1972 Jaguar E Type S3

This 1972 LHD auto E Type is showing 29,384 miles on the odometer.

We really don’t know a great deal about it beyond the fact that it was living in the US having probably been exported there new.

It was sold by a dealer in Florida to The Beverly Hills Car Club in 2015.

It was imported to the UK by someone living in Helensburgh, Scotland, late in 2015.

It was then bought by two brothers from Gloucestershire in 2016, and they set about the task of partially restoring the car from 2017 onwards.

We know that the car was resprayed to Signal Red, but we suspect from evidence we saw in the door shuts that the car may originally have been Regency Red.

They also commissioned Rushton Engineering International to rebuild the engine, which they duly did for the price of £9,000.

Some time after this work was carried out the family suffered a personal misfortune and they were compelled to sell the car. They left the vehicle with a classic car restoration business and asked them to get it ready for sale.

That firm got the engine running (it had been rebuilt but never used, not least because the car has never been UK registered) and carried out some basic recommissioning to partly prepare it for eventual use.

They also assembled and installed all the new (and newly refurbished) interior trim that came with the car.

When the car came to us it was running but not particularly smoothly. It has since adopted a tendency to ‘kangaroo'.

We should also state that the brakes are seizing on and that the tyres (which are incorrect for the car in any case) are well past their best.

That said, when we did manage to drive the car – brakes, tyres and engine aside – it handled and steered very well indeed.

We’re not mechanics but our feeling is that this car, which has done nothing and gone nowhere for years, needs some proper fettling and tweaking rather than anything major.

The bodywork is pretty decent and the car’s panel gaps and shut-lines seem broadly consistent.

The driver’s door however, needs a little lifting and coaxing to achieve a fully flush closure and could do with some adjustment.

The paint work looks very good from a distance but reveals one or two issues on closer inspection.

For example, the finish is rather rippled on the fuel filler cap (which doesn’t quite fit its recess properly) and there are cracks to the paint – and some missing paint – on the rear wing near the nearside base of the boot door.

There may be some bubbling in the crease at the top of the o/s/r wing, and in the creases beneath the chrome strip atop both doors but, equally, it could just be air trapped under the paint. You’ll need to see for yourself and reach your own conclusion.

There are some paint chips around the o/s/r wheel arch and around the passenger door handle. The rim of the n/s/f wheel arch also has some paint chips in evidence, and there’s a small patch of discoloured paint on the roof.

There’s some loose trim on the offside bonnet/wing, the wing mirror is pointing at the floor, some chromed trim is missing from around the front grille, and there’s some paint on the bottom corners/brackets of the rear windows.

In general, the wire wheels, chrome-work, lights, lenses, badging and other exterior fixtures and fittings are all in good order.

The condition of the interior is really very impressive and the newly refurbished trim looks to have been done to an impressive professional standard.

The beige leather upholstery is beyond reproach and has no creasing or other signs of wear – unsurprisingly, given that the car has had no use since being restored and retrimmed.

The carpets, mats, door cards and headlining are all in fine fettle, as is the luggage bay.

Some of the restoration detail isn’t quite spot-on, though. For example, the screw heads are showing on the door cards.

The alloy handles/brackets for opening the rear windows are showing some oxidisation, as is the interior alloy trim around the same windows.

Some of the trim is coming away from the ‘B’ pillars.

The engine bay looks clean, dry and pretty much pristine, as do the car’s undersides.

The car isn’t currently UK registered and it comes with no history beyond any documents you can see in the gallery.

Aside from the obvious need from some mechanical fettling from an appropriate engine whisperer, we think this car has been partially restored to a decent standard and appears to be sound, solid and ready to give its next owner many years of high-quality pedigree motoring pleasure.

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