One Leap Ahead is a documentary about Jaguar filmed in 1961 – a year that was significant, as it’s when the production of the E-Type began (known as the XKE in some markets). The film starts out with some wonderful footage of a pristine Mark II – nicknamed the “Gentleman’s Express” and popular with bank robbers in England thanks to its powerful 3.8 litre engine and space for 5 adults and luggage (or bags of loot as the case may be).
The film offers a detailed look into the Jaguar factory at the time, including everything from engine machining and body panel forming, final assembly and painting. It’s interesting to see how it was all done before robots took over, and just how they managed to mill things as complex and precise as engine blocks and heads still baffles me.
Articles that Ben has written have been covered on CNN, Popular Mechanics, Smithsonian Magazine, Road & Track Magazine, the official Pinterest blog, the official eBay Motors blog, BuzzFeed, Autoweek Magazine, Wired Magazine, Autoblog, Gear Patrol, Jalopnik, The Verge, and many more.
Silodrome was founded by Ben back in 2010, in the years since the site has grown to become a world leader in the alternative and vintage motoring sector, with well over a million monthly readers from around the world and many hundreds of thousands of followers on social media.
