I saw Inspector Morse's Jaguar Mk2 at a classic car show held by a classic car restortation company in Bridgenorth Shropshire in 2019, the event was to celebrate 60 years of the Mk2. The red Mk2 also featured very briefly in the closing scene of the final episode of Endeavour where his black mk1 and Morse's red mk 2 pass each other - the producers used a lookalike for John Thaw to drive the Mk2 - great scene for many reasons.
In 1969 I returned to the U.S. after four years in the Middle East. I was moving to the San Francisco area but went to Chicago first to visit relatives. While in Oak Park to visit my brother I noticed a Mark II, same burgundy color, parked on a lawn with a For Sale sign. While in the Middle East I had a 1962 MG-A Mk II 1600 RHD that I bought from a bloke that worked for another company but had to leave quickly and I got it for a few hundred dollars. I loved the Jag and eventually bought it. We headed out from Chicago for SF via Dallas, Houston, and San Diego. Of course, the Jag did not have A/C and this was July. It had blue leather upholstery and was HOT. Since I was headed for the Bay Area, where it's generally much cooler, we decided to tough it out and began driving at night. The Jag only broke down once, at about 1:00 am outside of Denton, Texas, when the fan belt broke. Unfortunately, the fan belt in the box of spares provided with the car was for the 3.4. A local sheriff's deputy stopped and then drove me to an all-night truck stop that had a large garage. I took the broken fan belt with me and I found that a fan belt for a Corvair was very close in size and width. It worked! While in San Diego I went to a Jaguar dealer to get an OEM fan belt. A customer there noticed the car, asked to look at it, and offered me almost $1,000 more than I paid for it. My wife gave me a look that said "Take it!". I bought a 1969 Datsun 240Z (with A/C!). That was a dream after British cars. Sold that in 1973 in Washington when I moved back to the Middle East. I got almost the same price that I paid for it.
Thanks so much I really enjoyed that video> Thanks for going down all the rabbit holes and its great to see there at least one TV car that is still around. Well Done from NZ
The Broadspeed Jaguar from the Avengers has quite an interesting story. Might be worth looking into. Missing for years then sold at auction and then contested by the previous/rightful owner.
The Jaguar that Morse drives in Endeavour, is a Mk1. I watched the episode where he went to the crooked car dealers to look at the Jag on the forecourt & thought it to was a Mk1. I’ll watch the episode again now as I apparently missed 248
I remember the Morse series and seeing this Mk2 with what looked like a bad finish and the addition of a vinyl roof. Vinyl roofs were a big no no at that time as they never left the factory with them and were totally out of character. They were also known in the trade for sometimes being used to hide damage to roofs on cars. I quickly came to the conclusion that this car was of no beauty and was likely to have some interesting history attached to it. It also does not surprise me that it was found in a scrap yard and there would have been far better examples available at that time. Earlier on in the series the Jaguar's paintwork appeared to have had a quick blow with paint at some time in it's past and it looked like it had been left with an uncut and unpolished finish. As the group of series progressed I noticed that the paintwork had improved and had appeared to have been tidied up leaving a deeper and more presentable shine to it. It's good to know that this famous and well loved car finally went through a thorough restoration which it surely deserved.
Interesting video. Just found your channel. Btw, I'm British and moved to Pennsylvania 20 years ago. About 12 years ago I bought one of the 1000 Starsky and Hutch Torinos originally made. I got it on ebay for $8500 and paid $15000 to have it restored. Well, the economy collapsed and my mechanic fled back to Austria, leaving the car 90% finished and in a storage unit. I probably could get it finished for about 10K but I'm saving up for that. P.S. Never buy the car from your favourite telly programme. Cheers. P. S Morse was great.
I had,as a first job, finishing cars for Henley's showroom on the A4 back in the mid sixties and Mk 2 Jags were commonly dealt with . The Mechs hated them with a passion, even new jags were commonly in the fettling bays on a Saturday morning. That said I can also recall Lancias, rust buckets to a car. By the mid seventies it was not uncommon for Jags to have doors loaded with cement and floors detaching from the inner sills, although TBF holes in the floor on most other cars were common. My personal favourite has always been "Old Rovers" and I still have a P5 and even almost 60 years later it has never deteriorated the way Jags appeared to. It was a joy to watch "Gently", Still in terms of money- no one wants Rovers these days, which pleases me greatly. That said Morse was a classic. That roof, probably covered a lot of rust.
