Me and my motor - Brian Dodd and his Mark IV Jaguar

Brian Dodd from Wrexham has sympathetically restored a 1947 3.5 litre mark IV Jaguar, but with his own personal touches

‘It was in a really poor state and most people would have scrapped it, but Brian wanted to make it into the car he thought it should be,’ said Brian Dodd’s wife, Veronica.

Brian was given the 1947 3.5 litre mark IV Jaguar as a ‘thank you’ for helping out at a garage in 1978. Despite a few years in a barn, it has been a love affair ever since.

Brian, 75, and Veronica, live in Wrexham. Brian suffered a stroke a few months ago, but working on the car has been a boon in terms of his recovery, providing the motivation to keep going. He does all the work on the Jaguar himself, but his car enthusiast friends are always happy to lend a hand.

After being given a car, it was buried in a barn and left for a few years, while Brian focused on restoring his house. At one point he even gave the corroded car to his brother, but he didn’t have time to work on it either. After retiring, the Jaguar was returned to him, and he finally had the time to start work on it. Veronica said: ‘While the restoration may be in Brian’s style, it is sympathetic to the original, even down to making the clock in the original octagonal sign shape.’

Brian’s car restoring skills are self-taught. He has always been interested in old and classic cars, but learned the tricks of the trade when he was in the parachute regiment and special air service during the war

‘Brian has loved working on the car. He enjoys taking something beyond redemption and turning it into something stylish that will turn heads. And it really is a head-turner of a car.

Today Brian and Veronica use the car for short trips into town and for longer runs in the countryside around Colwyn Bay. It is fuelled with LPG and Veronica says it is a great little runner. They enjoy taking the car to Clwyd Practical Classics rallies and show days, which, says Veronica, are more fun and less pretentious than some of the formal rallies. Brian sometimes allows other people to drive it, with many saying they have never seen or driven anything like it.

While the car may not be strictly restored ‘originally’, the sympathetic alterations make the Jaguar mark IV a true Brian Dodd classic.