Lyons hadn’t planned to introduce both cars in Geneva, but the response to the coupe was so staggering he changed his mind.ĭewis, who died two years ago at age 98, vividly recalled the story of his journey, shortly before his death. “It was the most incredible journey of my life, and I’ve never forgotten it.”Īn even more hair-raising journey was in store for Norman Dewis, Jaguar’s estimable test driver, who was still back in Coventry with the E-Type convertible. “It was the only car I actually drove flat out from one end to the other of a journey,” Berry recalled years later, according to a Jaguar history. William Lyons, the company president, said, “Good God, Berry, I thought you weren’t going to get here.” There was barely time for the steaming coupe to be wiped down. He arrived just 20 minutes before the scheduled unveiling on Geneva’s waterfront, against the backdrop of its famous water jet fountain. Now critically late, to make up for lost time Berry set out on the drive of his life. But he ran into fog that lasted until Reims, in France.
Too late to transport it, a public relations manager, Bob Berry, decided to drive it, catching the midnight ferry from Dover. So after that joy ride, the coupe was still drawing attention at Jaguar’s headquarters in Coventry, England, long after it was supposed to have left for Geneva.
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