There are many ways to enjoy your classic, or not so classic, Jaguar within a JCNA club but if we were going to pick the best way by how big the participant smile is, the slalom would win hands down ! As a newcomer said while getting out of her car : " this is the most fun I've ever had... with my clothes on anyway"

The idea is simple. Take a large parking lot or any place with a large open asphalt surface, set a bunch of cones and get a stop watch; let loose a few Jaguars, with their drivers of course, and enjoy the show as they race around and have fun !

Gary Hagopian was in charge of organizing the slalom day for the JCC and he did a terrific job with his wife Sue who handled the scoring. Some people are good about putting an event together but act either like it's a job or like it's their private domains. Gary isn't one of these and he runs his slalom days efficiently but in a friendly, humble and enthusiastic way and it's a pleasure to participate.

Some 35 cars had signed up for the slalom held near the Marriot Hotel in the parking lot of Centennial High. Just about any kind of Jaguars were represented, from a prewar SS100 to the latest XK8 and even an all new X-type. Two courses were set up with the standard JCNA slalom being the first course to see action.

Being relatively short, the JCNA slalom course is not very fast and emphasize precision rather than speed. It's basically made up with two main gates at each end around which you must complete 3 laps, each in a different sequence and going through a series of middle cones. First lap is shape as an hourglass, the second one is done as a figure eight and the final one as an oval. You start from a dead start and come to a complete stop inside a cone delimited box. Hit a cone and you get a penalty...  get on the wrong side of a cone and you're off course / DNF. Cars are grouped in various classes to give everybody a fair chance and each participant gets 3 runs... Simple and fun.

First up was Gary Bartlett in his 1955  D-type setting a very competitive time of 44.05 but would end up burning up his clutch forcing his car on flat bed to get to the Concours on Saturday. Other good times were set by the experts like Gary Hagopian and former slalom chair Art Dickenson both racing Gary's E-type racer. Scott Young's Grey Ghost, an XJ6 racer, was equally impressive to watch at 43.56

First timers had fun too, especially the ladies; Ginger Corda of the Orlando Club and  Carol McKenzie from New Jersey were both driving their series 3 E-types 2+2 around the course for the first time and will do it again...

After all 34 entrants ran their three laps each, we all moved to the other side of the parking lot for the Giant Slalom, a course that's almost twice as big but follow a similar pattern except that it has a slalom section in the center. The additional number of cones caused quite a few drivers to get lost on the course despite the fact that Gary Hagopian, the course's designer, had done quite a few demo ride with passenger. I was lucky to ride in his car for the last one and what a ride it was, at the red line, with plenty of G forces thanks to the big XJR 18" wheels and racing slicks...

Best time on that course went to the Grey Ghost in Modified Saloons with a fast 60.42 with Scott Young at the wheel and while Gary while faster than my 63.87 by almost 6 seconds he graciously disqualified himself because of the extra practice he had therefore handing me first in Modified Sports.

Slalom is fun to run and also fun to watch as I demonstrated on a bonus run in the Giant where I pushed the car just a bit to much, overcorrected and ended up a full spin. Entertaining for the spectators...

The sponsor of the slalom was Pirelli Tires who had offered a free set of Pirellis to a randomly chosen participant in any of the driving event ( Rally and Slalom ) of the JCC. The drawing was held during the award banquet on Saturday night and since the first two names called were not present to collect their prize, a third name was pulled and it was mine...a gift certificate for 4 Pirelli tires of my choice, very appropriate considering how much rubber I left on the course !

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About the author - Pascal Gademer is the webmaster and newsletter editor of the South Florida Jaguar Club. Owner of a restored and upgraded (for reliability and performance) 1972 series 3 E-type 2+2, he doesn't miss an opportunity to drive his E-type to various events (concours, rallies,..) often regardless of distances. His daily driver his another Silver Coupe, a 2000 XKR.

Posted: 8/2001