Last night I was cruising eBay for some garage art. I picked up nice V12 E-Type factory brochure at a very nice price. You can imagine my surprise when I got an acknowledgement from the seller in less than 1/2 an hour. That surprise was amplified exponentially when the seller turned out to be Dick Maury.
We all know of Dick’s excellent, unremitting advise/comments on JL and the quality work he/his shop on Jags. But I’ll bet not many know about his Coventry Foundation.
He doesn’t advertise (I’m not sure why) but the Coventry Foundation is a non-profit. All profits go to scholarships to help train the next generation of people maintaining and restoring the old cars, not just Jaguars. The Foundation has a large eBay store with a lot more and even more to come.
Dick bundled my brochure with 2 others I found in his store to save on shipping costs. His eBay store also has a sh!t ton of Jaguar specific tools – those that start JD…
Thanks Craig, just a small correction. It is not my Foundation. My wife runs the EBAY store with my help. The EBAY store is only a small part of the Foundation. I am proud to be on the board and it was started by a some very dedicated people to basically start the USA equivalent of Jaguar Heritage. The overall response has been fantastic. The JCNA tool loan program is now under control of the Foundation also. The website www.coventryfoundation.org explains it better. Also, have a look at who is involved. Thanks for all of the support and rest assured, it goes to a very good cause.
Thanks for the plug Craig. There is usually some news about the foundation in every issue of the Jaguar Journal, but not everyone gets it of course. Their scholarship program to help preserve restoration skills is especially far-sighted I think.
Dick, it’s been many years, but I want to thank you again for letting me drive your GT-Jag Getrag manual XJS back when you still had it at Coventry West!
And curated by George Camp in the Cola SC area, who’s another super knowledgeable great curmudgeon of a guy.
If you’ve been following that page, you’ll note they’ve had some very nice donations of Jag equipment which is available to members for use. They’re the beneficiary of all the extra move-out bits from Jaguar USA when they moved building headquarters. They’ve also just acquired a JagSport XJRS through donation which George has recently sorted.
And Classic Showcase in Oceanside, CA hosts the western division of the foundation so those of us on the west coast have a closer source. Amazon has a feature that allows a percentage of your purchases to go to the foundation, its simple to set up. I have a small pile of Jag related stuff going there soon.
pauls
IIRC wasn’t Peter Egan a founding member and/or on the board of directors? I don’t see him mentioned in the web site. I used to buy R&T if for no other reason than the Side Glances column.
Peter Egan is a writer/editor for Road & Track. He has a XKE that he has written some really nice articles about during restoration. Not really directly in the Jaguar world or associated with the Foundation. He and everyone else is welcome to get involved through donation of time, money or Jaguar related items. The Foundation has now taken over the running of the British Sports Car Hall of Fame http://www.britishsportscarhalloffame.org/the-british-sports-car-hall-of-fame/ This is also mentioned in the latest Moss Motors magazine.
You can simply go to the website www.Coventryfoundation.org , select the link for online donation and choose how much. Here is a short cut link but you will miss out on browsing through the website: https://coventryfoundation.org/shop/ Thanks to everyone for their support.
I’ve only met Peter Egan once but I think it was at the opening of the Hall of Fame. The opening at Petersburg VA was also the first showing of the Foundation exhibit at the same Moss facility. Maybe that’s where the confusion arose?
Quite probably. In my memory, which is but a shadow of it’s former self, and quite a while back, I seem to remember a photo of a group including Peter in a library or other room of the Foundation.
Great to see Tom Wright on the board. I got to meet him while he was in Vero, and active in the Jag club.The Foundation site is great. Always thought the tool loan program was a real gift to Jaguar owners,.