The dates for the next three Breakfast Runs sponsored by North Scottsdale Jaguar are May 23, September 19 and December 12. Please RSVP as soon as registration opens because there is a limit to 20 cars = 40 people only.

Dear Club Members,

March was a very busy month for the JCCA! For starters, we opened our club Concours d’Elegance weekend with a great Columbian-themed cocktail party orchestrated by Rigo Duran. Between JCCA members and out of town guests we satisfied the thirst and appetites of 55 guests. Great job Rigo! I know the event exceeded everyone’s expectations.

On Saturday we had our big event—40 cats were sparkling and looking their best for the Saloons of The Old West Concours d’Elegance at the A. J. Chandler Park in Chandler, AZ. Then on Saturday night the club held its gala awards banquet at the San Marcos Resort with 65 guests all having a great time. Our guest speaker and club member, Larry Shafer, did a great job talking about protecting our cats as assets. And let’s not forget the final event, our club slalom held at Hamilton High School.

This great weekend of activities would not have been possible without the many club volunteers and their significant others who gave their all to make all the events a great success. A big thank you shout out to all of our concours volunteers. Visit the JCCA website for great photos (courtesy of Mike Ferring) and a video of the weekend’s activities (featuring Lynn and Bob Brown) at: JCCA.CLUB.

And speaking about our club website, Mike Ferring has done an amazing job putting together our new JCCA website. Visit the club website frequently and stay up-to-date on all the current club news and events.

We all greatly miss our long-time club member and dear friend Marvin Price. On March 27, 2015 Rosemary Price and Marvin’s children and grandchildren held a tribute to honor Marvin’s life. The various auto clubs with which Marvin was affiliated participated in the tribute. JCCA was pleased to provide donations from our members and matching club dollars in the amount of $1,750 to the Marvin Price Auto Restoration Scholarship at McPherson College in Kansas.

During our last monthly meeting, the club voted to send Dennis Eynon and Robert Bronstein to the 2015 AGM to present and bid on bringing the 2016 AGM and Western States to Scottsdale, AZ. They made a great presentation and won the honor! (If you want to see the presentation that Dennis and Robert delivered visit our club website). WE ARE VERY PLEASED TO ANNOUNCE THAT: JCCA will be the proud hosts of the 2016 AGM and the 1st Jaguar International Festival of Cars (the first ever Jaguar International Festival of Cars will replace the Western States and Challenge Championship). This means that ALL 66 clubs in the JCNA will be coming to Scottsdale for a rip roaring fun time and a taste of our famous Western hospitality! The festivities will begin on March 30, 2016 and conclude on April 6, 2016. Mark the dates on your calendar now and be ready for a colossal club event with many exciting activities showcasing our Arizona paradise all leading up to a Concours d’Elegance which we expect will exceed 100 entries. This event will take a village of volunteers to succeed so please join us and get ready to volunteer soon to make this “first of its kind” event a huge success for JCCA.

While Dennis and Robert were dealing with 3 inches of snow in Philadelphia and working their way back to paradise, our club had planned a farewell visit to Greasewood Flats on March 22. While this was the plan, a sold-out crowd and a plethora of bikers kept us from being able to enjoy one last hurrah at this Arizona landmark. So we went with Plan B and enjoyed a steak dinner at Pinnacle Peak Patio. For those of you not able to make it – we had a delicious dinner and enjoyed the ambiance of this casual “no tie” joint which has been a part of Scottsdale history since 1957.

And one more thing… on April 25th at 10AM, JCCA has been invited to visit the turn-of-the century automobile collection of Alan and Mary Travis. Alan will give our lucky club a 90-minute talk on the history of transportation from 1882 to 1907. Be ready to delight in a visit to his garage housing 20 running examples of cars, motorcycles and bikes of the era. And, with a little coaxing, Alan will even start some of the vehicles in the collection. Alan will also allow us to visit his library which houses a collection of 5,000 books and magazines, from 1918 and older, on automobiles and motorcycles as well as his large collection of automobile/motorcycle memorabilia. We will send out an RSVP invite to this once-in-a-lifetime event on April 2, 2015. Due to limited space only the first 15 responders will be able to participate (that’s 15 club members and 1 guest each – more members can join if the member does not bring a guest – this is up to you). Sorry, no exceptions. Alan has limited space and made this a requirement of the visit. All those making the cut will receive additional details.

I hope you are personally pleased with the direction the club is heading. I truly welcome you feedback – negative as well as positive, so we can make this the kind of club YOU want it to be. Please call 480-330-9514 or email pres@jcca.us.

Best Regards,
Robert

Come hear about the upcoming national AGM and Jaguar International Festival of Cars, which will be happening next year in Scottsdale.

The full agenda:

 April 1, 2015
Chompies Restaurant
9301 E Shea Blvd
Scottsdale, AZ
(Cocktails 5:45pm)
Meeting Agenda (6:30 to 8:00PM)
Welcome & Introductions – Robert Bronstein (10min)
Accept March Minutes – Marj Schafer (5min)
Treasurer’s Report – Joe Capano (5min)
Membership Directors Report – Mike Ferring (5min) jcca.club & Facebook
Activities Report:
Concours – Phil Parker (15min)
Drives & Social Gatherings – Rigo & Fitz (10min)
April 25 Visit to Alan Travis’s Antique car collection (10min)
New Business:
2016 AGM & Jaguar International Festival of Cars (15min)
Open Mic (15min)
Adjourn ~8:00PM

We've reached our limit of 30 people for this event and have stopped registrations. If you'd like to go on a wait list in case there are cancellations, please contact Robert Bronstein.

