2017-04-10 20:35:21 | pauls writes:

Car was at auction 3/17
www.bonhams.com/auctions/24118/lot/27/

Auction description:
Lot 27
1973 Jaguar E-Type V12 Series 3 Roadster
Sold for £85,500 (US$ 105,984) inc. premium
Goodwood Members' Meeting
19 Mar 2017, 14:00 GMT
Chichester, Goodwood
Registration no. RUG 700M
Chassis no. 1S2316
*In current ownership since 2002
*Circa 25,000 miles from new
*Manual transmission
*Well maintained and documented

This Series 3 E-Type Roadster has spent the majority of its life in the hands of private collectors, including the current vendor. 'RUG 700M' was purchased new on 18th September 1973 from Appleyards of Huddersfield (Jaguar main dealers) and promptly put on jacks and stored for three years due to the national fuel crisis and sudden leap in petrol prices. In 1980 the Jaguar changed hands in West Yorkshire and was bought for £5,500 from Lockwood Motors, Huddersfield (with 15,000 miles recorded) by a local collector who, apart from occasionally running the car for good maintenance, never used it.

The current owner bought the car, having known it for 15 years prior, on 5th March 2002 (at 21,385 miles) and has kept it in a climate-controlled garage for the last 15 years. On auction day he will have owned the car for 15 years and 15 days exactly.

Named David, the first of the three owners replaced the standard V12 button atop the gear lever with a solid silver button engraved with the name 'David' and hallmarked. The only other non-original items are the CD/radio, which looks sympathetically similar to the original 8-track radio/cassette and fits neatly in the exact same aperture, and the four-pipe stainless steel sports exhaust system, which has replaced the original fantail type. A new clutch was fitted in 2008, and at the same time a new engine crankshaft seal was fitted to replace the often-leaky original string type. The engine, while clean, shows 44 years of history and use; it is hiding nothing. Indeed, this is a car that has never needed restoration or been restored, and commands an immediate audience wherever it goes.

We are advised that the E-Type starts and runs like new, being very smooth and powerful. It has been on several shorter MSA classic car rallies, these being its main excursions, as well as a few small local events and shows.

The car is offered with all available history and documents, several photographs, its original 8-track radio/cassette with several cartridges (Elton John, Frank Sinatra, etc), plus its handmade fleece cover emblazoned with the Jaguar logo (cost almost £400), which covered it while garaged.

All maintenance invoices, MoT certificates, and tax discs relating to the vendor's ownership will be supplied in a neatly presented file in date order for the new owner, while a second copy of this will be with the car for its display.