It’s not every day one encounters the classic British sports car—the sleek, luxurious Jaguar.
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Cindy Ried, CEO of 2Evolve Technologies, has been driving Jaguars since the 1990s. Altogether she has owned seven of the conspicuous vehicles. Ried said she prefers Jaguars because no other vehicle compares to their style, comfort, and performance.
Photo by Bill Sitzmann
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“Right before I started 2Evolve, I bought my first Jaguar. It was black. I just loved the shape and style, the headlights, and the big, oval grill,” Ried said. This season, she added, “I decided to go red with black.”
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Phil Hatten, sales manager at Onyx Automotive, is Ried’s dealer. He said the British car that is commonplace in England is still a unique ride in the United States.
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“People buy Jaguars because they want to feel special,” Hatten said. “As well as have something that not everybody does.”
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Having a unique brand in the tech industry certainly doesn’t hurt a reputation, according
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“I’m in the IT business, so everybody in the industry kind of knows me as ‘the Jaguar girl’...I never think about changing it up,” she said. “I just get a new Jaguar every three years.”
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Photo by Bill SitzmannRied’s current model is a 2021 F-Type R coupe. It has been described by experts, amateur observers, and dealers alike as “sleek and powerful,” “a head-turner,” and “one sweet ride.” Coming in somewhere between $100,000 and $150,000, the Jaguar F-Type R’s 5.0-liter, supercharged V-8 engine produces 575 horsepower and 516 ft-lb of torque. This is an improvement of 25 hp and 14 ft-lb over previous models. It does 0-60 mph in 3.5 seconds and has a top speed of 186 mph.
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Ried said she’s had her little British torpedo up to roughly 120 mph in brief sessions of “over-acceleration.”
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“You don’t want cobwebs in your engine, got to open her up once in a while,” Ried said. “It’s too easy to be driving on the interstate and just look down and you’re going 120. In some states, your license is taken away at 20 miles an hour over.”
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Ried’s best “almost got in trouble for breaking the law” story happened that way.
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“I was coming back from Kansas City, and I got busted going 120 in Rockport, Missouri,” Ried said. “When the cop pulled me over, I’m like, ‘hello,’ and he’s like, ‘Do you know how fast you’re going?’”
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Ried came close to paying a steep price for her lead foot that day.
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“So he put me in the back of his car and said, ‘I could take your license right here and put you in jail in Rockport for a whole year,’” Ried said. “I had to go to court there, I had to hire a local attorney. It was nuts.”
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She said the story has become a favorite joke around the office. “People who know me all [ask] if I’ve got my lead foot on. And I’m like, ‘I don’t think so.’ They go ‘good ‘cause you don’t look good in orange.’” Fortunately, she does look good in red.
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Visit 2evolvetech.com for more information.
This article originally appeared in the November/December issue of B2B Magazine. To receive the magazine, click here to subscribe.
