We’ve seen a few Jaguar E-Types over more than a decade at Barn Finds, and their condition has varied widely. Some have been close to the point of no return, while others have received stunning restorations. This 1969 model is different because it is an unrestored survivor that led a sheltered life. It has no apparent needs and would suit someone seeking a turnkey British classic. The Jag is listed here on Craigslist in Bedford Village, New York. The seller set their price at $69,900, and I must say a big thank you to Barn Finder Mirchell G for spotting this gem.
The Jaguar E-Type was one of the most influential British cars from the 1960s. The company aimed to produce a sporting grand tourer capable of topping 150mph and succeeded to wide acclaim. The styling is distinctive, with many influential motoring publications ranking it as the most beautiful car ever built. This one has a known history, having spent most of its active life in Texas. This is an important consideration because rust can be a significant concern with these classics. However, this Jag is as clean as they come for an unrestored vehicle. The panels are spotless, while the underside shows no evidence of problems. The Heritage Certificate confirms the Willow Green paint is correct, with the seller indicating that apart from minor touch-ups, the paint is original. The glass looks flawless, while the chrome trim and beautiful wire wheels exhibit no problems or issues. It isn’t in showroom condition, but there is no doubt this survivor would still turn heads wherever it goes.
The originality of this Jaguar continues when we turn our attention to its interior. It retains its beautiful Cinnamon Connolly leather trim and upholstery, and the seller indicates it has no restoration history. The leather looks supple and inviting, with no evidence of wear or abuse. The dash is spotless, although some switches show wear from regular use. It is a similar story with the wheel, although the condition is acceptable for a survivor-grade classic. The overall condition of the interior indicates it has been treated respectfully throughout its life because even the harsh Texas sun hasn’t taken a toll on the trim or plastic. There are no aftermarket additions, with this E-Type retaining its factory pushbutton AM radio.
When considered in isolation, the Jaguar’s engine doesn’t seem to promise exhilarating performance. However, the company focused on producing the E-Type as a total package that provided excellent handling and braking. Powering this classic is its numbers-matching 4.2-liter DOHC six that sends 246hp to the road via a four-speed manual transmission. Four-wheel independent suspension ensures it handles superbly, while disc brakes on all corners guarantee it stops…yesterday. The power figure looks relatively modest, but with a curb weight of 2,912 lbs, it should romp through the ¼-mile in 15 seconds on its way to a top speed of 134mph. This survivor spent twenty years in a private collection where it saw little use. When the buyer purchased the vehicle, they handed it to a Jaguar specialist to confirm it was in excellent mechanical health. A compression check confirmed the engine is spot-on, with the car receiving an aluminum radiator to keep that sweet six from suffering an unwanted and expensive meltdown. The seller says that pulling out the choke and pumping the pedal once sees the car roar into life. It runs and drives perfectly and is ready to embark on fresh adventures with a new owner behind the wheel.
If you’ve never driven a Jaguar E-Type, you have missed out on one of life’s great motoring pleasures. I have been lucky to slip behind the wheel of many classic cars, but none have had the impact of my time steering one of these beauties. They don’t feel genuinely fast like a muscle car, but the silky smooth motor, excellent handling, and superb brakes make the E-Type a total package. Values have recently softened significantly on these classics, and it is unclear whether the trend will reverse in the near future. Buying this car now could prove a genius move if values climb again, but as with any classic purchase, it is a calculated risk. However, history shows that these generally make an excellent long-term investment. With a vehicle of this caliber, would you consider it an investment, or could parking it in your garage realize a life-long dream?
Commentors log, story # 1279.5,( oh yeah, I was/am a Trekkie),remember my MGB story? Briefly, after I got my foundry job after HS, in 1973, for a whopping $4.25/hr I might add. Up considerably from my $1.77/hr pump jockey job. Living at home, it required, no, DEMANDED a nicer car. There was a car dealer in Milwaukee that dealt with sports cars, and had a ’71 MGB with hardtop, 19K miles, $1995, OR, a ’69 Jag roadster, this color for, are you sitting down? $2,895,,,I know, but as a youngun’, all I could get was a $2 grand loan( I think the loan guy didn’t want some punk driving a Jag when he had a Buick,, from my old man? Yeah, right). Anyway, Try as I might, I couldn’t get the extra $900 bucks, a lot of money in the ’70s and went with the MG and no regrets. So, yeah, I was THAT close .
