Can You Still Buy A Bargain E-Type Jaguar? | Jaguar E-Type (XKE) Series 1.5 2+2 | Classic Car Review 

Hey pops me too! My totally immaculate Mk2 fixed head in the 70’s cost me £5 grand 🤣 My BIGGEST regret however was not buying in 1973 the limited edition all black V12 drophead for £1,800.00!!! Eighteen hundred quid and they couldn’t sell any because if you remember we were in the middle of the oil crises! I’ve never seen one for sale but l bet £1,000,000 quids not far off for one! 🤔

Greg-mothafuckin-Harvie, go figure id see your essays on another Jaguar video haha and brilliant insight again, youre a wealth of knowledge. I had little respect for the 2+2 E types purely because of their longer wheelbases and extended body/glasshouses that i thought 'corrupted' the look of the original S1 and S2 E types. But knowing what youve said now it makes me think better of their engineering, since i always thought they were concessions made for the American markets when customers asked for something comfier and to treat them more as touring cars rather than sports cars. Very interesting behaviour by the BW12 and 8 gearboxes too, Im still aiming to get mine repaired as soon as i can afford but i notice on other mkx/420g's in classifieds have a vacuum diaphragm on the back of the throttle linkage assembly, i didnt know that was for proper gearbox operation since i thought my trans blew because of the snapped kickdown cable and that it relied on that exclusively for kickdowns. Is there a way of knowing whether i need a vacuum assembly for my car?

@@cutcat8437 Hi there, dear "cut-cat", ALL 420G's & 4.2ltr mk10's were BW 8A automatic tranny powered when they left the Jaguar factory with ONLY vacuum kickdowns. In 1968 when the series 1 xj6 was first sold, the very early xj6's had BW 8A trannys , however ALL of these had a little electric switch to kick the tranny down it was located on a stiff cable in the engine bay just near the brake master cylinder, this was a cheaper NOT better kickdown switch, the early 2+2 4.2 E-types with BW 8A automatic tranny's also had vacuum kickdowns, when the series 2 E-types were being built at same time as XJ6 both had electric kick down switch , and this rolled over on both when both became fitted with BW 12A trannys. 420G's never were fitted ex-factory with BW 12A automatics until final cars made all had vacuum kickdowns on their BW 8A's.

Wonderful! Thank you for watching and for sharing your Jaguar ownership stories. All the best, Matt

The series 1.5 2+2 can accomodate the manual o/drive gearbox if that rocks your boat. It certainly makes me sniff around them. There is one currently for sale here in Oz & has had said g/box in it for several years. I believe they weren't made that way new & have iften wondered why.

