1966 Jaguar 420G

Jaguars of old were equally favoured by the great and the good, and the dodgy and the bad.

The Police drove fast MKII Jags because that’s the only way they stood a chance of catching the bank robbers who were also driving them.

It was a sort of automotive arms race between cops and robbers.

The Jaguar Mark X/420G variants attracted a similarly diverse clientele, and you were as likely to find one garaged at a Knightsbridge mews address as you were to find one under some railway arches in Bethnal Green.

Members of the royal family owned them, as did captains of industry. So, too, rather more surprisingly, did Madonna in later years.

On the less salubrious and more threatening side, so did the notorious Kray twins, Reggie and Ronnie.

No, this particular car wasn’t owned by them but it did star in the 1990 movie ‘The Krays’ starring the Kemp brothers.

And the real Kray family - Ronnie Kray, Reggie Kray, Charlie Kray Snr. and
Charlie Kray Jnr. were named (documented in our photography section) on the contract to the film company at the birth of the project in 1982.

Let’s cut to the chase.

Firstly, this car is in fabulous restored condition and is a joy to behold from any of the panoramic angles offered up by its gargantuan presence.

Secondly, it comes with easily the most comprehensive, detailed and exhaustive record of a restoration journey that we’ve ever encountered.

In addition to files, folders, letters, photos, bills, invoices and receipts aplenty, this particular car has its own website.

And we’re not talking about a landing page and a couple of photographs.

Oh no.

This is an epic thing. It goes on, and on, and on.

It covers every single aspect of this car’s metamorphosis from close-to-barn-find sadness to not-that-far-from-concours joy, referencing – in forensic detail – all the work carried out along the way.

We’re inclined to believe that there are fewer pages to be found in the Bodleian Library.

It’s pointless, as well as entirely impractical, for us to try to give you that level of detail in our modest online pages.

You can visit the car’s own website for that: https://kraysjaguarrestoration.wordpress.com

The vendor, who has owned the car since 2019, works in the website design industry - you won’t be remotely surprised to hear – and is (evidently) a tenacious and gifted restorer, with a key part of that ‘gift’ being the ability to know which aspects of the restoration are best entrusted to specialists.

A brief look at the headlines of this car’s history reveals that it has generally led a very good life and been looked after with plenty of diligent care.

‘Opalescent Dark Green’ with a ‘Suede Green’ leather interior and burr walnut veneers, this car was supplied new by Henlys of London on 31.10.66.

With just 29,000 miles on the odometer by the late ‘80s, the car’s then condition was sufficiently good for it to be a concours d’elegance winner in ‘88.

Soon afterwards, the car found itself in the hands of esteemed classic car expert and dealer Robert Hughes, whose eponymous Robert Hughes Automobiles was by then in the habit of leasing out appropriate stock for appearances in film and TV projects.

Following the Jaguar’s starring role in the ‘The Krays’, it was bought by a businessman in Northern Ireland, where it remained in active use until 1996, and thereafter was unused and rather left to fend for itself come rain or shine for the next decade or so.

At some unknown point between 2005 and 2010, the car was sold to a citizen of County Armagh. He kept the car for another decade.

It was then advertised for sale and made its way to the London branch of Gullwing Motors.

That’s when the vendor noticed it and, encouraged at least in part by the work he’d done to successfully restore his father’s classic Jaguar, he took the plunge and began the awesomely time-consuming and expensive labour-of-love you see before you today.

At a restoration cost comfortably in excess of £30,000, an expert and highly sympathetic comprehensive restoration was carried out two years ago with a full, bare metal respray. Our vendor has guess-timated over 1500 hours of time have been whiled away bringing the car back to its former glory.

The car was deliberately not over-restored and the vendor was always mindful of the need to respect originality and protect patina.

The car starts, goes, handles and stops as reliably, competently and consistently as you could possibly hope and wish.

The vendor tells us that the oil pressure and temperature gauges have nothing alarming to report even when the car is stuck in heavy traffic on a hot day.

The vendor drove the car the 117 miles to our HQ himself. The car didn’t miss a beat – and he didn’t expect it to.

Today, the car’s odometer reads 35,397 miles, and we have no reason to doubt the veracity of that figure.

Well, the outside of this car presents a very handsome vista.

Which is just as well, because there’s a lot of it; it’s so big that the driver and front passenger are about 6ft away from the wing mirrors.

