up for sale. He could think of no more fitting a custodian than Jaguar Land Rover -- which, emboldened by record profits, has bought the whole thing for an undisclosed sum. Hulls collection is a fitting expansion for the newly emboldened Jaguar Special Operations, which will oversee the collection. 130 of the 543 cars are Jaguars. There are C-Types, D-Types, XK120s, SS100s. There are thirty Mark saloons and twenty XJs. There are E-Types of every generation and configuration. Theres an XKSS, though not McQueens. Theres a Lynx Eventer, which should belong in Ian Callums garage. I do indeed have a passion for Jaguars, said Hull in a video for Classic and Sports Car Magazine. The oldest Jaguar he has is a 1922 Swallow Sidecar; the newest, an XKR-S.
Posted on: Sat, 23 Aug 2014 16:31:18 +0000
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