@@user-pb8vc8vp8w Hi there, back in the '60's Jaguar would virtually handmake a car to suit your needs, right up to the final 1973/4 Series 1 XJ6 as my long wheelbase series 1 XJ6 was completed in really early 1974, by then the early series 2's were on sale in both short and long wheelbase spec's/ And my ser'1 LWB XJ6 was definitely a custom order car as its French first owner & "boss" of CITRA constructions that built all the natural gas pipelines & infrastructure for the Aussie Fed' Govt'. Jaques Antoni basically wanted a 6 cylinder LWB Jaguar van Den Plas, but Jaguar only produced 352 V12 Daimler Van Den Plas versions , with their way fancier wooden trim all with matchwood inlay around the edges, leather covered door cards, console , and the four separate front and rear bucket seats , plus the seats were taller as well, add to this Antoni also wanted the triple HD8 SU carby set like on an E-type or a mk10/420G, as he had a 420G in Paris. So, Jaguar built a car to custom order to suit him, it also had the bigger air-cond' system that was fitted to the mk10/420G's as well. To do this my XJ6 has 2 opening panels in the forward section of the front mudguards , left side to hold the gas bottle in the cool for the freon gas, on right side to accommodate the Mk10/450G's huge unusual looking air cleaner assembly , this added to the life of my car as near all series 1,2,3 XJ's have muck accumulate around the back of the outboard headlights and cause rust , with the blanking plate/doors in my car the whole front part of the inner wells of the front guards was sealed and dry , like in my mk10 & 420G. In the '50's, '60's and very early '70's the cars could be RHD or LHD right at the last minute with their common firewalls with filler plates blanking the holes for the opposing set up and all the major electrics in centre of dash panel. (my own 1965 4.2litre MK10 started life as a LHD car and was easily swapped over to being a RHD car with the hidden unseen components off a scrapped 1968 420G my just retired engineer grandad & myself did this in the mid-year break at my second year at uni) This however all changed with the series 2's built only as "righties" or "lefties" from the get-go with no common firewall ,like most other cars, they were built with an exclusive LHD or RHD configuration, same with the XJS and XJC's too, then all following Jaguars from XJ40 on. This made the possibility of a special production car a thing of the past, I think also under British Leyland /BMC ownership, they were not interested in producing "one-offs" like Sir William Lyons would when he solely owned the company. But with all mk10/420G's & all long wheelbase E-types whether series 1, 2, or 3 could be custom built cars. This was the brilliance of Lyons & his other engineers as these Jags were more of an engineering masterpiece than people may ever realize, you could come up with something really special from existing parts on the shelf, even moreso in the years Jaguar were heavily into racing either with their own team or helping out the privateers' racing needs. With the likes of bronze heads for durability, tweaked triple SU carby sets, heavy duty clutches, Koni Gas shocks etc. As a kid I lived until 14 at Middle Harbour, Mosman in Sydney, then parents bought their own big pre-federation home in Roseville on Sydney's north shore & trainline. Owned by some specialist doctor was a 420G Jaguar, tan seats, with black paint below the chrome side strips and above it was Sage green (kind of a mid-olive green-grey color) it looked very flash in its 2 tone color scheme. However, it was a manual gearbox car, with a bronze head, like my mums 420G it was serviced at Leavers' & sons, Jaguar specialists right opposite Royal North Shore hospital on the Pacific Hwy, I was looking at it one day when both he & my mum were collecting & paying for their 2 cars service bills, a good guy he said jump in and I'll drive you around the block while they're dealing with your mother, equipped with built to Jaguar's spec's Koni Gas shock absorbers , a heavy duty front sway bar , and a seldom ordered , but available rear sway bar plus as a bronze head 420G in ultra tune with a virtual race engine is 325/345 horsepower. On three occasions, I had seen the doctor being escorted by 3 police motor bike riders where he had obviously rec'd the call come quick and save a life, the doctor could really, really drive that powerful manual car firstly one cop stopped traffic at the streetlights from Roseville station then working a system the next cop stopped the next intersection, then the rear cop moved to front & stopped the next intersection , so the car and one rider moved seamlessly through any traffic, all the way through the 4 sets up to the railway st/pde exit at Chatswood. Next time I saw the virtual same thing I was on the school bus still on my way home as the bus wanted to do a right turn out of Mowbray rd & into Archer st Chatswood, you could hear the hee-haw of the police bike sirens, you could at the odd shaped T intersection see the whole way down Archer st and clearly see the green and black monster Jag hammering behind the third cop's motor bike making a sharp right turn at speed in front of the stopped bus, while the other 2 bike cops blocked the intersection, all the remaining kids left on the bus stood up to get a better view of the spectacle, you could hear the drone of the Jags exhausts making the turn at speed and then cop sirens all the way to Pacific Highway. On the third occasion it'd been a couple of years and I was walking home along Boundry Street, Roseville & I heard the hee-haws of 3 bike cops coming down Pacific Hwy just before the Boundry St intersection, then as they were heading to/under the railway overpass the sound changed so I knew they were coming my way & I wondered whether the green & black monster would be behind and it was, by then I was at the steps about to cross at the intersection of Boundry St & Archer Sts, and saw the big Jag 420G hammer making the hard right into Archer St & it did it like a sports car you could hear its older doctor owner clearly & cleanly rev and double de-clutch it preparing for the turn, very impressive like a racing car driver, there is nothing quite like the sound of a big 4.2 litre Jag XK6 engine its guttural growl from being revved & pushed hard as back then they had no EPA smog equipment, just raw power and from a custom built car even more so. Prior to us moving when I was 14 from Mosman to Roseville, my mum had taken her Jag' to Yates BMC & Jaguar at Military rd, Neutral Bay so when the '60's Jaguars were plentiful on the roads, to a kid was interesting to walk around and look at all the variations on a theme when mums Jaguar was at Yates, or later at Leavers for servicing. As when LWB E-types were new, they "killed" the sales values of the shorty ones, plus wealthy people that bought most Jags wanted automatics NOT MANUALS, back then. Only people that seemed to buy manuals were 2.4litre mk2 owners & most of those were poverty spec' ones that didn't even have radios!! Yates were full car dealers with a very nice modernistic new 2 story sales building that held lots of cars on the 2 levels, plus had a decent sized forecourt as well, and when looking at used E-types similar year models/miles on the speedos, secondhand convertibles were the cheapest, short wheelbase coupes sold for little more, and long wheelbase coupes sold for a lot more, at times I even took photos as some were in pretty colors, however on the front windscreens were the prices, and all the 2+2's were more expensive than their short wheelbase siblings. Back then you would see some 2+2's were definitely factory manuals, how many they made to order and how many survive, who knows. But consider this, 1971 pricing from Rowley motors, Pacific Hwy, Artarmon, where mums 420G was ordered from, a new '71 2.8 litre XJ6 was $9,999, a new '71 4.2 litre XJ6 was $12,500 with air-conditioning, however her new 1971 420G was $16,995 with air-conditioning one of the very last new 420G's ever sold here in Australia, complete with an ADR (aust design rules) compliancy vin tag dated 08/71 attached to its left front mudguard in engine bay. In 1969 my parents $24,950 paid for a 5-bedroom pre-federation home with 120-foot-wide land and 200 feet deep, it needed some work as garden overgrown, and had an 1890's kitchen & bathroom, the exterior in back yard laundry needed a full update too, so it was late 1970 when we moved in. So big old house 1969 $25k roughly & 2 years later big Jag $17k roughly that depicts in real terms just how expensive these almost handmade old school Jaguars really were when new, you got a lot of beautifully made car for your cash.

