1974 Jaguar E Type Series III Roadster

This Jaguar E Type Series III open two seater (or roadster) is recorded as being built during 1973 but wasn’t registered until August 1974.

First supplied to Associated Portland Cement Manufacturers Limited (now known as Blue Circle Cement) by Dutton Forshaw Medway, it has had just four owners over nearly 50 years who have amazingly accumulated fewer than 37,000 miles between them.

The company which owned it from new kept the car - originally registered TKL481N - for two and a half years covering around 6,000 miles.

The next owner, a gentleman from Falmouth in Cornwall, treasured it for rather longer and after twelve and a half years had added 18,000 miles.

In 1989, it was then bought by Riders Garages - also of Falmouth - for use by their MD who put a personalised plate on it. He looked after it for five years but drove it fewer than 2,000 miles.

It was re-registered with the current registration of TCV647N and in July 1994 it was acquired by the current owner from Hope Valley in Derbyshire. For those of you not so quick at calendar maths, that means he has owned it for some 27 years, but averaging only around 400 miles annually.

He had always wanted an E-Type and when his mother died, leaving him some money, he was able to buy one in the knowledge that she would have approved. It is one of the reasons that he has kept it so long and it also made sure that he thought of her every time he drove it or even looked at it - the latter of which he did a lot.

Now with reducing usage, and both his daughters needing a new car, he is selling it to enable “Grandma” to fund another generation of mobility. How lovely is that?

The roadster is finished in the unusual but very attractive colour of Lavender Blue. It was stripped back and repainted in 2001 and, aside from a few runs on usually hidden surfaces, it still looks in a very good condition. The paint colour on the inside surfaces that weren’t repainted looks slightly paler but it could be down to more modern pigments and we believe Lavender Blue was the car’s original colour - the new owner can always consult the Jaguar Daimler Heritage Trust.

The bodywork appears very straight, with good panel alignment and the chrome work fixtures and trims are also very good, with just light pitting in places. There are a few small dents in the grille surround and a small scratch on the rear bumper but otherwise this car presents in an excellent condition.

The PVC hood looks like it is the original - black on the outside and light grey on the inside. It is a little creased here and there - probably due to being stored folded away, as the seller only drove the car on dry days & never had the hood up. - The rear plastic window is a little cloudy, but otherwise it seems in a reasonably good order, fitting well over the frame and folding nicely under the tonneau cover. This cover snaps down on stud fasteners but someone has also made good use of some Velcro to keep it looking tidier.

The Jaguar sits on original style 15-inch wire wheels, which appear in good condition with just a little dechroming having occurred to some of the knock off spinners. All are shod with matching Dunlop SP Sports tyres which show good tread depth.

The interior is upholstered in dark blue leather, with perforated seat facings - and all looks to be original. The seats look a little lived in, as you would expect, with creasing of the seat base and bolsters and slight crushing to the foam in the driver’s headrest. However, there are no obvious signs of undue wear or damage to the seats or the door cards.

Up front the dash top is in good condition with no splitting or cracking and the instrument panel looks tidy. The changeover from toggle switches to rockers was obviously a move with the times back in the early ‘70s but they don’t have quite the same feel when flicking the lights on.

The steering wheel too is different from earlier E Types, gone is the wood and centre badge and in its place a leather rimmed wheel with a plastic central horn boss. The colouring in the leather is worn away in places around the wheel - which most call a patina - but there’s no damage that we could see.

Below the dash in the centre console is a Radiomobile LW/MW radio - again, likely to be original to the car. It is connected to a powered antenna mounted in the offside rear wing.

The blue carpets are edged in black and look clean and intact both in the footwells and also into the rear and across the storage compartments behind the seats. Under the carpeting the floors look solid and in good order.

Unlike the XK-powered earlier E Types, the Jaguar V12 is a rather untidy looking unit with the tentacles of the distributor radiating out from the centre of the vee and the exhaust headers snaking from the insides and over the top of the cam covers. Add in some throttle linkages, fuel lines and other pipework, and the four Zenith Stromberg carbs and it's hard to call it a thing of beauty. This engine bay though is an honest looking affair, not too clean but not unloved. The ignition was upgraded to an electronic unit a few years back and of course the perishable items have been renewed where necessary but otherwise it has all been well-maintained to original specifications.

Underneath the car, there is good underseal across the bodywork - some of it older and now cracking. There are a few flecks of surface rust here and there but nothing of significance and there are signs of relatively recent renewal to the steering and front suspension. The twin exhaust appears undamaged and looks like a stainless steel system.

Inside the boot, which seems rather shallow compared to the fastback of the coupé, the sand coloured linings look clean and largely intact with just a couple of small holes worn into the floor covering at the corners. Underneath is a full size spare wheel.

The Jaguar has a current MoT valid until December 2021 with an online history of annual inspections back to 2006 and paper copies further back still. Despite being age exempt from testing, it is always good to see owners of classic cars getting a professional opinion on their car’s roadworthiness each year, as well as getting any issues sorted out.

The car has a huge history file, containing lots of expired MoTs and tax discs, as well as numerous invoices from current ownership which shows serious money spent over the years to keep it well maintained, regularly serviced and on the road safely.

Up to around 2005, the car’s maintenance was entrusted to Jaguar specialist Derek Watson, near Bakewell in Derbyshire and from then on to Lovers Leap Garage of Stoney Middleton a little further north.

Our vendor reports that the car has always been kept in a heated & air conditioned garage during his ownership, as well as the battery being kept in tip top shape with a battery conditioner (supplied with the car). The car is also hard wired for the battery conditioner, which would explain the cabling attached to the battery terminals.  

Take some time to page through the garage bills to see the attention to detail on the repairs and improvements year after year. There’s barely 12 months goes by without three or even four figure sums having been spent on the roadster.

Highlights include a major overhaul October 2013 to February 2014 and a strip down and repaint in June 2001.

Also with the car are two sets of keys and its original plastic wallet, which contains the Operating, Maintenance and Service Handbook, Passport to Service booklet, Radiomobile operating instructions, period Jaguar UK sales and service directory and a company vehicle log book from its original owners the Associated Portland Cement Manufacturers.

The Series 3 E Types aren’t to everyone’s taste - purists will (by definition) always gravitate to the most pure form of a model line, in this case a Series 1. But the V12 powered E-Types are the smoothest, silkiest, most comfortable and softest of them all and are very much worthy of serious consideration. Later variants of most cars have benefitted from developments in production and advancements of technology and will be much improved.

This particular open two seater example starts perfectly, usually without a lot of choke, and runs and drives very sweetly. It is also highly original with low ownership and a genuine low mileage, and comes from a long term owner who every year spent good money to ensure that anything that needed addressing on the car was properly sorted. Our photographer - who gets to take out lots of really nice cars - was absolutely smitten with it and declared it to be nothing short of “really lovely” when he brought it back.

Only 1,871 right hand drive S3 roadsters were built in the three and a half year production run and no doubt very few were finished in this striking Lavender Blue. So what you have here is a very uncommon Jaguar E Type in a great, original condition - which we think will sell for between £69,500 and £84,500. Strong money for a Series III but how many others are as good as this?

Viewing is always encouraged, and this particular car is located with us at The Market HQ near Abingdon; our offices are open Mon-Fri 9.00 am to 5.00pm.  To arrange an appointment please use the ‘Contact Seller’ button at the top of the listing. Feel free to ask any questions or make observations in the comments section below, or try our ‘Frequently Asked Questions’.