Since a Jag today is out of most peoples reach, all we have are our stories. Let’s hear your “Hagwar” story.
Sounds familiar to me Howard. No cash in the bank but needing a reliable, fun car. Local dealer had new ’62 Midget for $1,800, new MGB for $2,800, and a new Cobra for $4,500. If you guess that I wound up with the Midget you’re right. Same limitations that seemed to hit most every young kid in that part of their life.
faced the same situation, ended up buying a 69 e-type that had been wrecked (cosmetic on the nose), for $2,300 … signed up for a $25 auto body class at the local college and used it as my project for the class…worked out great and I learned how to do bodywork..
I arrived in Denver in 1973 on a Thursday, with USAF tech school starting on Monday. The 62 Coupe de Ville I was driving broke its timing chain on Friday. I sold it for $100 to the gas station where it was towed to. Now I had $400 cash in my pocket- all the money I had in the world (remember- no ATMs, credit cards, etc. in those days). Looking in the classified ads, I spotted a Ford Cortina sedan for- you guessed it- $400.00. After hitchhiking over to the seller’s house, I was horrified to see that it was a manual transmission. The seller took me to a nearby parking lot. After a short demonstration, he got out and basically said, “have a nice life.” I jerked and bucked that poor car around in circles until I felt safe to drive in traffic. And thus began my lifelong love of Mk. II Cortinas- I’ve owned four of them. And, yes, I got to school on Monday.
Have only seen one other XKE this color in my life and that one was owned by a female USAF Captain that worked for me in the late ’70s. It also was a ’69. Still not a green fan but this color works on this car.
My lifelong dreams have never included a car in this color. It really would be a dealbreaker for me.
WOW…posting expired and this BF posting is only 3 hours old.
This is the “ugly” style of Jag…. no thanks
?!!
I agree. I’ve never understood why these get so much attention.
110% agree. Bloated Series II E-Type with the hideously bulbous 2+2 roofline.
No this is the short wheelbase coupe, and pictures taken with a horrible fish eye lens – had to look twice to see that it wasn’t a 2+2, what were they thinking…
I have never seen a Jag E-type in this colour, I think I love it. I’ll never own such a car but do have a fish mouth MGB which is going to be repainted after body work. I’m considering this colour.
I have never owned an XKE but have been fortunate to drive several and work on them in my various car dealings over the years. I drove one from Youngstown Ohio to Seattle WA. and another from Denver CO, to Seattle WA.
Both were roadsters and it made for a great road trip. My recollection is not good but I think the money on both cars then was less than 30 K.
i had the opportunity to purchase this exact model in pale yellow with 50K original miles for $17,500 2 YEARS AGO. IT HAD ZERO RUST but needed a lot of little things that were going to add up. Still this has been on my MUST OWN list since I saw one as a little kid in the early 70’s. I just did not remember how small these were, i was thinking corvette size. maybe the outside dimensions are but the inside is not. i’m 5’11” 240 lbs and could not shut the door without the window down, barely got under the wheel and found my size 13’s covered 2 pedals at a time. I left broken hearted knowing this will never be. I still lust after these every time 1 comes up.
It takes quite a photographer to make a 2-passenger E-type look awkward, but this guy did it. A wide-angle lens is not this car’s friend.
I agree with CCFisher that the camera does not do justice to this E Type. There is so much lens distortion that it could even have made Raquel Welch, when she was twenty-five, look ugly. I also totally disagree with TheOldRanger, in that there is no such thing as an ugly E Type. Even the much-maligned 2\+2s are classy when you see them in person, instead of two-dimensionally and through lens distortion.
The colour is called Opalescent (metallic) Willow Green, which is the exact same colour that was used by Jaguar America in 1969 to publicise a beautiful E Type fixed-head coupe in Central Park, with a woman in a miniskirt with boots. I am not surprised that this cat has already sold as it seems to be in very nice original shape and inflation keeps eating at our money sitting in the bank.
