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Canwest News Service
As a lad of just 15, Robert Italo Lenarduzzi left Vancouver for the bright lights and big expectations of Reading FC, the venerable soccer club located in the English medieval town of the same name.
It was here that young Bobby, as he was called then as he is still, first took notice of the beautiful cars.
"They weren't sporty looking, but they were very elegant," the former midfielder/defender recalls of the Jaguars he'd spy in and around the soccer grounds. "I guess as a teenager I should have been into racy sports cars, but there was something about Jaguars that really appealed to me."
And so we're driving around rain-slicked Gastown streets in an all-new Jaguar, specifically and as requested by the Canadian soccer icon and Whitecaps FC president, a 2010 XK Portfolio convertible.
Then there's that 'Italian thing.'
"I'm going to get hammered again because I'm accused often about being loyal enough to the Italians," he chuckles as he pilots the sinewy two-seater onto less congested streets, the muffled rumble of the 5.0-litre V8 finally coming to life. "So an English car is really going to go over well."
(A note to our Italian friends: while the Jaguar brand might be an English luxury icon and the 2010 XK is indeed built at Castle Bromwich in Birmingham, the company is owned by Tata Motors of India.)
Just as the boyishly handsome Lenarduzzi looks like he could step onto the pitch tomorrow and perform to the level he did as a North American Soccer League star and Canadian National for so many years, the XK is looking pretty trim and fit given there's more than six decades in the rearview mirror since the XK120 heralded Jaguar's post-WW2 glory days.
All new for 2010 and available as a coupe and convertible across three trims levels (XK, XK Portfolio and XKR), the next generation XK heralds some large steps by Jaguar designers and engineers in the evolution of this two-seater grand tourer.
These include all-new powerplants — a 5.0-litre V8 producing 385 ponies in XK models and a supercharged version in the XKR pumping out 510 hp — a state-of-the-art six-speed transmission and exterior styling changes to the nose, exterior mirrors and rear valance.
Lenarduzzi might just as well have chosen the Jaguar XK convertible for its obvious comparison to the Whitecaps new home come 2011 when the men's team makes the leap from the USL to the MLS.
BC Place's new retractable roof won't open and close quite as quickly, quietly or effortlessly as the XK's NASA-like retractable hardtop, but it will have the same effect of keeping its occupants dry when it's raining and tanned when it's sunny.
"In actuality, I'm not a really big car guy," Lenarduzzi admits as we wait, fittingly, at the BC Place vehicle airlock to get in out of the rain for a photo shoot. "The car I drive doesn't really mean a lot to me." (See sidebar box on Bobby's rides).
"When I was younger with the FIAT Spiders I guess I was more into cars, but once I got married it was more about getting from A to Z," he admits, noting that with two kids and many dogs over the years, sports cars weren't an option. "But this car," he says rubbing the leather steering wheel, "this car is something special. It's just the thing for a long drive."
With major challenges facing the Whitecaps over the next couple of seasons — the minor matter of where they'll play next year at the top of the list — his soccer column in a Vancouver daily and a public persona larger than life, its difficult to see when Bobby will get the time for such a road trip.
But just as the once mighty Jaguar (think C- and D-Types of the 1950s) has survived tough times and today has arguably its strongest stable of new models ever, the Whitecaps are poised, according to their head man, to bring back the glory days of the franchise.
"They were great days," Lenarduzzi says of the 1980s when the team would sellout a rocking BC Place. "And they're coming back."
Noting that with the new open-air configuration of BC Place, it won't be difficult to sell 60,000 tickets for exhibition match involving Man U or Barcelona.
"And for our games we'll have an intimate stadium that will seat 30,000."
That's a good deal less than the 2010 XK can seat, of course, and while not-a-big-car-guy Bobby Lenarduzzi did glance back at the Jaguar a couple of times heading into his Water Street office building after our drive, one gets the sense he'd be much happier hanging out with 29,999 soccer fiends than just one.
BOBBY'S RIDES
First car: "It was a yellow convertible FIAT and it had no guts whatsoever. It was like a big yellow banana. But after that one I had three FIAT Spiders in a row. I just kept trading them in each year. I loved the fact they were convertibles, especially here in Vancouver. That was back in the heyday of the Whitecaps, the late-70s, early 80s."
Other cars: "Then I got married, and though I never went to the minivan, I did have a bunch of sedans and SUVs, a Chevy Blazer, a Mazda Tribute. But my transition car from the Spiders was a Ford Capri with a t-bar roof. And boy did it have power."
CURRENT CAR: 2008 HONDA PRELUDE.
Dream car: "Well, I thought I would like this Jaguar, and now that I've driven it I think this would be it. The fact that you push a button and everything comes to life is pretty neat. My wife Deanne and I have often wanted to do a nice long trip down the Pacific Coast Highway. And this car would be perfect for that."
VEHICLE SPECS
2010 Jaguar XK Portfolio convertible
Style: Rear wheel drive Grand Tourer
Seats: Two
Engine: 5.0-litre V8 (385 hp)
Transmissions: Six-speed automatic w/manual paddle shifters
Fuel economy (L/100km): 17.1 city; 8.0 hwy
Price: $103,200
