Also in my garage: classic cars and motorcycles

Features
 | 24 Aug 2022
Classic & Sports Car - Also in my garage: classic cars and motorcycles

It all started in 1962, with a passenger ride in a neighbour’s MG TC.

Jason Len – then aged 12 – soon gained a liking for British cars. “That TC tickled my fancy,” he recalls.

“I went to shows with the owner and hung out at the shop that restored it.

“Four years later, I got a job there on weekends and during summers, working on old British vehicles.”

Classic & Sports Car - Also in my garage: classic cars and motorcycles

Enthusiast Jason Len uses his 330bhp 1960 Jaguar E-type for historic racing

It allowed him to learn the restoration craft and, aged 17, he bought a 1951 MG TD for $100.

After spending a summer refurbishing it, he sold it on with a $300 profit – phenomenal for a teenager making 80 cents an hour.

During his college years, Len studied mechanical engineering while working at local repair shops when time allowed.

But the fact that he couldn’t find a job afterwards led him to rethink his options.

Classic & Sports Car - Also in my garage: classic cars and motorcycles

Len’s ’bike collection started with some well-known British marques, including Norton, Vincent, Ariel and Triumph

“I decided to open up a British car workshop,” says Len, and so was born Britannica Motors in 1973, which he would run for more than 40 years.

As the company took off, he got involved with racing, first with an Austin-Healey Sprite then a Chevrolet Corvette and a Jaguar E-type – the same coupé that sits prominently in his collection today.

His next business move was to sell Jaguar parts, as he recalls: “I made a catalogue on my typewriter at home, and that was the start of the mail-order business.”

Classic & Sports Car - Also in my garage: classic cars and motorcycles

Len enjoys tinkering with vehicles in his private workshop, here working on his 1959 Norton Café Racer

As a result, Britannica Motors evolved into a successful restoration and parts specialist called XKs Unlimited, which had a total of 50 employees at its peak.

After selling the company in 2017, and his workshop a year later, Len finally had the time to complete a 250m² garage adjacent to his home to host his collection.

This former barn sits next to a second structure, which contains his workshop.

It has all the equipment necessary for extensive restorations, including two lifts, welders, a lathe, a mill and a drill press.

Classic & Sports Car - Also in my garage: classic cars and motorcycles

Len is busy rebuilding a Morris Traveller and another Morgan Plus 8

No fewer than four cars and 30 motorcycles reside in the garage, though Len has more scattered about elsewhere.

His 330bhp 1960 E-type track animal, upgraded in the late ’80s and still used for historic racing, takes centre stage.

A 1970 Morgan Plus 8 with 225bhp sits beside it, and other Morgans in his collection include a rare, restored four-cylinder 1962 example and a 3-Wheeler that was the very first sold in California, a dozen years ago.

Classic & Sports Car - Also in my garage: classic cars and motorcycles

Motoring art compliments this impressive collection

And motorcycles? Oh yes, plenty.

As an enthusiast leaning towards British engineering, Len began collecting some of the nation’s most desirable classic two-wheelers: examples from famous marques such as Norton, Vincent, Ariel and Triumph.

As his collection grew, he broadened his interest to American models, starting with Harley-Davidson, followed by the less-well-known Buell (a company founded in 1983 by an ex-Harley-Davidson employee).

Classic & Sports Car - Also in my garage: classic cars and motorcycles

Len’s 1970 Morgan Plus 8 sits next to his track-ready Jaguar E-type

Japanese ’bikes have their own corner as well, including a set of six-cylinder Honda CBX ‘muscle-bikes’ produced from 1978-’82.

While all of Len’s motorcycle fleet gets regular use, none has as many miles as his beloved BMW GS: “I’ve ridden it all over the world, as far as the Arctic Circle and Mexico City, plus all over the USA and Canada, three times across Europe and five times over the Alps.”

One of his most recent international trips led him to England and Ireland in 2018, which included a visit to the Isle of Man for the iconic Classic TT.

Classic & Sports Car - Also in my garage: classic cars and motorcycles

Jason Len is keeping busy in the workshop until his next big road trip

His first proper road trip on the GS since the start of the pandemic took place in April 2021, when he covered 2000 miles along the sunny western coast of the USA.

Until his next journey, he remains busy in his workshop completing the rebuild of a Morris Traveller, another Morgan Plus 8, and a XK120 fixed-head coupé powered by a 6-litre, 400bhp Jaguar V12.

It seems that, even in retirement, Len can’t help but work on cars and ’bikes.

Words and images: Stephan Szantai

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