“It’s like a mini Goodwood Revival,” one visitor commented, having been greeted by a comedic 1950s-style road-mender at the entrance to CKL Developments, near Battle, East Sussex on the UK south coast.
Sure enough, this July 2024 Revival in miniature had attracted 250 guests and featured a marquee, trade stands, food stalls, a bar and – crucially – a selection of CKL-regular cars that you’d rarely see anywhere else.
Well, not just cars, because dominating proceedings was the famous Ecurie Ecosse-liveried Commer transporter, complete with matching Tojeiro on its ramp and flanked by Ecurie Ecosse C- and D-type team cars. You might recognise the D-type as XKD 561, as featured in issue 23 of Magneto.
Other notable vehicles were: 4 WPD, the Coombs racing Jaguar E-type recently restored at CKL; the famed E2A E-type prototype, which was raced at Le Mans by the Cunningham Team; and ‘Egal’, the racing E-type that was fitted in 1964 with a 7.0-litre Holman-Moody V8 from the Galaxie racing programme, and in 1967 raced by Barrie ‘Whizzo’ Williams. When Egal was fired up, the ground around it seemed to quake a little.
And then there was the XK120 owned and rallied by the famous cartoonist Giles, and the Ferrari 250 GT/L Lusso 5303GT once owned by racing driver Jo Siffert until his untimely death in 1971, and then acquired by the Swiss sculptor Jean Tinguely (below). Another, of many, was BHL 105, the highly original Lister-Jaguar ‘Knobbly’ that in 1958 raced at Le Mans, Silverstone, Spa and Goodwood.
In the workshops, visitors wandered around in awe, while work continued on several time-crucial projects, particularly the finishing touches to a D-type due to be shipped to Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance. In the panel shop, another D-type was having non-original metalwork painstakingly replaced by original sections, sourced from around the world to ensure greater authenticity.
And in the engine shop, two of the three existing Jaguar XK four-cylinder prototype engines were on display, one being rebuilt into a full running unit and the other a display engine lent by The Hawthorn Museum as a reference. The third example lives in the British Motor Museum.
All this in celebration of 25 years of CKL Developments, founded in 1999 by Chris Keith-Lucas. Now he’s gradually handing over CKL to managing directors Mark Hews and Tim Mason, but is remaining involved with the company to ensure his vast knowledge of historic race cars, and Jaguars in particular, remains.
“It was incredible to celebrate our anniversary with so many friends and clients,” said Mark Hews. “Thank you to everyone who made these past 25 years possible… we are really looking forward to the next chapter.”
For more, see www.ckl.co.uk.
