SPECIAL FEATURETT
Doc Scadron is to Jaguars what Tiger Woods is to golf: perfection in the approach and perfection in the execution.
His Docs Jags/World of Jaguars, 23047 N. 15th Lane in north Scottsdale, is the world's largest Jaguar restoration and service facility. The cars Doc sells and restores score well: at concours d'elegance events such as Meadow Brook, at auctions such as Monterey — but most of all for his many clients, who drive his way with their Jaguar motoring needs from as far away as South Africa.
For 24 years, he and his crew of 17 mechanics, interior trimmers, fabricators, engine builders, office staff, and support personnel have been selling and restoring classic Coventry cats — as well as providing parts and service for what Doc judges the world's finest sports and touring cars.
Doc’s team has completed some 750 Jaguar full and partial restorations in the 12,000-square-foot facility, which he recently expanded from four, to 14 lifts. During the same period, Docs Jags has serviced another 5,000 Jaguars.
One client recently wrote: "Our Doc's restored 1959 XK 150 OTC is as gorgeous as you promised. We are also very impressed with the tightness of the suspension and steering systems, as it handles like a new vehicle. Thanks to you, we feel like this car is truly art in motion." But Doc isn't just adept at merchandising and restoring such emotional art: He drives his Jags on rallies across
Europe and America. Past events he's participated in include the Isle of Man, the UK and European Tour, the Jaguar Italian Tour, and the grueling and timed 41st and 48th Rallye des Alpes. He recently toured native Austria with his wife and daughter in two Jaguars, a classic 1959 XK 150 S roadster and a 1961 XKE roadster. In 2005, he toured with 100 Jaguars from Holland to Monte Carlo. This past year in England, he participated in the
Goodwood Revival, the world's largest historic race meeting, and then he, toured many of the former eastern Soviet republics including the Czech Republic, Slovenia, Hungary and Poland. Finally, to stay connected with this international community; Doc maintains a worldwide network with correspondents and agents throughout Europe as well as in Australia, New Zealand and South Africa.
Classic Schoolhouse Love
Doc was smitten with, the Jaguar marque in college — and has remained loyally in love since.
"I saw my first XK 140 roadster on campus, in 1955,"' he recalls of that first sighting at Lafayette College in Easton, Pa. "My former classmate, Jimmy Tsi, drove up in a cream-colored 1955 XK 1.40 Jaguar Roadster. The passion and longing for beautifully designed cars, a love that has infused my life, started at that moment."
"Even before college, I was a car guy," he recalls. In 1954, he started the first nationally sanctioned drag strip on the east coast in Allentown, Pa,: the NHRA Lehigh Valley Timing Association, with 'Dopey' Duncan, a local radio announcer. At that time, the now high-horsepower National Hot Road Association, the world's largest motorsports sanctioning body with 80,000 members, was a sputtering three-year-old group.
In 1970, with nine other men (two of whom are still. living), Doc helped start the first auto auction, what is now Kruse International, in Auburn, Ind. "My job was. to find the auctioneer, so I found Russell Kruse, a local cattle auctioneer. And the rest is history."
Doc, who's writing an autobiography, The Last Jaguar, tells lots of stories from those college days: "I was one of the first to tape the headlights before a run — so that they wouldn't fall out," he recalls. And, he and his fellow Lafayette engineering students often took their slide rulers out to definitively calculate and confirm that the maximum speed a vehicle would ever make in a quarter mile was 168 mph. Today, top dragsters cover the territory in 4.5 seconds at speeds in excess of 330 mph.
"My love for these great motorcars extends from my heart, into the bays of our facility and into the great landscapes of the world," Doc says. "My mother always told me that the first word I said, in German, was 'auto,' the same as in English. I think it will also be my last."
Preying on Perfection
Docs Jags maintains an inventory of between 80 and 90 of his beloved vehicles, especially from 1937 through 1975 — basically the sports cars. "We once kept as many as 135, but that became too unwieldy," Doc explains. "We now prefer to take specific orders for models, colors, and options and have reduced our total inventory for simplicity sake."
He keeps examples of the famous XKs, E-Types and those great XKEs everyone ogled in '60s and '70s; Mark I-Xs; XJs and XJS sedans, including the potent 12-cylinder models; aluminum D types; and special race and performance-modified vehicles. These include 100-point concours winners to project cars buildable to the buyer's specifications. In addition, he carries automobilia and "We do occasionally stock younger sedans or take
special orders," he says. Right now, the team is working on three of these for clients: a 1987 sedan and two XJSs from the 1989 period." Scratch this into your nearest
bark: If you want a specific Jag, Doc will send out a safari to find it for you.