I remember seeing an ‘on location’ photo of John Thaw sitting sideways in the driver’s seat with the door open and the interior door trim was all torn and patched with tape so it was very much a prop only needed to look good on the surface. No wonder John Thaw didn’t want to own it in that state. Kind of the opposite of George Cole from Minder - he wanted to buy the Daley Daimler but was talked out of it. 👍🏻
I remember hearing a comment years ago that the Morse Jag was originally intended to only appear once. When it would be smashed up in the raid in the first episode. So dragging one out of a scrapyard made sense at the time. Which was why it caused so many problems later, after they decided to keep it. .
the car was retrofitted with shoulder and lap seat belts. and as always with british tv productions the driver and passenger were shown put on and adjusting their seat belts every time they got in the car.
Another interesting fact about the great late. John Thaw played inspector Regan in the series Sweeney, Ford motors provided the cars however they never were involved in a crash when they were on their numerous car chases, and of course a lot of the vehicles they were chasing driven by the criminals were actually jags, and probably even MK 2’s sometimes as well.
Very funny bit about the Hello magazine article appearing on your gig about the burgundy Jag. One favourite cop car of mine is the silver Granada reg VHK 491S from series 4 of the Sweeney. Listen to that V6 engine in the episode "Bait" as it chases John Thaw and George Sewell at the end. It had a sweet manual gearbox.
What you probably heard was an audio from a very different car, most movie car sounds are from a library of various engine and gearbox / transmission sound bites.
In one episode of Morse someone crashed into the side of the Jag and the camera panned to the impact then off as quick as a flash, the reason being a huge lump of filler had fallen out and as I was watching on video I could stop start and was not wrong as it left a big step at the top of a deep dent where the filler had broken off!
These "where are they now?" videos are brilliant. Here's a challenge for you: what happened to the cars sold by Gaydon motor museum in their infamous 2003 auction? Most just disappeared without trace and nothing has been heard of them in 20 years.
@@oscarsgarage447 Yeah, a lot aren't registered so they'd be basically impossible. I've been through the DVLA site for the ones that are and most are still around but I can only confirm the whereabouts of two.
I always thought it looked a rough car usually find cars of that era that have survived this long go through a period when they are bodged when the values are low and then when they get restored properly all the 'repairs' are uncovered hopefully its in good order now
I remember vaguely it being mentioned in the press that the people who were selling it after the business mans bankruptcy that due to costs they where hoping it would get over six figures but i dont believe it would be good to see itstill about another great film mate well done
I remember seeing a Morse Jag in a garage in Yorkshire around 2007/8. Had the correct spec and numberplate but looked very rough. Owner said it was quite rotten underneath and suggested it might have been bought, perhaps even used, as a stunt car in the series. At the time I only gave it a quick once over but I remember it was tatty, various dents, flaky paint, vinyl roof and interior looked well worn. Wish I’d taken more notice but the garage bloke seemed keen for us to not know it was there…
Another good video. Really interesting. The MK2 Jag is definitely one of my all time favourite cars. Interesting fact regarding the MOT gap, because as it is a sign of roadworthiness, I don't think a trade plate negates that. That may be one for a follow-up at a later date. What about the Professionals' cars? Capri, Escort and Granada from memory.
The MOT gap is at odds with the hire website being online all that time. Carrying paying passengers in a hired car on trade plates with no MOT is highly illegal so the hires must have been for off-road use only.
Cowley's red Granada is certainly still around, also the gold and silver 3.0 S Capris recently sold as a pair, but Bodie's earlier 3.0 S and Doyle's Dolomite Sprint or RS2000 ????
In the late 1980s early 1990s the Jaguar featured in a body shop trade magazine as it was undergoing a superficial body restoration and repaint. You can see when this takes place by watching Morse as the appearance significantly improves in later series.
very interesting its a car most people will remember . I live on Vancouver Island BC Canada John Lennon's iconic 1965 Rolls Royce with the gypsy caravan paint work is in Victoria in storage at the museum.
I saw that car on the A40 between Whitney and Oxford one day in about 2021..... a conversation with a friend ( and MGC owner) a few days later in which he told me he knew the owners and it'd been a 'wreck of a car' which cost a small fortune to make roadworthy..... make of that what you will !
The car certainly needed restoring. I saw it back in the day and quite honestly it was just a very rusty wreck. If it wasn't for the Morse I doubt if anyone would have bought it. It just goes to show what you can do with money, a lot of!
