Colin Cavenagh’s D-Type Jaguar. Photo: Supplied.
Jamberoo’s Colin Cavenagh used his passion to create a masterpiece of automotive engineering, hand building a near-perfect replica of a classic Jaguar D-Type from the ground up – and it’s roadworthy.
Set to be showcased amid 600 other cars at the Jamberoo Car Show and Family Day on Sunday (26 October), it took Colin more than three years of meticulous work to build.
In fact, Colin has crafted a car so authentic that at a Jaguar national meeting in Sydney, where his car was parked alongside the original D-Type, it was virtually indistinguishable from the original.
“There was one fella there who was renowned in Australia with the D-Type and he told me my car would stand the ‘10-foot test’, which meant if you stood 10 feet away, you wouldn’t know the difference,” he said.
Colin said even as a kid, he was always building things, so it was no surprise it would follow him into adulthood.
“I was in the motor trade as a panel beater,” he said.
“The fella that taught me was English and he worked in England for the factories that built cars when they were built by hand.
“I learnt the trade with him, so it was really handy to be able to have all those techniques, and I’ve been repairing cars for years and looked at how they were constructed.”
Drawing from that background, Colin used a combination of steel chassis, aluminium body parts, and fibreglass components to bring his dream to life.
It’s even painted in the traditional British Racing Green colour.
“I was always interested in motorsport and I liked the look of the Jaguar,” he said.
“When I got into my own business restoring cars, I worked on a lot of E-Type Jags, the sports cars.
“A mate of mine bought a fibreglass replica from England of the D-Type and I got the chance to see the sizes and the dimensions of the car, and I just hand formed my own.”
He said after complying with emissions, engineering and roadworthy regulations and standards, he was able to get it on the road, having driven it now for eight years.
“It’s a 1956 model car virtually, but the engine and everything is the newer engine. Mechanically, it’s modern,” he said.
“When people see it, they can’t comprehend how you would build a car from scratch.”
Colin admitted that what he’d been able to achieve even amazed him sometimes, especially when he was at the Jaguar national event and got to see the original D-Type up close.
“I was surprised myself, because I’d never been that close to the real thing,” he said.
He said he’d shown the Jaguar at the Jamboree Car Show since the event began, with the show now having grown from about 50 cars to this year expecting 600 cars on display across two ovals.
The event now includes classic cars, hot rods and rattlers, food and drink, live entertainment, Navy flight simulators, kids fire trucks, a Bumblebee Transformer, and farm yard animals.
Funds go towards the Jamberoo Rural Fire Service.
Jamberoo Car Show and Family Day will be held at Keith Walsh Oval in Jamberoo on Sunday (26 October) from 8 am to 2 pm. Adults are $5 each and a family is $10.
