Lot n° 1
Estimation :
100000 - 120000
EUR
Result without fees
Result
: 119 200EUR
JAGUAR E-Type 3.8L FHC flat floor coupe... - Lot 1 - Ader
JAGUAR E-Type 3.8L FHC flat floor coupe - 1961
Chassis #885210 (December 1961) Original engine #R2735-9
"Matching numbers
At the end of the 1950s, Jaguar was in the pantheon of motor racing after five victories in the 24 Hours of Le Mans, including three successive victories with its D-type in 1955, 1956 and 1957. And as an apotheosis, four cars in the first four places that last year. Magistral!
The XK 150, which had appeared a few months earlier, was the result of the development of the legendary XK 120 of 1948. It was certainly very powerful and more luxurious, but its aging design gave it few years of respite. The visionary William Lyons, Jaguar's boss, was well aware of this, and designing a new sports car based on the experience developed with the D-type seemed to him to be the solution to amortize the huge sums of money sunk into the competition department.
An exclusive road version named XKSS clearly announces this will, but its production, started in January 1957, is definitively interrupted the following month by the fire which ravages the Coventry factory.
From then on, the idea was to design a car with similar performance but less extreme, usable on a daily basis and therefore more comfortable. The engineer William Heynes works on the E1A prototype, an aluminum monocoque equipped with a tubular lattice at the front supporting the mechanics and, for the first time, with an independent rear suspension. This was followed by the E1bis prototype, made of riveted steel sheets approaching the final proportions of the concept, and the E2A, a finished 3-liter version completed for the American Briggs Cunningham, who wanted to race it in the 1960 Le Mans 24 Hours.
Promoted to an eminently international career, the first E-type coupe, registered 9600HP, was presented in March 1961 at the Geneva Motor Show. William Lyons had carefully maintained the mystery, and his new masterpiece sent shockwaves through the automotive world. The E, a worthy descendant of the XK 120, caused the same amazement at the opening of the Show as its predecessor had two years after the war. Enzo Ferrari himself declared that it was "the most beautiful car in the world"...
The first coupé imported into France, chassis 885006, made a triumphant presentation tour. It was used as a "mule" by journalists for tests and passed the homologation at the mining department. The inspectors in charge of the control are so absorbed by this amazing "cigar" that they forget that there is no place for the license plate! Its first owner, the actor Jacques Charrier, husband of Brigitte Bardot, inaugurated an endless list of celebrities who absolutely wanted to own this new "sex symbol", such as: Steve McQueen, Sir Jackie Stewart, Frank Sinatra, George Harrison, Mick Jagger, Bruce McLaren, Charlton Heston, Peter Sellers, Tony Curtis, Princess Grace of Monaco...
This success is not only due to a masterful body and a huge hood. It is also a question of performance: 6 cylinders in line with double overhead camshafts, 3.8 liters, 265 hp, 0 to 100 km / h in 7.2 s and peaks at 240 km / h sign of breathtaking performance rivaling those of Aston Martin and Ferrari. In its "lightweight" competition version, the E-type will be the great rival of the no less mythical Ferrari 250 GTO. The Jaguar E-type is one of the few living sculptures to have entered the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Arts in New York.
The car on display is a rare flat floor coupe that left the factory in its first year of production in 1961 and was registered in early 1962. Equipped with its original engine and in a beautiful "Opalescent gun metal" gray metallic color combination with red leather upholstery, this example has undergone a complete and meticulous restoration since the bare body around 2017 and has hardly been driven since. This Jaguar has a Dynamotor alternator conversion, an additional thermostatically triggered fan, and a Bell stainless exhaust line. A road test indicates a normal behavior with a good oil pressure when hot, no abnormal noises and no particular smoke. However, it is advisable to proceed to a maintenance service for a vehicle that has not been driven much in the last five years.
Extra-community circulation permit cleared by customs
To be registered as a collector's car
My orders
Sale information
Sales conditions
Return to catalogue