E-type gurus, opinions please

did not affect acceleration much at all. any trade off was well worth it. the 3.08 made for long 1st and 2nd gear driving. which is very nice around town. with the 3.54 diif, i was always quickly in 3rd even in town.
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And that's what an E is really really good for - cruising around town. I must admit, I don't have the Euro rear, but even with my standard 3.54, cruising in 1 or 2 is nice and relaxed.

At speed, of course you need to upshift, but I love loping around the roads in my area, which are dotted with really beautiful, picturesque horse farms, left arm out the window...

 

I onced owned a mint puke green 1964 E-type coupe. The car did not handle well, and it needed 2 of everything, but it was an awesome car and got lots of attention and sounded awesome.

I got my fastest ever speeding ticket in it (140mph) and once drove off in it before locking the hood in and it just lifted up and the front steel bumper scraped. Yikes!

 

How much more of a premium is paid for a roadster over a coupe? %tage wise.

 

Hard to say from the pics, but looks like a decent interior - although I don't think they made a Carmen Red with a biscuit interior (I could be wrong, but pretty sure all Carmen Red had black interior), so at some point I am guessing that was replaced.

Ball joints need to be replaced. Check the hoses on everything - they tend to deteriorate. The underbody looks like it needs work, but that's something many an E-Type suffers from. You will want to look under the panel in the rear hatch, water pools where the spare is. Also, water tends to pool right behind the door, so check the floors - VERY common.

In all, I'd put this car in similar shape as my car. His reserve may be $30-35K, so that's what I think it would take to win it.

 

I run a 3.54 diff in my car,it did have a 3.08.
In todays world i like the lower diff ratio ie speeding laws in Australia.

 

Jaguar junk is very, very expensive to fix. Why are all the engine frame rails and many other areas painted black? They should be body color and loads of folks just spray the crap out of this area to make it look better trying to cover problems. These cars rust if you say the word rain, so you really want to find a rock solid body shell, as this would present the most expensive and time consuming repairs. Never rush buying one of these cars especially at what they are selling for today.

 

The interior looks like it's been recovered, paint might not be original color (black firewall and subframe up front). Electric fan isn't stock, the cooling system bleed hose is missing and blocked off (should connect to the radiator). I don't think the alternator is original. No good picture of the heater so it's impossible to know what the trouble is. It may have been bypassed because the core leaks. last time I checked they weren't available. It's also possible that the heater tubes behind the dashboard are rotted out (you have to take a lot apart to change them out).

Looks like an okay car but I'd like to hear it run, drive it and see underneath before I buy it.

If it checked out and nothing else was wrong it could be worth $25 - 30K. They're expensive cars to fix, if the engine's sick, the gearbox needs synchros and the rear end needs to come apart (complicated IRS unit with inboard brakes) you could easily spend $20K to make a good car out of it. If it has rust (that tubular chrome-moly subframe in the front is known to rust through as well as the typical places that cars rot) you might not be able to shovel money fast enough. The good news is that virtually the entire car is available in reproduction parts although quality varies and none of it is cheap.

A lot depends on your tolerance level for problems.

 

Holy crap have prices tanked on E-types. I sold mine for like $60k or so 25 years ago! They sold at a real premium in those days.

 

Let's be fair - they can be expensive to fix, but that depends on the problem. There are plenty of "generic" components that can be substituted to offset cost of more expensive OEM parts.

Yes, engine work IS expensive. As is the common leaking crank rope seal (ask me how I know - I have that issue!). Also, if you need the clutch done - it's engine out. However, I think $25K is too low - have you seen the crap that's sold for that? This is definitely worth $30K - maybe not much more.

I also note that the gear in the interior isn't stock - points off for that.

 

Tanked?

There may have been a general drop across all cars (you are talking 25 years ago), but the E-Type has been one of the cars that has bucked the trends.

I believe Keith Martin has noted this in one of his posts. The FHC is a laggard, but OTS command pretty good money considering the relative number produced.

 

Don't worry, I'm talking about an estimate of what I might pay for that car not yours.

It has some obvious issues that justifiably affect the selling price. I'm assuming there are at least a few typical problems that we can't see in the pictures as well. $25K is still a lot of money for an old, somewhat tired car with non-original paint and interior. If it was carefully detailed and presented well it could maybe bring a lot more because an unsophisticated buyer would be wowed by the bling. I look right past the paint job and go for the warts, they're usually are some hiding somewhere.

I see that car as a good candidate for a restoration. To avoid being way upside down after that you need to pay as little as possible now.

 

I looked and drove a load of cars over 8 months before I found the car I wanted and wound up spending more because for the money the car was far superior to the others. It makes sense to look at as many cars in different states of condition and drive them to fully understand what your money will get you in the current market. There are alot of Jaguars for sale at any given time, so again, don't be in any rush - of course a great car could be for sale and with lots of experience you will know it when you see it.

You can probably get a fairly recent fully restored Series 1 Coupe for under 70K, so 30K for a car which needs loads of work is no bargain IMO, unless you are going to restore it yourself. As 2NA has stated there are expensive areas if they need attention.

rdefabri, from the pics you have posted of your car it looks lightyears ahead of the one pictured on the previous page.

 

2NA and dwhite make some good points - where there is smoke, there is fire. If it looks a little scruffy, there's probably some hidden issues.

On my E - I had a sublime mechanic. Not only is he a legend, he's cheap! So what I ended up paying to have mine worked on was peanuts compared to what you might otherwise pay.

FWIW.

 

I bought my 66 FHC 25 years ago for a fourth of what you sold yours for.

 

I bought my 66 FHC 6 years ago for about that same price as you

 

Less than $15K? They have seen some serious ups and downs in price over the years.

 

Right around $18K. I bought mine from a guy that owned about 15 cars, and 3 E-Types - but the E-Types were all 2+2, except the one I purchased.

He was a big man, had hip surgery. He simply couldn't get in and out of the FHC. He bought it at an estate sale, and it was scruffy.

I nearly sold it, but Terry Lippincott did some magic on the car, and with everything (car+work), it came to about $27K.

 

Helluva deal. Mine was a one owner unmolested car that had spent its entire life on North Texas after having been picked up by the original owner at the Port of Houston. I got it due to a divorce and the need to fund college for a kid.

 

For those of you searching for E-types, JAguar Clubs North America is hosting the XKExperience in Richmond, Va March 26-27 this year to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the E-type.

 

Never fails - I always seem to be travelling for work when these things come up...maybe I'll take the week off an go!

 

Where having a birthday.
diff final ratio in goes the 3.54 out goes the 3.07
uprating to adjustable alloy shockers.
happy with
torsion bars .0782 inch
sway bar front .0943inch rear bar 18 mm
HP plenty.
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