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An article from OldTimer provided by Jaak.

Jaak Jacobs' exhibition of press cuttings and pictures.

Remarkable - Jowett Javelin News

The story about a left-hand-drive Jowett Javelin, found in Sweden, in the Auto Motor Klassiek magazine No 11, from Nov.2003, brought a lot of comment from our readers.

Now we have a new interesting story.

Several months later Jaap de Ronde from Bruinesse (Zeeland) let us know that he was a student at the Zieriksee Technical College between 1956-1971 .The really “technically minded” students were allowed to work on the - left hand drive Jowett Javelin - of their teacher, Gerrit Huurling.

The Jowett was a car which had many problems, and consequently needed a lot of attention. “Mainly problems with the bearings, in the boxer motor. Our teacher often would use the car over the weekend and then we had a whole week to fix it. In the end, we replaced the engine with a VW beetle motor” commented Jaap de Ronde.

He was of course, as we were, very impatient to know if there were still any family left who could remember this story. We also wanted to see if there were still any photos from those times available.

It was not until 30 May before Carolien Huurling sent us an email to say the Gerrit Huurling was her father. She told that there was a very big difference of opinion between her father,(who died in 2000) and her mother about the quality of this particular Jowett. Her mother spoke, and still speaks, about “that lousy car” but that her father was always crazy about it. From the photos it is clear that the car was well looked after. Her mother remembers all the times that “the thing” always broke down and left the family standing.

Good Friday in the Betuwe was an example. The entire family, father, mother and three children were on the way to Gelderland. As usual they took a few kilos of potatoes with them, that was normal in those days, for the family they were visiting.

The Jowett was loaded up with the children sitting between the baggage and the potatoes.. . .and, on just so a journey, it happened. The Joweft broke down. The journey continued on the train. Her mother was totally embarrassed with all that baggage on the platform and in the train.

Her father had the worn out Jowett collected but the lot of this “masterpiece of British engineering” was sealed.

The body, engine and gearbox were removed and the rest scrapped, the chassis served for many years as a cart.

“If there is one car we daughters will never forget it was this one. For years jokes were made were made about it. How my father would have enjoyed this story and the reactions to it” she concluded.

Finally, Gerrit Huurling’s student, Jap de Ronde, can get into contact with the daughter, Carolien, via the editor, because we believe this story is not finished.

The, Dutch’ Connection

Short translation newspaper article. Vijfheerenlanden, 9 June 2005 (translated by Richard van Buul.)

Unique car in old-timer rally

In the old-timer rally on the 18 of June a Jowett Javelin from 1951 will be entered. This English car is the only road going car of its kind known of in Holland.

Owner Richard van Buul from Vreeswijk is very pleased to have this unique car. Once he starts telling about the Jowett Javelin it is hard to let him stop.

Books and facts are shown and much is told about this make that ended motor car production in about 1953.

Van Buul who was born, and lived in N.Z. for 12 years, had the Jowett fever poured in with the milk bottle by his father. Hardly any people in Holland have ever heard of a Jowett Javelin which should not really be necessary looking back on its race and rally-history, like the Dutch Tuliprallys, Brabant grensruns,etc. (with well known Dutch drivers) and international rallies and races in which these cars did quite well.

While travelling through NZ with his family in a camper he spotted the advert of the Jowett for sale in a magazine, a month later in a new issue the Jowett was still for sale. After a phone call Richard knew that the car was on the planned trip and a visit was arranged. Fortunately he was able to obtain the car and have it transported to Holland.

Missing the original ownership-papers was the biggest problem in getting the car registered.

(Note: a cousin didn’t send them as agreed to Holland but turned these in to the New Zealand Ministry of Transport>.

“Nearly all the parts have been in and through my hands” says Van Buul while we drive the car through Vreeswijk. A lovely original car with wooden dashboard, leather seats and so on. Looking through older ownership-papers we see that the car has been in the hands of Dutch people (immigrants) before (1964 - 1973) and now it is again.

“Oh yes, would you like to ask people in your article if they can tell me anything about Jowetts in the past, maybe mechanics or people who used to own one.

Four pictures from the Ardennes.

The R1 at Le Mans

Click here for 450k pdf December 2003 article from Auto Motor Klassiek on Javelin now owned by Chris VanDer Vaart.