Joseph Saskozi

Register Secretary with his wife Narelle

Growing up, cars like Jaguars were not the purview of working-class families like ours. I’m not entirely sure where I developed such a keen interest in the marque, although watching the British television show Minder and Arthur Daley’s antics may well have helped cement it.

Around that time, while working as an apprentice draftsman, I was occasionally called upon to shuffle managers’ cars around a tightly packed office basement car park, which included a very nice Lavender Blue Series II XJ6. How I loved grabbing the keys from the cabinet to start and move that one!

The mid-1990s saw the raising of a young family and the burden of a new mortgage. However, a lucky win in a Budget Rent A Car radio promotion afforded me the opportunity for a free rental of a Sapphire Blue X300 for 24 hours. Suffice to say, we put a few kilometres on her that day during a hurriedly organised trip to Canberra and back!

Fast forward a few decades and retirement beckoned, along with the selling of our family home in Sydney and a move to Orange to build not only a new home, but also the next chapter in our lives. Following in the footsteps of close friends who had moved to the Central West the previous year, it was a decision we would never regret.

An introduction to the world of car clubs, something I had never previously considered, came by way of our new neighbour. Being part of a car club meant I would now have something meaningful to do in retirement, a retirement which, admittedly, I had neglected to plan for in advance. Acquiring a very nice Rover 75 Connoisseur SE saw me enter this wonderful world of camaraderie and car club motoring.

Lots of enjoyable drives, club events and show ’n’ shines in the Rover over the next 18 months could not extinguish the thought that Jaguar ownership might still indeed become a real possibility. So, the Rover quickly went to a nice gentleman in Deniliquin, I promptly purchased my X300 Jaguar XJ6 from JDCA sponsor Lou Guthry Motors, and once again joined my cohorts amongst a plethora of mostly Australian and American muscle and classic cars.

So, the working-class kid finally made it and, after some 47 years, managed to join the ranks of Jaguar owners. I had always sensed that the mystique of Jaguar lay in its deserved iconic status, and that there would now be opportunities to share that sense of pride of ownership with others.

Today, I am proud to act as the club’s Western District Register Secretary, helping create opportunities for fellow JDCA members to enjoy shared experiences as we travel the roads and byways of our beautiful Central West region.