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Restored motor show E-type to be unveiled at London show

Published 11 February 2016

An E-Type that turned heads at the 1961 Scottish Motor Show has been brought back to its former glory by restorers Classic Motor Cars and will take centre stage on the company’s stand at next week’s London Classic Car Show.

Chassis number 15 is a right-hand drive fixed-head coupe and was used as a press car at the 1961 Scottish Motor Show. The car then moved in to private ownership and went missing for decades until it was discovered in a barn in Cernay, France, in late 2013.

Exactly 2956 hours were spent restoring every nut and bolt of this E-Type at CMC’s workshops in Bridgnorth, Shropshire, saving as much of the original car as possible and bringing back its show-condition.

Nick Goldthorp, Classic Motor Cars managing director, said, ‘We found chassis number. 15 in Cernay, a French town close to the border with Germany. It had been owned by the same person since 1976, who dismantled it probably some 20 years ago and that is as far as he got.

E-Type Chassis 15 Restored

‘The car was underneath some covers in a garden, very rusty and corroded – there was even a bird’s nest in the rear quarter. We carried out a full nut and bolt restoration, which proved to be quite a challenge due to the sorry state in which it was found.’

However, CMC has lots of experience with classic Jaguars, having restored some of the most historic E-Types, including Lofty England’s chassis number four, the Lindner-Nöcker Lightweight and 1VHP, the first right hand drive fixed head coupe off the production line.

Goldthrop said, ‘No detail was too small and extensive work has been carried out in the paint and trim shops so that the car can now boast its original colour combination of pearl grey exterior and light blue interior, being the only one produced in those colours in 1961.

‘This was one of the six E-Types on display at the 1961 Scottish Motor Show. After restoring it to its former glory, we thought it was only fitting that the car returned to the centre stage 55 years later and what could be better than the London Classic Car Show.’

CMC will have the car on display at their stand (C40) at the London Classic Car Show at the ExCeL exhibition centre in London on February 18-21.