Docs team includes Eric Clark and Werner Schottmueller, trimmers with decades of interiors experience; Todd Klein, master mechanic/engineer with 35 years Jaguar experience; JR Goodwin, 35 years of master engine builder; James Spangler, engine builder; Bob Branton, master mechanic/fabricator and lead technician with more than 25 years experience and 17 master certificates; William Sayad and Daniel Belknap, top mechanics/ technicians;. Nicholas Unas, apprentice technician; and Bob Baker, Docs capable operations manager, who keeps everything purring. Doc's wife Margaret heads human services, and Cirri Miller, with more than three decades of trucking experience, handles the 18-wheeler and trailers which Docs Jags uses for prompt and punctual deliveries and pickups of purchased and restored vehicles. "I have the very best personnel in the business," Doc says. "They are extremely skilled Jaguar experts, and versatile in all areas."
Acquiring Retiring Happiness
Doc retired in order to go to work: Twenty-four years ago, he left the Chicago Options Exchange.
A multi-college-degree holder, including his first in 1957 from Lafayette, he had also worked on the Chicago Board of Trade and the New York Stock Exchange.
After his first two retirements, he found himself still trading the market at home. All the while, he was working on his Jaguars and driving them for leisure. Margaret suggested the best transition: "Why not turn your hobby into a business?" she asked him. For the last two decades, he's never worked harder. "To me, its not work," he says. "Working on the Jags every day and night is a kind of adrenaline fix nothing else has ever given me." . Others have noticed his sincere work ethic, accomplishments and striving for perfection. He has, for example, received the "Businessman of the Year" Presidential Award presented by the National Republican Congressional Committee's Business Advisory Council in 2003, 2004 and 2005 — the only person in Arizona to receive the award three years running. He's also been accorded the "Ronald Reagan Medal of Honor" Presidential Award, a civilian honor created in 2004.
Doc's team is currently working on more than 35 restorations for various clients. These include a 1950 XK Alloy (#78); a 1960 XK 150 S FHC; a 1949 Jaguar 120, number 42 of just'184 aluminum-bodied roadsters ever made; an XK 120 roadster for a Japanese customer; an E-type for a French customer; and a 1957 XK 140 drop-head coupe for a customer in Portugal.
On a bet by Doc, his team recently fully restored a 1954 XK 120 SE, with more than 20 modifications including a five-speed transmission, changing the wheels, installing full four-wheel disc brakes, a full engine rebuild, special tires, full interior, and special rear end, in 1,250 hours. The crew won the bet and delivered the car to him in show condition in 90 work days.
Restorations span from partial (say, interior only) to three-quarter (everything except the engine, for example) to nut-and-bolt, body-off, frame-off restorations for the most demanding owner or buyer. His team will install new wood or a fuel-injection system for increased performance or change exterior or interior colors. One customer, for example, recently wanted his XKE in red, and then decided he wanted light blue instead: Doc's team graciously accommodated the request.
He offers more than 300 options in all: five-speed custom transmissions; two- and four-wheel disc brake conversions; electronic ignitions; changes from dynamos to alternators; tire changes from three-inch white walls to modern steel-belted radials; upgraded suspension systems and much more. He even has custom-fitted luggage made for the company in Turkey.
They regularly fabricate, too: "Any parts that are not obtainable we make ourselves." In addition, Doc warranties all work and sales.
Mediocrity doesn't drive anywhere close to his facility. "It's taken us a quarter century to build a world reputa tion, so only the highest quality work will satisfy me and
the people I've chosen to maintain our unique status as the world's premier Jaguar shop," Doc says.
Doc posts restoration progress on the company's three-gigabyte Web site, www.docsjags.com, which Investment Magazine has honored as the best Jaguar site in the world. Here owners can conveniently track the status of their vehicles' restoration progress.
He also ensures the highest quality by making sure his professional staff are always working to their peak skill level. "I don't allow any of the mechanics to work on any single Jaguar restoration for more than two weeks at a time," he explains.
Even the most focused mechanic, builder or trimmer can become bleary-eyed from attention to detail and the goal of completing the vehicle, so Doc schedules a two-week hiatus and assigns another project while the vehicle goes into storage. "This adds time, but keeps the mechanics ultra-sharp," he says. The result are Jaguars that continue to increase in value — including modified classics for customers who want to increase performance and handling while enjoying a legendary vehicle. "Jaguars are the Marilyn Monroe of sports cars," Doc says. "When they made those lines, it's as good as it gets. There's no improvement possible."
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