Winning top honours at the British Signs Awards, as ‘Vehicle Graphics 2018 Special Achievement Award’, this year marks a poignant partnership for Jaguar and the race team’s Jaguar F-Type SVR Poppy Car, as we approach the centenary of the Armistice this weekend. Following its award win, the Mission Motorsport-liveried Jaguar F-Type SVR heads to the Forces’ Motorsport Charity’s annual Race of Remembrance at Anglesey Circuit this weekend (9-11 November) to lead the packed grid of 50 racing cars as the official Safety Car.
A year since the Poppy Car was unveiled in November 2017 and 100 years since the end of WW1, the poppy-themed Jaguar F-Type SVR has been a focal point for the recovery of wounded, injured and sick-servicemen. A collaboration between Jaguar and Mission Motorsport, the Poppy Car is just one of a series of projects by the team, a charity that has helped give jobs to 1,500 ex-service men and women in the automotive industry (954 in Jaguar Land Rover alone), since the first Invictus Games in 2014.
The Poppy Car was designed and wrapped by ex-servicemen Lance Corporal Chris Read, Guardsman Chris Walker, Private Dan Elliott, Lance Corporal Francis Stokes and Sergeant Major David Turnbull, all of whom are beneficiaries of Mission Motorsport and were medically discharged from service. The core team of Read, Walker and Elliott prototyped, designed, reprinted and went back to the drawing board countless times, but they succeeded, emphatically, at creating something uniquely poignant. No two views of the Jaguar F-Type SVR are the same. The Poppy Car changes with the light, with perspective, and, with the words of the poem ‘In Flanders Fields’ running through the design, the car represents more than an art installation, because it is something that has resonance, depth, and meaning.
Since the Jaguar F-Type SVR was wrapped, three of the ex-servicemen have moved into full-time employment, Lance Corporal Francis Stokes now works for Williams F1, Private Dan Elliot secured employment within Jaguar Land Rover, working in its research department and Sergeant Major David Turnbull is currently running the livery department at Mission Motorsport.
Speaking on behalf of the charity about winning the award, CEO James Cameron said, “The Poppy Car is a collaboration and project that has brought so much joy to everyone that has worked on and been close to it. The team was entirely responsible for the creative and practical delivery of the project, from first principles, and the finished car has become emblematic of the wider cause, particularly poignant as we approach Remembrance weekend.
“At Mission Motorsport, our aim is to provide a stepping-stone for our ex-service men and women to get back into everyday life away from the front-line. Race, retrain and ‘re-cover’, our livery department is ecstatic that, despite fantastic competition, the Poppy Car won the Vehicle Wrap of the Year. An amazing achievement for those involved that reflects the emotion, hard work and dedication that went into making such a remarkable car.”
Starting this year as it means to go on, the Mission Motorsport Jaguar F-Type SVR Poppy Car was on stage at the International Autosport Show, at the NEC. From there it has visited all the Recovery Centres throughout the UK, toured battlefields, turned heads and raised awareness. Not just a showpiece, the 575bhp Jaguar F-Type SVR has also been used at the VMax 200 events at Kendrew Barracks, as part of a wider recovery sport program for beneficiaries to get the chance to reach over 180mph behind the wheel.
Approaching the centenary of the Armistice, this week the car embarked on the JLR Remembrance Tour visiting manufacturing sites across the UK and was the centrepiece for the launch of the Poppy Appeal in Birmingham. Once again, the car will finish its journey at the Race of Remembrance in Wales, where it will act as the official Safety Car for the race. The 2018 Race of Remembrance event, organised by Mission Motorsport, the Forces’ Motorsport Charity, will be the fifth consecutive annual 12-hour endurance race held at Anglesey Circuit, which commemorates the sacrifices made by service personnel and their families. This year will be especially poignant as it marks 100 years since the guns fell silent at the end of WW1.
