'Barn Find' Jaguar E-Type sells for £58k

A 1963 Jaguar E-Type found under a hedge has sold for £58,000 at COYS auction house.

The E-Type, shoowing just 44,870 miles on the clock, still had the last tax disc on the windscreen which expired in November 1969. The car’s first owner in May 1963 was Ivor Arbiter, who owned Drum City and Sound City in London and was the designer of the ‘drop – T’ logo for The Beatles.

“It is ideal for restoration and is extremely rare,” said valuer James Good at international auctioneers COYS, “It has a great history, including racing, which collectors love.”

The car’s first owner, Arbiter, was at the centre of the 60s music scene. The Beatle’s Manager Brian Epstein requested that the band’s name appeared on the bass drum so Arbiter sketched the “drop-T” logo on a scrap of paper with the capital B and dropped T to emphasise the word ‘beat’. Drum City was paid £5 for the design and it was hand painted by local sign writer, Eddie Stokes, who painted bass-drum heads for the store during his lunch hour.

Good added: “The Beatles logo is now recognised as one of the most significant and widely reproduced logos in history, and the fact that it was designed by the first owner of this E-Type is not insignificant.”

The car changed owners a couple of times between 1965 and 1967, when it moved to its last owner Frank Riches. Frank was a keen motorsport enthusiast and raced both the E-Type and his MGTF at Oulton Park, Brands Hatch and Blackbushe between 1967 and 1969. Frank would drive the E-type to the circuit with the MG behind and would then race both cars and drive home.

Good said: “This wonderful Series 1, 3.8 E-Type is in original condition, with matching numbers and has never been restored. It retains all the features it carried in 1969 and is possibly one of the most original examples remaining today. The car needs a total restoration but it has all the ingredients to make a superb car – this is a true rarity.”

This E-Type comes with its original brown log book, V5 and V5C, its last MOT certificate dated November 1968, the sales invoice to Frank Riches for £855 along with the Heritage Certificate confirming all the important details. It also has its original Operating Maintenance and Service Handbook, Service Manual and Spare Parts Catalogue and the original jack.

Chris Routledge, CEO of international auctioneers COYS, said: “The derelict E-Type attracted attention from all four corners of the world and bidders in a packed auction room and via telephone fought fiercely for it on Tuesday night. It ended up going to an English collector and Beatles enthusiast who plans to slowly restore it to its former glory.”

Eagle adds Jaguar Spyder GT to range

Renowned Jaguar E-Type specialists ‘Eagle’ has announced the third in their trilogy of special edition E-Types - the new Eagle Spyder GT.

The British company has conducted complete and compromise free restorations on original Jaguar E-Types for over thirty years - aiming to ‘refine, develop and deliver exceptional engineering for the Jaguar E-Type while remaining true to the spirit of this extraordinary car’.

The Spyder GT combines the style and dynamics of the previous Eagle Speedster with the high performance touring capability of the Eagle Low Drag GT- and incorporates a folding roof for practicality.

The first car from the East Sussex company was the Speedster, which was developed from a client request and then feted around the world. It starred on Top Gear in 2011. The Eagle Low Drag GT - inspired by Malcolm Sayer’s Low Drag Coupe developed for Jaguar in 1961 - followed soon after.

With the ‘poise and performance’ of the Low Drag GT and the styling of the Speedster - the Spyder GT’s raked windscreen and folding roof offer the best of both worlds – whatever the weather.

An all-aluminium E-Type lightweight roadster based around an original 1960s classic, every line and detail is honed to perfection and performance is greatly enhanced says Eagle. Each of the very few produced will have an entirely bespoke specification dependent of the specific desires of each client.

Paul Brace, Design Director at Eagle said: “Development of the Spyder GT began soon after the launch of the Speedster in 2011 and, like everything we produce, we wanted to ensure that we got as close to perfection as humanly possible. We’re renowned for being perfectionists and our clients are too - so we took the time to develop and deliver an E-Type that stands proud alongside the Speedster and the Low Drag GT.”

Henry Pearman, Eagle Founder and MD commented: “Like many, my love of the E-Type set hold at a very young age and has become a lifetime's dedication. The team here at Eagle have taken this love of E-Types to a new dimension by creating the ultimate trilogy of special edition E-Types - complementing the beautiful originals that form the backbone here at Eagle. I am incredibly proud of what we have achieved together over the last thirty years - and excited about what we’ll do in the future!”

The first Eagle Spyder GT will be presented to the commissioning customer during the Summer of 2016. Eagle will be exhibiting at the London Classic Car Show 18-21 February, showing ten E-Types.

Scottish Motor Show E-Type restored

The E-Type that turned heads at the 1961 Scottish Motor Show has been brought back to its former glory and will feature at the London Classic Car Show 2016.

Chassis No. 15 was the fifteenth right hand drive fixed head coupe E-Type to leave Jaguar’s production line in 1961 and was used as a press car at the Scottish Motor Show held at the Kelvin Hall, Glasgow, in November that year. The car then moved on to private ownership and went missing for decades until Classic Motor Cars discovered it in a barn in Cernay, France, in late 2013. Since being found, CMC has carried out a full restoration of Chassis No. 15.

Exactly 2,956 hours were spent restoring every nut and bolt of this E-Type at CMC’s workshops in Bridgnorth, saving as much of the original car as possible and bringing back its show-stopping condition. Nick Goldthorp, Managing Director of Classic Motor Cars, said: “We found Chassis No. 15 in Cernay, a French town close to the border with Germany. It had been owned by the same person since 1976, who dismantled it probably some twenty years ago and that is as far as he got. The car was underneath some covers in a garden, very rusty and corroded – there was even a bird’s nest in the rear quarter! We carried out a full nut and bolt restoration, which proved to be quite a challenge due to the sorry state in which it was found.”

Goldthorp added: “No detail was too small and extensive work has been carried out in the paint and trim shops so that the car can now boast its original colour combination of pearl grey exterior and light blue interior, being the only one produced in those colours in 1961. This was one of the six E-Types on display at the 1961 Scottish Motor Show. After restoring it to its former glory, we thought it was only fitting that the car returned to the centre stage 55 years later and what could be better than the London Classic Car Show.”

The London Classic Car Show at the ExCeL exhibition centre runs from February 18-21.