2017-10-13 14:17:15 | Harry Stevens writes:

An article on the history and restoration of the car was published in the Lifestyle section of the Scottish Daily Record on 24 March 2017. Article below.
www.dailyrecord.co.uk/lifestyle/motoring/jaguar-hunt-e-type-history-10092235

'A gentleman Jaguar owner has launched a plea to help him track down the history of his E Type. The car has chassis number 16 and is believed to have been displayed at the Scottish Motor Show in the Kelvin Hall, Glasgow in November 1961.

Following that, records supplied by Jaguar Heritage suggest the car was sold to E Gardner in Barrhead, Renfrewshire, but the registration was not recorded. Now Paul Hanson of Speedmaster Cars, who specialise in historic cars, has pledged to try and find previous owners and discover the history behind this beautiful motor.

He said ''All we have is an empty file at the moment and the owner is very keen to find out the history of this Jag. It was chassis 16 so it was one of the first E Types to come off the production line and our enquiries have so far led us to Scotland. We know there was an engineering company in Barrhead called Gardners and we wonder if perhaps it was someone from this company who originally owned this car.''

Chassis 16 is a Jaguar series 1 car with enclosed headlamps and was restored by specialists CMC of Bridgnorth who also rebuilt chassis 15, which they traced back to Kelvin Hall through various internal numbers. Sadly they could not do the same for chassis 16 which had been meddled with and nothing is known about it before it was found 11 years ago in Cornwall.

Today it carries registration 253UYH, a generic registration of the time but given it is chassis 16, it should probably carry the letters YSG and a number close to 547, which chassis 15 owns. The mystery car came off the production line on 16 October 1961. It is opalescent silver blue with a grey interior. The original dealer who sold the car was Ian M K Fair in Glasgow.'

2017-10-18 06:38:19 | Terry Forrest writes:

I bought this car in March 1976 from Les Miller , a car enthusiast and dealer in Neutral Bay , a suburb of Sydney. I have a distant memory that it was imported by him . The log book with the car spelt out its Scottish history and it had travelled about 30000 miles . It was still in its original paint and the spare tyre was an unused whitewall , which led to speculation in Jag circles here that it was a motor show car . I never saw any evidence to back this up . It was very attractive in opalescent silver blue with chrome wire wheels and the original grey leather interior was still in lovely condition . During my ownership I ran it into the back of a Chrysler Valiant while exiting a car wash . My fault . The early "louvre insert" bonnet was damaged but repairable .Otherwise it was undamaged although rust was beginning to poke through in the door tops . I was a uni student at the time and barely had the money to run the Jag , let alone repair it . I sold it in a damaged state to two brothers from Mt Eliza - I believe their surname was Stuart or Stewart. . I only saw it once more -the bonnet had been replaced with a later normal production bonnet , the original carpet had given way to aquamarine shag pile and the lovely but vastly uncomfortable seats had been replaced with 4.2 seats . It was still a fundamentally sound and quite original car nevertheless. I am glad it survived . I did little to assist in this process . Cheers Terry Forrest

2020-04-24 08:22:01 | Jeremy Clements writes:

Terry Forrest, as I'm today researching the bonnet louvers on my E-Type 860021 (Opalescent Silver Blue, Grey Interior), I read your story. You are talking about my car, which I bought from the Stewart brothers (Glen & Mal) back in 2006.

After a mechanical restoration, I've driven it sparingly for the last 14 years. Last month she went in to begin the restoration process, and to return her to perfect Series1 specification as per the JDHT Certificate. The interior (currently in Series 2 Dark Blue with later sunken floors) will be returned to the correct Series1 seats along with the flat floor.

What I am desperately finding it difficult to find out is whether or not this car originally had external bonnet latches.

Terry Forrest, I'd very much to have a chat sometime if you are willing, about this car. Particularly whether you have any photos of her from your ownership, and whether you remember if it had external bonnet latches?