photo above from Malcolm Buckler's
personal collection ©
Malcolm Buckler
The Jaguara was a twin
supercharged jaguar engine fitted in a specially
designed Buckler chassis.
Robert
Watkins (John
Bolster's God Son !!)
owns this famous car.
Robert has the Buckler chassis in his garage and has not
had to do any repairs to it because it is as good as the
day it was made. Gordon Parker had removed the engine
and blowers and the de dion rear suspension to use in
the HK Special. Robert has now rebuilt the rear De Dion
with ARM links ( similar to a Watts linkage ) He has an
engine and a pair of blowers but these are Roots blowers
because the original Arnotts were not so reliable The
front suspension survives and the chassis is a rolling
chassis. He has also rebuilt the body from photos but
says the new body is better made than the original.
The reason
that Robert purchased both cars was that as a little boy
he went to school close to where Gordon Parker lived and
used to walk past the place and see the cars and fell in
love with them. The reason it has the Reg GDP 1 is that
Gordon's full name is Gordon Davenport Parker, this was
an early personalised number. He does not have the
number but says it is on a Lancia in the London
District!
Robert recommends a book written by Paul Skilleter about
Jags . Says it has a great write up on the Jaguara.
Article written by John Bolster
 Page
2
The rest of these photos are from
Peter Silverthorne's collection please see our
copyright stuff
Thanks are
due to Alistair Barker for some interesting letters, see
below.
Extract of
a series of interesting letters from Alistair Barker,
who's father worked with Mr Parker.
Dear Simon
Gordon Parker was MD at British Uralite
at Higham in Kent, Herbert Kingsbury was Technical
Director, My father also worked at British Uralite from
1960, but he already knew Gordon Parker and Gordon's
wife as they all belonged to the Shorne village amateur
dramatic group. Dad worked on all three cars ( he moved
to Shorne in 1947) and made the water manifolds for the
Jaguara and the HK. GDP1 was Gordon Parkers personal
registration number and was on various cars that he
owned , including an E type, a Mark 10 Jaguar and even a
Ford Capri!
My Dad is fairly certain that a lot of
the HK was based on the Jaguara chassis and the work was
done at the Uralite works in Higham.
Please find attached pictures of Gordon Parkers HK
Jaguar.
 This
was a development of the Jaguara (GDP1). Engine was
basically the same , with a mid mounted pre selector
gearbox. Body style changed to single seater.
My Father used to work with Gordon Parker and Herbert
Kingsbury and was involved in both the Jaguara and the
HK as well as the Jaguette
(the Jaguette was pre
Jaguara and is now also owned by Robert Watkins)
Attached more pictures some of car as it is today, some
of when it was road registered in the 60's after Gordon
Parker sold the HK (he bought a rear engined cooper and
supercharged that!).
I understand that The HK was in France for quite a few
year owned by the Chairman of the French Jaguars owners
club, he converted it back into a racing car, got rid of
the cycle wings and raced it at a number of events in
France. I remember seeing it for sale in the 80's in one
of the classic car mags, but nothing till a year or so
ago when searching the internet and found out more about
it.
When the car was owned by Gordon Parker it went to
Jaguar at Browns Lane and was put on Jaguars dyno, it
produced over 400bhp before burning the dyno out!
The HK Special is now owned by Robert Alexander
currently in USA
Alistair Barker Nov 2008
For more see
http://www.conceptcarz.com/vehicle/z13345/HK-Special.aspx
We could
still do with seeing the chassis of the HK because
Robert says he does not know what form that chassis took
or who made it. I guess there is a slim chance that
Parker went back to Bucklers. Seems Herbert Kingsbury
was not new on the scene but had been involved with
Parker all along as his "business partner". There is
obviously a lot more to learn. |