The bodywork is entirely bereft of any dinks, dents, ripples, creases, folds or other aberrations of note anywhere that we can see.

The shut-lines and panel gaps are reassuringly crisp, consistent and even, and the doors close with satisfying heft and precision.

We’re particularly taken with the ‘Opalescent Dark Green’ paintwork, which has a vibrancy to it that really pops and sings in the sunshine.

The chrome everywhere is bright and shiny, although it is very lightly pitted throughout. There are a couple of minor dinks on the rear bumper and overriders.

The wheels appear to be in excellent order and there’s a good deal of life left in the matching Dinax Classic ‘Radar’ tyres. They should be – they’re brand-new.

As for the car’s lights, lenses, badging, trim and other exterior fixtures and fittings, they’re all following the same script as the rest of it in terms of condition and preservation.

Our chap with the spyglass has struggled to find faults but if we are really picky there’s a tiny starburst to the paint just above the n/s/r door handle, a few stone chips in the usual places (the ‘nose’ of the car, on top of the front wings, around the grille, etc), a couple of very small patches of rough paint around the outer headlamp unit on the offside, two small white spots to the paint in the crease below the n/s/f window, and a couple of thin shrinkage bubbles under the paint at the base of the nearside ‘C’ pillar.

Basically, it’s all very good indeed.

If anything, the interior of this utterly charming car is even better than its exterior counterpart, and that’s because the wood and leather ambience is so much of-its-era and the ‘Suede Green’ leather upholstery is delightfully patinated.

And when we say ‘patinated’, we’re talking about the kind of light creasing that’s far more commensurate with the car’s very low mileage than its age.

The seats and upholstery are wholly original, front and back, and we can vouch for their comfort, support and functionality.

The original door cards are excellent, as are the carpets, mats and the new headlining.

The wood veneers have been sorted and re-lacquered throughout. They are uniformly rich, glossy and splendid pretty much wherever you look, although there are one or two thin cracks to the veneer/lacquer at the lower edge of the n/s/f door capping.

Things which normally don’t survive the passage of time have done so with commendable stoicism here, with the passenger vanity mirror and the mirrors on the picnic tables entirely free of the sort of tarnishing or foxing you might expect to find on a 1966 car.

The Smiths gauges and instruments are bright and clear. All switches, toggles, buttons and knobs are in fine order.

As far as we’re aware, everything does what it’s supposed to do.

The boot, which is trimmed in an attractive shade of beige, is original and every bit as good as the rest of it and contains a spare wheel and a full, original tool-kit.

The engine as far as we are aware has never been apart, but all ancillaries have been restored.

The engine bay has not been re-painted during the restoration, and is impressively clean, dry and orderly.

Everything looks to be in its right and proper place, with genuine patina representative of the sympathetic restoration. 

The same can be said of the car’s undersides, which appear to be possessed of oodles of structural integrity.

We’ve seen nothing to make us tut, frown or otherwise question the car’s honesty or character.

This car has only covered 35K miles from new and has service history up to 30K miles in 1990. It was taken off the road in 1996 when just 34K miles were showing on the odometer. The vendor has covered approximately 1,000 miles since completing the restoration.

The car comes with lots and lots of paperwork, including all original manuals and booklets, the original buff logbook, a letter from Robert Hughes, a copy of a film contract with the Kray brothers, confirmation of concours d'elegance entry in ‘88, and its full, original toolkit.

The tyres are brand new.

There is a dedicated restoration website that’s so comprehensive, long and detailed it makes War and Peace look like a pamphlet.

Honestly, if you need to know more about this car than may be gleaned from its website, then there may be no hope for you.

It’s all there. It really is. Every bit of it.

It’s possible that there may be a better 420G than this in a museum or private collection, somewhere.

We don’t know.

What we do know is that you won’t find one with a restoration story as meticulously catalogued, recorded, annotated and curated as this one.

It’s a wonderful car, with a great story and a sprinkle of added stardust thanks to its short but memorable film career.

We like it a great deal.

We are happy to offer this car for auction with an estimate in the range of £20,000 - £25,000.

Viewing is strongly encouraged, and this lot is located at Bonhams|Cars Online HQ. Viewings are STRICTLY BY APPOINTMENT and we are open weekdays between 10am - 12pm or 2pm - 4pm. To make a booking, please use the ‘Enquire About This Vehicle’ button on the listing. Feel free to ask any questions, or try our ‘Frequently Asked Questions’.