South Carolina Club Columbia Concours 2001

South Carolina Jaguar Club
Columbia Concours 2001

By RUSSELL GLACE

Late Friday morning, Pascal and I left the Palm Beaches Friday late morning and in 7 ½ hours were at the host hotel, The Adam’s Mark in Columbia South Carolina, for the Columbia Classic Concour hosted by the South Carolina Jaguar Society. This club has an interesting membership group. It appears to be split between a Charleston segment known as low country and Columbia segment that are mid land.

Hampton Jaguar sponsored the event Friday night. That evening we met up with old friends and planned our weekend events. In attendance were J.C.N.A. members from Canada, Ohio, Tennessee, Florida and the Carolina’s. In addition to J.C.N.A. clubs there was a group from Atlanta, Georgia representing over 200 members that I talked to about joining J.C.N.A. What I like about my duties as the Regional Director is meeting new members and seeing old friends once again.

The city was busting with activities this weekend. The main event was live concerts that featured 5 stages of live entertainment all three days and nights. Saturday started early at the hotel’s wash area, where out of towner’s like Pascal and I worked vigorously to make ready his 72 Series III "E" type for the Driven Class entry. Pascal had told me all along that he was going to enter as "Display" but once there and seeing all the beautiful British Cars his competitive side was evident. All that know him are aware that he is "All About Performance", however, perhaps as anal as I am about details played a little part in his decision to show his beautiful car. After a thorough washing we placed the car in the quadrant off city street across from the Adam’s Mark, at the intersection of Hampton & Taylor. On the corner was a city park next to the city’s Columbia Museum of Art. All and all it was a great location to present over 30 fine examples of Jaguars as well as other British makes in the combined show.

After placing the car, since we switched from Display class to a judged Driven Class, it was clean up time. To see Pascal on his hands & knees cleaning was "a sight to behold". He even used the old trick of doubling infamous duct tape to clean the carpet. While I was busy cleaning, I heard some commotion, and discovered that Pascal had taken a fall when stepping off the curb and others were helping him up. He had stepped into a pot hole twisting his ankle; selfishly, I thought that this was my chance to drive his car back to Florida, but no luck, he, with the pain of a very swollen ankle, was determined to drive. Damn.

The head judge Dick Diebel called for "rags down" for the judging to commence. I was told that this year they had enough people to judge, however at the last minute they asked me to judge and of course I obliged. There were only 30 cars for each team of 3 judges. After the conclusion of the judging a group gathered at the hotel pub for a late lunch and storytelling. By that time Pascal’s ankle looked like a softball. He went back to his room to rest. Dick & Julie played nursemaid getting him their cooler with ice and shopped for a bandage to wrap up his ankle. I looked at the rest of the beautiful sights within the city, ending at the museum, which was open, free of charge that particular Saturday afternoon.

That evening was the Concours dinner and Awards presentation. The club had J.C.N.A.'s Mike Cook, editor of the Jaguar Journal, as the guest speaker. Mike’s knowledge of this Marquee, as well a many other British cars made for a very entertaining speech. To make the event even more interesting, Mike concluded his podium time with a Jeopardy " Jaguar" game, relating questions to eight tables of interested guests. Mr. Cooks final Jeopardy question was a "people initials" category question. What Jaguar executive could have more than doubled his income in a different field? The answer was M.D., which are the initials of Jaguars past president Mr. Mike Dale. Our table won the game. The prize was an autographed copy of Mike Cook’s new book, The History of Jaguar. His book should be out by the Franklin Challenge Championship.

It was then time for the trophy presentation. That evening in the Champion Category two vehicles received a perfect 100 points. Both were spectacular examples of dedication to the marques. In the Driven class, Pascal took 1^st Place for his 72 Series III "E" type. All that elbow grease paid off.

The Concours was coming to a close and everyone was exchanging goodbyes. A group of six of us decided to go to the music festival. We were roaming the streets of downtown Columbia in suits with hundreds of partygoers in tank tops and shorts. We looked a little out of place to say the least. We tried to find the stage for Ray Charles, however his performance was coming to a close, so we decided to find a local pub for a few. We wandered into "The Oil Company" a neat old brick bar that was starting to fill up with the festival crowd. On the walk back to the hotel, one stage had a rock band that we could see through the crowd control fence that the city had erected. It seemed that we were the only people over 30 that were out that evening.

The next morning many of the people gathered for brunch before their journey home. Pascal and I said our goodbyes again and headed south. We noticed tremendous traffic we assumed that Spring Break was still in effect. After Daytona and Orlando the traffic lightened and we made our trip safely home. Fun was had by all.

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