£40,000 is still a lot of money for sure, but for a running and driving and most importantly solid E-Type, it's about as low as you can get these days. The V12 is sublime though and in 2+2 format can still be picked up for similar money to a six cylinder.

Thankyou. I have a series 1 2+2 that l'm restoring . It was an automatic but it has an XJ6 mod gearbox conversion. A part of me would rather have kept the original box . I find that manual hard work , particularly if town driving . And in my experience an XJS V12 would out handle an "e" type every time . Hope you got back ok . That fuel guauge was looking decidedly empty ! Cheers !

I paid £1000 for mine in 1974 did 80k miles in it and sold it in 1982 for 4k after it rotted away

Couldn't agree more! Thank you for watching :)

Thank you for watching and I hope you enjoy your E-Type for many years and miles to come.

That sounds like perfection!

Thank you for watching :)

I’d always prefer a manual, but the auto transmission does work surprisingly well.

Suits it really rather well!

Absolutely no judgment from me and I completely understand your point! I don’t think they ever improved on those early cars in terms of looks

Answer/reason is wind tunnel testing being further in body reduced drag considerably, and when being designed Jaguar were still racing cars, and William Lyons' son John & wife were still alive and so was Jaguar's factory racing team, with the death of Lyons' son John many things changed, like no more factory race team. So the E-types became more of a road car with privateers only entering them as race teams/cars. The early V12 project halted and put firmly on hold, the new USA crash and body structure standards were coming given that most Jaguars sold by then were in the USA & Canada, this meant further changes were required, and a new but different cheaper version of a V12 was being planned. So when Jaguar widened the track of the series 3 and made bonnet shape adjustments this changed drag and increased it, also contributing to this was the USA's banning of headlight fairings over headlights & Jaguar series 1.5 E-types plus all series 2 's & 3's saw the headlight fairings removed and the tunneled headlights brought forward with the heavy chromed bezels so prior this had increased drag factor too.

I agree, when you see them in the flesh it’s even more noticeable

That’s a really good point! I was also told, the 2+2 at the time was quite a significant jump in price over a FHC or Roadster.

@@fuelupclassic e-type prices (incl. purchase tax) in 1968 for the 4.2 engine open two seater UK pnd 2162 fhc UK pnd 2273 2+2 manual UK pnd 2511 2+2 automatic UK pnd 2669 makes the 2+2 automatic 23% more expensive over the open two seater

@@wimschermerhorn7773 Thank you for sharing this information.

