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An E-Type in the garden: rotting '63 Jaguar heads for auction

There's something about formerly gorgeous cars in dilapidated states from which the eye cannot turn away. The devastatingly cruel fate of this Jaguar E-Type is an illustration. Next week, it likely begins a new life. Still voluptuous after decades rotting in a garden, this 1963 Series 1 fixed head coupe will be offered for sale at the Coys auction Tuesday in London. The car has 44,870 miles on the odometer and has passed through several owners, including one with a tangential connection to the Beatles and another man who used the Jag to pull his MG to Brands Hatch. He would race them both, according to Coys' listing, wringing the most out of the E-Type's 265-horsepower inline six. Ivor Arbiter was owner No. 1. His link to history is that he designed the Beatles drop-T logo in the early '60s and was reportedly paid five British pounds for it. He bought the E-Type new in 1963, used it, and then sold it to in 1965. The E-Type passed through a couple of owners until motorsports enthusiast Frank Riches bought it in '67. He tracked the Jag at some of Britain's iconic circuits and drove it until he fried the clutch. Coys cites a story from Riches' brother recounting when the E-Type hit 150 miles per hour on a public road, its listed top speed. It was in storage until the 1980s, and then Riches relocated it to his garden, where it has sat for years. Considering its long dormancy, the Jag appears to be in reasonable shape. It's never been restored, obviously, and Riches still has many of the original parts he replaced, including the center console and radiator bar. Coys notes that the seats have a "lovely patina" and are worth saving, too. The buyer also gets a brown logbook, the sales invoice to Riches, two service books (it is a '63 Jag) and a spare parts catalogue. A Coys auctioneer told ITV.com that the car could net about $140,000. Related Video: Jaguar Auctions Coupe Luxury Performance jaguar e-type

Jaguar rolls out 2014 XJ updates

It may be an uphill battle with Mercedes-Benz having rolled out its all-new S-Class, but in an effort to entice more customers towards its flagship sedan, Jaguar has announced a series of enhancements for the XJ.
A number of upgrades aim to make the long-wheelbase model that much more accommodating, with new airline-style rear seats that recline, massage and optimize the headroom in the back. The rear suspension has also been recalibrated for comfort, and there's a new optional Meridian sound system with a Conversation Assist feature that uses microphones in the headliner to pick up occupants' voices and pipe them through the speakers to support the art of conversation in motion.
The engine range carries over unchanged, but each engine is now mated to an eight-speed automatic with an available stop/start system which Jaguar says takes less time to restart the engine than it takes for the driver to move his or her right foot from brake to gas. Full details in the press release below.

Junkyard Gem: 1984 Jaguar XJ-S with Chevrolet V8 swap

If you wanted to do some conspicuous consumption during the 1980s, you couldn't do much better than the Series II Jaguar XJ-S. A big, decadent-looking coupe with a smooth V12 engine under its vast bonnet, a new XJ-S would have been just the thing to celebrate a fresh round of S&L looting or a Stinger missile deal with Adnan Khashoggi in 1984. The XJ-S cost plenty to keep running, though; when the third or fourth owner got tired of huge repair bills for V12 problems, a small-block Chevy V8 engine often got swapped in. Today's Junkyard Gem in Denver is such a Jag, with an early-1990s Chevy 350 residing in the engine compartment. While the good old Chevy 350 didn't purr quite as silently as the nicely balanced 5.3-liter V12, it got the job done. Some junkyard shopper had already grabbed the heads off this engine before I got to it. The block casting number indicates that the engine began life in a 1987-1995 car or truck. The small-block Chevy is a common swap for Jaguar XJs, going back to the 1960s.  The cylinder-head buyer tossed the heavy intake manifold on the roof, which would be a junkyard no-no on a nice car. This car's body isn't so nice, though. It appears that some sort of aftermarket hood scoop once lived atop these layers of body filler and pop rivets. The interior looks decent enough, though the varnish on the dashboard wood shows signs of excessive Colorado sun exposure. The MSRP on this car began at $34,700, or about $87,300 in 2020 dollars. You could get a new Cadillac Eldorado Biarritz coupe that year for just $23,737, though the real competition for the XJ-S was more likely to be a Mercedes-Benz S-Class or BMW 6 Series with two doors. The 1984 BMW 633CSi went for $39,120, while the Mercedes-Benz 500SEC cost a staggering $56,800 that year. How the mighty have fallen! This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings. You can't buy the race car, but you can buy V12 power wrapped in soft leather and paneled in rare wood. Featured Gallery Junked 1984 Jaguar XJ-S View 22 Photos Auto News Jaguar Automotive History Coupe Junkyard Gems