To whet your appetite for the upcoming visit to the Travis car collection, take a look at this full house hand of postcards. The assortment of amazing, award-winning ancient automobiles and motorcycles will be available for your viewing enjoyment on April 25.

There is room in this event for just 30 JCCA members. It's at the Travis home, as I understand it. We'll meet at a nearby spot in central Phoenix, the location to be given to those registered before the event. The tour and storytelling will last about 90 minutes. Then the group will head out to lunch off-site.

Questions? Contact president Robert Bronstein.

President Robert Bronstein and Dennis Eynon are in Philadelphia this weekend, pitching the national conference on coming to Scottsdale for this event next year.

Here's a copy of their PowerPoint presentation.

Great job on website and coverage of Concours. Very professional! A big thanks to you and your wife for all the efforts. Nothing like this was ever expected from a new member. Thanks for sharing your talents with us.  

The annual event brought out a plaza-filled array of Jaguars in downtown Chandler, sparkling under bright sunshine and temperature in the 80s.

Here are 41 pictures from the concours and dinner.

And here's a fun video Lynn Brown's sister Linda Anderson produced.

The judges drew the very slim difference between two spectacular E-Types to name the Best of Show, handing the trophy to David and Robin Levy. David has gone to incredible lengths to make sure his 1962 coupe is absolutely perfect, right down to manufacturing his own labels for the clutch and brake cylinders.

The post-show dinner at the Crowne Plaza San Marcos capped the day with a record turnout and an excellent response to the silent auction.

Many thanks to event chairman Phil Parker and a crowd of volunteers who pulled it off.

Next day: a handful of Jag performance fans turned out for the "slalom" section (actually an autocross) before declaring the weekend a success. Mike Silverman picks up the story:

Chandler, AZ – The Sunday morning after the March 15 JCCA Concours offered those intrepid few the chance to put their kittys through their paces on the low-speed handling course known as the JCNA Slalom.  While just four Jags were entered, all four are currently at the top of the JCNA National Slalom standings, each in 1st place in their car's class.  Truth is, that's because this was the first officially sanctioned Slalom event of the year. The participants can stand atop the podium for at least two weeks, until the Virginia Jaguar Club takes on "the Cone Zone," and maybe even until May 3 when New England gets a shot.

The quartet turnout indicates most JCCA members are missing out on the one chance they have all year to improve their driving skills and learn via seat-of-the-pants experience the handling characteristics and capabilities of their Jaguars. The low-speed slalom (most cars never go past 2nd gear) offers the opportunity in a safe, one car at a time format to summon your inner Walter Mitty, strap on a helmet and have a go through the cones at Chandler's Hamilton High School parking lot, which is safe, smooth and larger than most skidpads at the racing schools ... and a whole lot cheaper.

The setup:  you get five timed runs through a series of orange traffic cones, from a standing start to a standing stop. There are three loops – hourglass, figure-eight and oval – which you navigate in your Jag and learn the sequence. It's pretty simple, but also pretty easy to forget what type of lap you're on if you get distracted.  Take my word for it ... I bobbled my XF paddle-shift and ended up doing four loops instead of three.  Oops.

Joe Capano stands his Seafrost XK8 on its nose in the stop box. The brake lights are working... overtime! Photo: Mike Silverman

Two of the participants were from the British Columbia club, and Dave Frisby posted the low time of the day in his black XJS convertible, a blistering 46.504 seconds, which would be good enough to finish just 5/100ths of a second out of 2nd place last year in Class J.  He admitted to this admirer "I've been doing some autocrossing."  His fellow Canadian club member Barry McCallan put up a notable 49.359 sec. time in his XJ40, impressive for a heavy 6-cylinder saloon in Class F.  I think he told me his other autocross car was a Lotus Seven...

JCCA member Joe Capano finished 2nd at the slalom, with a nice 48.923-second run in his XK8 roadster.  That's just 2 seconds off a podium finish in last year's Class K, pretty good for a convertible, which is much less stiff than the XK8 coupes that dominate that class. Then there was yours truly, whose 2009 XF finished dead-ass last with a best run of 50.135. That's more than 3 seconds off the 2014 Class M winner's time. In my defense, I've previously done nicely using the 4-speed manual in my '68 E-Type (47.68 sec).  However, the paddle shifters on the XF (as I found out mid-course) are not stationary, but rotate with the steering wheel.  Turns out this klutz was shifting up to 3rd gear and bogging in the corners when I thought I was downshifting to 1st gear. Next year I'm just letting the automatic do its thing, I swear.

The moral of the story:  Don't sleep in the morning after the concours, bring your kitty to the "track" and have some fun!

Phil Parker supervises the starting line as Dave Frisby's Jaguar XJS leaps off its haunches; Joe Capano lurks in the background awaiting his turn on the course. Photo: Mike Silverman