Each and every Jaguar E-Type is special but a particularly special right-hand drive example is heading to auction this Friday, September 1. It is expected to sell for between £1 million ($1.2 million) and £1.4 million ($1.7 million).
This E-Type is chassis 860001 and is a 1961 model. It’s important that this is a 1961 model as E-Type models built that year are the most coveted and valuable; these feature bonnet latches on the outside, rather than bonnet latches relocated into the passenger compartment in later model years. Just 24 examples of the E-Type were ever built with these latches and of these, only four of them are right-hand drive. This is the very first.
Gooding & Company is selling the car and notes that it was finished on July 10, 1961, and painted in opalescent dark blue. It was initially used as a demonstrator by a Jaguar distributor in the UK and featured in many publications during the 1970s. It was then sold to a Jaguar historian in 1977 who kept it for more than 20 years before selling it to the current consignor.
The car underwent a restoration shortly after being added to the collection of the current seller which took years to complete. He has driven it frequently over the years and even completed two 17-hour drives from Coventry in the UK to Geneva, Switzerland in 2011 and 2021. The car was also featured prominently in the 150th issue of Octane magazine from December 2015 and was tested all the way to 146 mph (235 km/h).
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The listing notes that the car will be handed over to the winning bidder with copies of articles and magazines it has featured in, archival photographers, copies of factory records, a Jaguar Daimler Heritage Trust Certificate, and information that details the restoration and maintenance performed on it.
