In the beginning………

1969, What a year! Jaguar’s fabulous XJ6 had been out for barely 12 months, the E-type still had only six cylinders, and ‘Nostalgia’ hadn’t become fashionable yet. The 60’s were coming to a close and the motoring world was looking forward. What use were old cars except to a few eccentrics, as they were quirky, dated and lacking modern refinements? Perhaps, but Coventry Auto Components’ founder, Trevor Scott-Worthington had been climbing in, out and under cars since his teens, and always loved older machinery. Cars are in his family blood, his father even owned a busy garage in North London.

Trevor started work with Standard Triumph, with a five year engineering apprenticeship and had ended up as the ‘apprentice of the year’ in 1962. His hobby was rebuilding, what we now call, classic cars, and following up a Classic Jaguar Association advertisement in Motor Sport, he teamed up with friends in the USA to help locate spares for SS Jaguars. When this enterprise finished, Trevor branched out into XK’s – which soon became his passion. When parts started to migrate into his house (the garage was full) and eventually ende up under the bed, it was not surprising that Trevor received an ultimatum (from his beloved and now sadly missed, wife, Glenys) – “close down or move the parts out!” So Trevor wisely moved the spares to nearby farm buildings.

It was at this time that Jaguar dealers were deciding that old stock was not good (for them) to store. Trevor discovered one such dealer, and with his friend, David Barber, they bought the lot. Trevor said, “I told them anything from chassis number C’ to whatever number was mine. Anything before was David’s.”

In that hoard was almost everything imaginable and Trevor had a full scale business on his hands. The more spares he sold, the more he bought in and so the mushrooming process continued. In 1988, after 19 years of running the business himself, Trevor took on his first employed staff, Graham Hopper (who later went on to help Guy Broad establish his shop). When old factory stock diminished, working with specialists, Trevor started commissioning replacements, though it was sometimes a struggle to reproduce exact copies due to low volumes etc. With modern technology the process is, usually, far better now. In 1991, with the farm buildings reaching ‘critical overload’, he moved into his first unit, in Portway Close, off Torrington Avenue in the ‘heart’ of Coventry’s old industrial area.

1994 saw Stuart MacNeill’s arrival and after that, they never looked back! In 1999 they moved a short distance down the road, into Binns close and a far bigger building (now straining at the seams with their massive stock) and they have now clocked up 26 years there, with Stuart guiding hands firmly at the helm, more than capably managing the company for the last 30+ years (and he still loves doing it!) There are even whispered rumours that he’s known as the ‘XK Guru’ and is a bit famous in some far-flung countries (maybe he mis-heard infamous?) You can even find his many worldwide published Jaguar magazine articles on here or see him chatting away in the company’s YouTube channel on that new-fangled Internet. Who knows what the future holds…..