LONDON — LONDON -- Inspector Morse tooled around Oxford in a Mark II. James Bond's arch-enemy Zao drove an XKR roadster, with an optional Gatling gun mounted behind the seats. When former Prime Minister Tony Blair pulled for the last time out of Downing Street last year, it was - how else? - in the back seat of a Jaguar.
There have been Lotuses and Triumphs, Aston Martins and MGs, but no vehicle has epitomized the once-legendary British motor industry like that most English of cars, the powerful, sultry Jaguar. Except that for almost 18 years, Jaguar has been owned by Ford Motor Co. in Detroit. Now the brand is about to be acquired by another vestige of Britain's long-ago colonies.
India's Tata Group wants to take off Ford's hands not only Jaguar but Land Rover, the British matron of sport utility vehicles that Queen Elizabeth II has been known to flog through the gardens behind Windsor Castle. A deal is expected to be announced tomorrow.
The import of one of India's muscular conglomerates riding to the rescue of British legends - and paying as much as $2 billion to do so - isn't lost on either side of the former empire.
The Tata deal "has made us all proud," said Debashis Chakraborty, a government official in Kolkata (formerly Calcutta), the one-time capital of the British Raj.
Neither Indians nor Brits have failed to appreciate the historical ironies involved. In Britain, though, the reaction has been mixed, with optimism that Tata chief executive Ratan Tata would be able to help restore the brand to its former pre-eminence and faint regret that it took an Indian giant to do the job.
"I think Sir William Lyons would be turning in his grave, quite frankly," said Barrie Birkin, a longtime Jaguar owner, referring to the legendary co-founder of the company who presided over the marque in world motor sports and luxury car design through 1972.
"I can't believe it, to tell you the truth," Birkin said. "But Tata's a guy who's made billions, and he must have some ideas to turn it around."
It probably helps the British attitude that Tata is no stranger to preserving British brands. The company owns the United Kingdom's biggest steel company, Corus, which includes the former British Steel, as well as Tetley Tea (which British observers note with some satisfaction was not merged into Tata Tea, the largest tea manufacturer in India).