When it comes to the lack of MOT history, it’s probably down to you not needing to get one if the vehicle was built or first registered more than 40 years ago.
i would love to know what happened to the Escort in the back of shot on the Minder titles, i heard it was built for the main character Terry McCann to drive, but deemed too flash in the end for someone seemingly a bit down and out, hence a beat up Capri instead
Up until 2018 if a vehicle was manufactured or registered before 1960 then it was mot exempt back in the early 2000's meaning the jag may have been exempt before 2018 but some people do choose to still have an mot test carried out anyway.
@@oscarsgarage447 Vert true. I remember some 1961 and even upto 1963 cars qualifying for exeption if you could prove build date being before 1960. It could explain the gaps in mot history. I like your videos. Very interesting and trips down memory lane.
great series, and lovely old "jag", only one thing used to make me laugh, every time morse went on his "police radio" must have been some radio? as there was "no transmitting antenna (aerial) on the car?? I always put it down to the owner of the jag not wanting bodywork damage due to aerial brackets e.t.c. just a thought? 🤔😂😂....
Brilliant video on the subject of jaguar mk2s would you be able to trace my dad's mk2 jaguar please as I've drawn a blank it was a 3.4 gun metal grey registration 6991 NE hope you are able to help me on this vehicle which my dad sold around 1970
I think you will find Britain stopped MOT for classic cars that were over 40 years old maybe this would explain why no MOT’s , but not sure when the rule was implemented
Absolutely love John Thaw's work but really why do actors have to stick their oar in? I've never read the books but if the Lancia was the Author's choice then there must be a very good reason for that. Now from what I recall of the TV adaptation morse was a sort of boozy very well educated copper, with a reputation of doing things his own way. He always seemed to be listening to classical music or Italian opera. I think a battered old Lancia would fit in very with that kind of rebellious attitude. Sometimes these adaptations change too much. Also, now you've mentioned that it was John who put his foot down on that one, can't help but wonder if the wrecked Jag from the scrap yard wasn't a bit of payback, or at least poetic justice since it only seemed to work 50% of the time.
Ha ha ..Lancia with connections to Oxford ... oxfordians will not like that at all.....after all they had ...yes had the superior ..ha ha ..superior piece of crap ,called British leyland.... now they have got B.M.W. ha ha ha 😅😅😂 you get what you deserve .....
Can I ask you something since you did all that research on it, what the HELL is the color on that, I've heard Regency Red but I've looked at all the red ones that have ever come up for sale, and they never look the same, the closest I found was Damiler Imperial Maroon, which given the daimler version was a 2.4 V8, I half wonder if someone decided to do as a custom homage to it
Usually, a vinyl roof was used the hide the cut and shut weld but I’ve no idea if that was why it had one… Am I correct in thinking they used it in the final minutes of the final Endeavour, where Endeavour is driving away from the stately home in Thursdays car?
Vinyl roofs were a popular modification the 70s in the motor trade most areas would have a guy in a van who would visit your site and plonk a vinyl roof on a bit of stock that didn’t have one as standard (in an effort to make it look like a higher spec model) the same applied to sunroofs in the eighties when lots of now classic cars had a sunroof butchered in to them !
Might have had a rusty sunroof. Vinyl cover a quick and cheap fix. Someone might be able to find a clip which shows the headliner with or without the sunroof panel.
@@oscarsgarage447 And relative to the era of the Dinosaurs the invention of the wheel is quite recent, but relative to the life expectancy of a human 23 years can't be described as quite recent.
Ordered the complete series. Promised it would work on my player in the U.S. Eagerly opened it and popped in . . . NOPE! Returned it and was promised yet again I would be sent the correct format. Yet again, did not play. And guess what . . . the seller refused my second return, went out of business on eBay and eBay will not refund $. Will gladly give it to someone if you have a player compatible for , wut? I guess UK?
@@oscarsgarage447 I know that. I've had a few. But the 240 had slimline bumpers, among other cost-cutting changes. My point is..at 7:57 some guy calls Morse's Mk 2 a 240. I'm on a hiding to nothing, I guess.
With the 2000 miles without mot it cant have been on trade plates as that only covers tax not mot. So by that conclusion its 1 of 2 things, it was used extensively off road such as private grounds or filming.. or simply it was run without mot and tax because... hes got a jaaaaag. Awfully sorry i seem to have forgotten to mot the old girl. 😂
Loved John Thaw as Inspector Morse. I just do not understand the Brits obsession with cataloguing every single detail of life. VERY dark. An accountant with OCD mentality. They do this with everything. I don't care if Bob had it, or Chuck and Cammy rented it and went to Brighton on holiday incognito in September of 2013 and didn't have its MOT. WHY is this important!?! It's a car FFS.