I was thinking the same thing. The high camera angle from the rear 3/4 views are also about the worst possible camera angle for this car. It’s almost like they were trying to make it look as bad as possible!
It would be impossible to make this jag look worse than the fool who took these pictures and then post them
Had a 4 year old Charger that the neighbor kid across the street liked and wanted to trade me for his ‘66 E; he said it needed a valve adjustment. I drove it around some then took it to the family mechanic who told me it’d be $300-a lot of money to me at the time. I later called my insurance company who said to the kid with, ahem, several city issued driving awards for speeding it’d be $200 @ month.
Loved it while I had it for all 3 of those days…
My 23 year old son is a HUGE car nut and because of that I watch his taste closely as it is a view into the future of car collecting. The very obvious message he and his generation are sending is that they are not interested in the “chrome cars”. And while there will always be a market for C2 Corvettes, E-Types and various other “vintage cars from a bygone era”, it is the 80’s and 90’s stuff that is going to rule the roost. Everything from Lancia Delta’s to Mitsubishi Pajero EVO’s to all the various forms of Nissan GT-R’s… The new disposable income is headed away from this E-Type and towards more modern, (and arguably more interesting) stuff. Personally I love ALL cars of all era’s and currently own collector cars from the 60’s, 70’s, 80’s and 90’s. They each have their place in my heart but if I were interested in future upside, I am betting on 90’s stuff.
As a young man with my first full time job, I spotted a RHD Lotus Cortina for sale. I had, at the time, a 66 MK1 Cortina GT, which is why I was interested in the LC. I sold the Mk1 quickly and then purchased the LC, although I can’t remember the sell or buy price, but they definitely weren’t high. The old man was a Jag guy and he could work on anything. He warned me about buying the car and pretty much told me I was on my own. Wasn’t long before trouble hit and the engine needed to be rebuilt. It was rebuilt slowly as I bought the parts as I could and Pop rebuilt the engine for me, even though he had told me previously that was I was warned and on my own. The LC was RHD and had the original A frame rear end, not the leaf springs of the imported models. That rear end gave me so much trouble, I finally sold it in 1974 for $1500 so I could buy a new Fiat 128 SC, which rusted out in less than 6 years (and in SF weather!). That 1300 SOHC engine loved the high revs. The sheet metal hated everything. If only…..
And now a nice Mk. 1 Lotus Cortina resides in the $50K-70K (or more) neighborhood. Who would have thought…
On the other hand, I have purchased and then sold a lot of cars (40?) in my lifetime, some new, most of them used, in less than “concours” condition (not to mention some irresistible piles of junk). A number of them were sold at a loss. Plus, lots of parts for them (and sweat equity) to fix them up to varying degrees. Like many on this site, probably, if I added up all of the money spent (and/or wasted) on them, and had it to spend only on one car, I would possibly be able to afford to have a late model Lamborghini sitting in my garage at present. But, like they say- memories: “priceless”.
Was living in Satellite Beach in the early sixties. Dad worked in the Titan missile program. The next door neighbor was a pilot at Patrick Air Force base and drove a beautiful (IIRC) powder blue Jag. One day he showed up with this beautiful girl and me and my brothers and sisters (aged 6,5,4 and 2) were giggling and taunting “they’re lovers, they’re lovers!”. Remember these were the days when girls had cooties.
Sometimes I wonder whatever happened to those two, and the car.
“I was cruisin’ in my Sting Ray late one night, when a XKE pulled up on the right”,,coolest Jaguar song EVER!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aPJCE69kgwE
Ghastly color on a lovely car.
Back in 1973 my I0 year old self got got off the school bus and stared in awe at the car our neighbor had for sale. I don’t remember the year but it was a XKE roadster. A gorgeous pale yellow/tan interior color combo, I was infatuated with it from the second I saw it. My dad and a family friend were driving home from work and saw the car and apparently were laughing. They knew I would be looking it over as I was a bigger gearhead than them (They were in my dads buddies 70 Charger and my dad had a 66 GTO) My dad came over and was talking with the neighbor about it. He never drove it because no one could get it running right and he was tired of the hassle. We never even knew he had it and we had been neighbors for four or five years.
This is the car that turned me of of Jaguar! By the way, the disc brakes are beside the rear diff and not on “all four corners”.