Tracking the Cats

As one of only two overseas territories permitted by British Leyland and Jaguar to assemble the prestige XJ6 saloons New Zealand can be very proud. The survival rate of the Nelson cars reflects the quality of the product and the skilled attention given on their journey from boxes of CKD and locally manufactured parts to sparkling completion by the small teams of factory staff working only on Jaguar.
In this latest work Brian Devlin tells the complete story of the assembly of Jaguar & Daimler XJ6 cars at the former New Zealand Motor Corporation Plant Quarantine Road, Stoke, Nelson, New Zealand between 1971 and 1978. The factory has been gone now for more than twenty years and there were no factory records remaining to help his project. With tenacious, painstaking research and much travel to find the data and surviving cars, Brian has been able to document 202 survivors from a total production of 1512. This work adds to the understanding of the complex New Zealand vehicle assembly industry and the very restrictive conditions under which it was forced to operate for many years.