Glenn Davis recalls being brought to the Philadelphia-based Philpenn Jaguar auto dealership as a youngster, when he was around 6- or 7-years-old. He says that his older brother took him there and sat him in an E-type coupe in the show room.

Glenn states that it was during that very moment—of sitting in the Jaguar—that something grabbed a hold of him. From the smell of the leather to the overall sense of being in that fashionable British vehicle— Glenn says he was hooked.

“And, that never left me,” he remarks.

By 1972, around his sixteenth birthday, Glenn finally was able to buy a British car of his own; his first car was a 1961 Triumph TR4. And while he says that many people wouldn’t consider the Triumph to be his first “collector car,” it was definitely a special car for him. He also owned a TR250 in high school.

Years passed before Glenn was able to buy another “special car,” due to the financial burdens of being a college and law school student. However, after he graduated from law school, in 1981, he purchased a 1972 MGB that he still owns to this day.

He says that he drove the vehicle as a daily driver for about a decade, before he took it off the road and did some body work, fixed up the interior, repainted the vehicle to match the original paint and changed over to wire wheels. Today, Glenn uses his MGB for hobby use only. He says that it’s now a car for the weekends.

Glenn also had the privilege of finally purchasing a 1963 Jaguar E-type for himself—similar to the car that originally turned him on to British cars. He says that in 2002, with his wife’s permission, he took the plunge and bought the Jaguar, which he calls a “step up” from the MG.  He adds that he was thrilled to be able to get behind the wheel of what he calls a piece of “rolling art.”

While there is a social part of the collector car hobby that Glenn thoroughly enjoys, he says that he initially got into the hobby because of his love of driving and the enjoyment he gets from driving period cars, specifically.

“They give you a sense of history,” he says. “All cars are a part of history and many are rolling art. Someone designed these works of art.”

He adds that the design of the E-type was far ahead of its time.

“It’s one of the finest cars made,” he says.

Today, Glenn says that he and his wife enjoying driving his Jag in road rallies in Delaware and New Jersey.  It’s through participating in such events, in which he gets to drive the car for an extended duration, that he has gotten to “know the car a lot better,” he adds.

And, as a member of the Board of Directors of the Philadelphia MG Club and a member of the Delaware Valley Jaguar Club, Glenn also participates in other collector car events that those clubs hold.  In June 2008, he will attend MG 2008, to be held in Valley Forge, Penn.

Story by: Becky McLaughlin

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