Thank you for watching. I definitely agree regarding the turning circle - it’s much bigger than I expected.

@@fuelupclassic yes bud, basically the 2 seater man is a proper sports car and the 2 plus 2 auto is like a different car, I had both actually at the same time, a 67 coupe and a 69 2 plus 2,on a s2 2 plus 2 basically nearly everything is different, interior, exterior, all the nice touches have gone.

A great choice!

A smooth and torquey six-cylinder engine usually does marry up to an auto gearbox very well.

The XJC is a wonderful thing and a great choice for those wanting a rare, practical and lovely looking Jaguar/Daimler. We’ve had quite a few in the family over the years long before they skyrocketed in price. I’d love to get one to sit alongside my Series 3 XJ6.

Thank you for watching and sharing some very helpful advice which is sure to help anyone thinking of E-Type ownership.

You can't beat a classic and a great driving road. Thank you for watching.

That's a really good point! It's strange how certain cars get a mixed reputation that seems to just stick. However the Espada has gone from cheap and unloved to seriously desirable in a little over a decade.

Ohhh! That could just be the perfect combination :). Thank you for watching.

Indeed!

That sounds like an excellent road trip to me :)

Thank you for watching :)

I guess it depends what you want from a car - the auto seems to compliment the torquey nature of the six-cylinder engine really rather well. For many, a manual is the one to go for - you’re likely to pay at least 50% more for one though.

Put some good quality Millers 20/50 in with a new filter and the oil pressure will be acceptable. The bonnet air intake to the heater motor is missing.

Good spot, although there is no cause for concern. The fuel gauge doesn't work, although there was plenty of fuel in it. Oil Pressure gauge is slow to respond - a couple of gentle taps and it comes back to life. It's been parked up for some time, so minor recommissioning is required.

I would suggest Lucas 20W50 Hot Rod for the extra zddp. 30psi trotting at 2000rpm is ok in my book.

1967 onwards saw the change to open headlights.

I'd love for it to be a FHC or a roadster, but a 2+2 is really one of the most affordable ways into E-Type ownership. Thank you for watching.

From memory, that particular model was fitted to later series 3 cars. Series 1.5 and Series 2 models used the Borg-Warner Model 8.

That's certainly an interesting alternative.

I love them! I hope to feature one on the channel in the near future.

@@fuelupclassic thank you.

More of a 2+2 GT than an outright sports car.

Horses for courses, I suppose. For many, an E-Type will be the one to go for.

As long as you’re not getting into costly bodywork restorations, they’re really no worse to keep maintained than any other classic.

Haha! Far too many! One was very close to the windscreen at one point too.

The 1960s certainly produced some fantastic looking cars and the E-Type is widely considered to be up there with the best of them. I know it's something that gets thrown around a lot and it's debated on whether it was actually said, but supposedly Enzo Ferrari himself described the E-Type as 'the most beautiful car in the world', it has to be considered up there with the greats of the era.

Have you personally experienced that failure and if, so when? It's not something I am aware of as a big issue with a properly looked after V12. We've had quite a few in the family over the years that have never suffered valve seat failure. It's usually lack of proper maintenance that ruins them.

I had four v12 for years and never a problem

This one appears solid in all the right places - I personally wouldn't entertain one with significant rot, it's by far the most expensive thing to sought on them.

😂

I haven't seen an E-Type achieve anything like a slow as £10,000 for many years, even when they are a complete wreck. More likely closer to £20,000 in the current climate and then you're likely to spend £50-60,000 getting it roadworthy! Circa £35 - 40,000 gets you into a roadworthy and all importantly solid 2+2 example. If you can find me plenty at £10,000, I will buy them all!

Think you might be in the minority with this one!

@@fuelupclassic this is not a question of majority or minority, ugly is ugly.. the Italian spirit can create a beautiful car, or only the German Luigi Colani.. no one else

@@rochus_wagner in your opinion, which of course you are very welcome to express. Others may strongly disagree.

There's really no need to announce your departure.

Who cares about keyboard butterflies flitting between channels and making a song and dance about unsubscribing 😊