FW: [JONAT] Press Release

[Mark Stephenson]

Volunteers Steer the Largest Jaguar Auto Tour in History

Orlando, FLA. - (April 10, 2004) - In less than a week, the largest
Jaguar Auto Tour in the history of North America will be launched from
Orlando, FL.  Planned and implemented by a host of volunteers across the
USA and Canada, the Jaguar Owners of North America Tour (JONAT) is a
not-for-profit event.  JONAT was formed to organize volunteers and
assemble the necessary "nuts and bolts" permitting anyone who owns a
Jaguar to participate in this colossal event.

Crossing the two countries and four time zones, it begins April 15, and
passes across the southern United States, up the West Coast, across
Canada, south of the Great Lakes, into the Maritime Provinces, down the
Eastern Seaboard, and back to Orlando for the USA's Fourth of July
holiday.  It will be 13,000 miles of some of the finest sight-seeing
country in North America. Highlights include New Orleans, the Rocky
Mountains of Colorado, the Grand Canyon, the Pacific Coast Highway, the
Giant Redwoods, Puget Sound, the Canadian Rockies, a ferry trip across
Lake Michigan, Niagara Falls, the Green Mountains, and the Appalachians.
Take the whole tour, a number of sectors, or just drive part of one
through your favorite piece of country.

Sponsorships are being sought to help offset participation costs for
group gatherings along the route and promotional items such as banners.
Participants are responsible for their own expenses, such as gas,
repairs, meals and accommodations.

Designed to be a series of smaller, connecting tours, each segment is
between one and four driving days. The pace is leisurely, with the daily
drives being at most 300 miles, but under 200 miles on average. That
means no more than 4-5 hours behind the wheel on most days.

Although there are planned overnight and food stops along the way, the
tour is self-guided, meaning that you are in charge of where you go and
how you want to get there. Detailed written instructions and maps for
each sector are available on-line, and we recommended that you download,
print, and review them in advance, then bring them along for your trip.
Sector Coordinators may have a few extra printed copies at the start of
each sector, but not necessarily enough for everyone. 

Recommendations will be made for lodging, shopping, meals, attractions
and vehicle parts or servicing locations.  These will be posted on the
JONAT website as well as available hardcopy during the course of the
Tour. "Many special events are planned for participants along the route,
and the schedule includes a stop about once a week for a rest day"
according to Fazal Cader of Sydney, Australia, the Tour's International
Coordinator. We'll be joining over 600 vehicles of all types, for a trip
into America's motoring past on Rt. 66. Join another 600 cars at the Van
Dusen All British Field Meet, our first event in Canada. Show your car
(after you've cleaned the bugs off, again) at the Ottawa Jaguar Club's
Concours d'Elegance. Eat lunch with fellow Jag-Lovers at the Jag-Lovers'
Annual Picnic in New Jersey. And those are just the big events. Check
out the individual sectors for more information at www.jonat.org.

Registration for a single segment or the entire tour is an incredibly
tiny $10. That includes a cling window decal. Pay $30 ($40Cdn) and
you'll receive a commemorative license plate. About one hundred plates
are available, each numbered, dated, and with the JONAT emblem.  As the
tour grows, the first year plates are sure to be a collector's item.
They are available on a "first, come, first served" basis.
Registrations will be accepted on-line as well as anywhere along the
route, although it is highly recommended that you register on-line and
print out your route directions and maps in advance as supplies of
window decals on the road will be limited.

This is the opportunity of a lifetime to get your Jaguar on an auto
tour, involving fellow-Jaguar enthusiasts, and see country that you may
have wanted to see for a long time.  You will be making history by
joining the first-ever Jaguar Owners of North American Tour.

For complete route directions, maps, registration, and payment
information, visit the JONAT web page at www.jonat.org.  Contacts
include Bob England (Canada) at engl@jonat.org, Jamie Duffey (USA) at
Jamie@jonat.org, Fazal Cader (Australia) at fazal@jonat.org and the
sector and assistant sector coordinators who have volunteered so much
time.
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Note: I left Fazal's last name in with the quote because most people
expect to see the last name the first time it's mentioned. After that it
can be dropped, but since we are talking about contact information, when
he's mentioned again, it's best to have both in both places so people
don't have to search.

Mark - AZ