2005-06-16 09:30:47 | pauls writes:

Car was sold at auction 6/05 in London
www.christies.com/LotFinder/search/LOTDETAIL.ASP

Auction description:
Lot Number 39
Sale Number 7051
Lot Title Current Jaguar Driver's Club Champion of Champions
Estimate 60,000 - 90,000 British pounds
Price Realized 88,125.00 British pounds
Lot Description Current Jaguar Driver's Club Champion of Champions
1961 JAGUAR SERIES 1 E TYPE ROADSTER
Registration No. LAS 774
Chassis No. 850053
Engine No. R1215-9
Opalescent Gunmetal with red leather interior

Engine: six cylinder, in-line, twin overhead camshafts, triple SU HD8 carburettors, 3,781cc., 265bhp at 5,500rpm; Gearbox: four-speed manual with synchromesh on upper three gears; Suspension: independent, double wishbones with torsion bars to front, independent rear with twin coil spring/damper units on each side; Brakes: servo-assisted discs all round. Right hand drive.

Electrifying performance, drop-dead good looks and unbelievable value for money made the Jaguar E-Type the sensation of the 1961 Geneva Motor Show. The car was just about the fastest roadgoing machine that money could buy and Sir William Lyons' instinct for line, proportion and decoration ensured it was an immediate success. The E-Type had a central monocoque with a tubular front frame and the addition of independent rear suspension. With disc brakes all round, the new roadgoing Jaguar had braking power in keeping with the performance.

Put succinctly this example is currently acknowledged as the finest Series 1 E type in the United Kingdom, being the current Jaguar Driver's Club Champion of Champions car, JDC E-Type Concours winner 2004, and 2003 AutoGlym Grand Final Winner. That the car came to be so successful at concours level was a personal dream of James Hull, who chose one of the rarest derivatives of the model on which to lavish a 100 point restoration. When found by Dr. Hull the car had been off the road for many years in Devon, from where it travelled further south-west to Jim Rothwell who took a painstaking three years to raise it to the standard exhibited today.

The Jaguar Daimler Heritage Trust have confirmed that the car was originally dispatched on 14th July 1961, through distributor Walter E Sturgess of Leicester (who remembers collecting it from Browns Lane), to its first owner R. Taylor of Leicestershire. It was originally finished then as it is now in Opalescent Gunmetal with a red interior and black hood.