The contrast isn’t lost on us. We’ve been edging slowly along Blackpool’s amusingly named Cocker Street and, as the Jaguar XJ creeps up to the dilapidated small-scale industrial units and tiny little terraced houses that mark the dead end of this cramped little thoroughfare, we pause to think. Jaguar has come such a very long way since William Lyons set up car production here in 1926.

From the peeling paint to the crumbling brickwork, there’s an air of neglect about the place that’s at odds with the state-of-the-art saloon we’ve driven from Birmingham to be here. We’ve travelled fewer than 200 miles but we may as well be talking lightyears.

We collected the XJ 3.0 Premium V6 Diesel from the factory that built it, because it’s a logical starting point to a story that focuses on the formative years of Jaguar. The Castle Bromwich factory is pretty much all that’s left of the once-mighty car industry in this part of Birmingham. It’s a sprawling complex of buildings in which the Supermarine Spitfire was built during World War Two, yet it fails to dominate the area as it did back in its heyday. Alongside lies the iconic Fort Dunlop, the huge factory that churned out millions of tyres to supply the British car industry.

Castle Bromwich is doing very well, thank you. The XJ went on sale earlier this year and, since then, the order books have been full – it instantly became the best-selling car in its sector in the UK. Overall Jaguar sales are up by 42.5% compared with 2009, all keeping the Castle Bromwich factory bustling. You wouldn’t think so today, mind – the summer shutdown means it’s peaceful here. It’s late morning, we have all day in which to travel up to Blackpool, and so we decide to take the long way. It helps us get a feel for the new car.

We prowl down the A45 towards Browns Lane, Coventry – the former WW2 Daniels aero engine shadow factory, where Jaguars were built from 1951 to 2005. The XJ is attracting a lot of attention. Brits are often reserved when it comes to cars, but every time we stop to take pictures, people stare and quite a few comment. In standard-wheelbase form on 20in wheels with powder blue paint, the car looks good. Callum’s done a fine job. Even so, many people ask ‘is this the new Jag?’, rather than exclaim ‘Wow! The new Jag!’

Driving along this old industrial backbone reveals that the ride’s firmer than expected. It doesn’t cosset like a ’60s XJ, and can sometimes feel fidgety. The quick, linear steering and throttle response are excellent though, and the XJ promises great agility for such a large car. And one piece of XJ DNA remains very much intact: the snugness of its superbly detailed interior. It’s intimate, far from cramped, but not blessed with the lounging room of its boxy German rivals. If you want more room, buy the LWB version.

Sadly, Browns Lane is a shadow of its former self. The company still produces wood veneer here, but the sprawling production buildings were razed to the ground in 2008, and the vacuum has yet to be filled. The education department is the only corporate building left. So we contemplate our run to Blackpool, and decide on an easterly diversion before heading north.

When the M1 was completed in 1959, the M45 Coventry South motorway was built as a spur to relieve pressure on Crick – termination point of the main route. It should have extended all the way to Birmingham, but that never happened and the M45 remains lightly trafficked. It became known unofficially as the ‘Lyons test track’. So we need to drive it.

And we find it typically deserted. But the eight-mile stretch means we can appreciate just how fine a high-speed cruiser Jaguar has produced. Acceleration from the 3.0-litre twin-turbo diesel is effortless, as you’d expect with 271bhp and 443lb ft, and tall gearing means all you hear is a gentle wind rustle at the national limit.

It feels overtly firm at low speed yet on the motorway the XJ is superbly damped, its body control class-leading. But we’re not pushing like our counterparts of yesteryear. Tales of test Jaguars travelling in 140mph convoys along the M45 are legendary; one test-driver’s account of the effects of undulations at 155mph still impresses.

When we pitch up in Blackpool three hours later, we’ve really fallen for the XJ. It’s a nice place to spend time, and the thought that’s gone into the detailing shines through. The leather and wood fittings are first 
rate and ultra-modern, while the digital dashboard display is fabulously flexible.

First port of call is King Edward Street. It’s on this unassuming yet faintly affluent avenue in North Shore that William Lyons and William Walmsley lived, and soon become firm friends because of their mutual love of motorbikes. Walmsley built attractive sidecars, and sold them with reconditioned motorbikes in a garage at the back of his house – where the pair struck a deal to go into business together, forming Swallow Sidecars in September 1922.

Lyons’ house looks completely unchanged, while Walmsley’s is now the Berwick Hotel. A small plaque denotes its heritage. The owner warmly invites us in, tells us how the place has become a popular destination for Jaguar fans, and shows us what looks like a shrine to Swallow Sidecars on the wall in the reception. An interesting conversation and a trawl through the owner’s press cuttings mean we soon get a sense of the history that was made here.

He then encourages us to head off to Cocker Street to see the site of the Swallow Sidecars factory, though warns us not to get too excited…
Before taking up space at Cocker Street, Swallow Sidecars moved into and outgrew premises on Bloomfield Road, then Woodfield Road was added, and on to John Street. So, in 1926, the whole operation moved into purpose-built coachbuilding premises at 41 Cocker Street.
Car production followed a year later (the first Swallow to roll off the line was a coachbuilt Austin Seven) and, from that point, Lyons never looked back.

Considering its massive role in Jaguar’s history, we expect to see more evidence of the once-bustling car factory than we find. We’d seen contemporary images of the factory with cars lined up outside – and it had all the confidence of a real industrial success story. Today, however, there’s nothing at all left aside from a modern apartment block called William Lyons House, and a small heritage plaque.

Some of the buildings that Lyons used remain at the bottom of Cocker Street but they’re run-down. It’s a similar story with the surrounding houses, and you’d never know that the people who lived in these now flaking terraced houses had enjoyed such success in the car industry.
It’s a poignant moment for reflection. Had Lyons not decided to move from here in 1928 to Foleshill in Coventry – where experienced labour was far easier to find – maybe Jaguar wouldn’t have gone on to become the power house it is today.

Before we leave Blackpool, we drive over to Stanley Park, the pretty communal recreation ground in the centre of this thriving seaside town. William Lyons used the wrought iron gates at its entrance (above) as a backdrop for Swallow Sidecars’ press photos. There’s an almost continental feel to the location, and it works just as well with our XJ as it did with its ancestors all those years ago – if nothing else, the location (and there are many more obvious ones that TVR used to like using in the area) proves that Lyons had an eye for detail that few others possess. Even photographer Matthew Howell couldn’t argue with the location choice.

By the end of our day by the seaside, we’d come to appreciate just how much Lyons and Walmsley had achieved in such a short time. They might have outgrown Blackpool, but the town had instilled so much character into two of its favoured sons, that the stylish cars that followed couldn’t help but have it in their DNA. You can see that in the XJ.

The new car is an absolute hit for the Leaping Cat. The firm ride surprises but it’s in keeping with Jaguar’s decision to build sporting luxury cars, and the styling has moved on with a confidence that few would have predicted for Jaguar a decade ago. Although there’s an all-new design language underlying its success, it’s been carefully put together with one eye on what came before.

And so the XJ goes to the head of the luxury car class, just as XJs have done for years – but not without coming a very 
long way indeed