Jaguar E-type: Michael Buerk and his three-decade love affair

By Martin Buckley

| 13 Dec 2024

Classic & Sports Car – Jaguar E-type: Michael Buerk and his three-decade love affair

Journalist, newsreader and celebrated BBC foreign correspondent Michael Buerk was a 15-year-old Brummie only just into long trousers (and discovering the delights of the James Bond books) when the Jaguar E-type was launched in 1961.

“Growing up in Solihull, near the Rover factory, every car was black,” he recalls.

“You’d look through a car’s window to see if the speedometer went above 60mph, in which case it was extremely exotic.

“There were no foreign cars really, although you would see the odd Mercedes-Benz.

“Then, in the middle of all this, comes the E-type. I just fell in love with the whole idea of it.”

Broadcaster Michael Buerk reflects on more than three decades with his beloved Jaguar E-type S1 3.8 fixed-head coupé

Although it was not destined to be the car of choice for the cinematic 007 – “It was a shame they didn’t go with the Bentley, rather than that effeminate Aston Martin” – the cultural impact of the Jaguar E-type as a symbol of speed, glamour and British high technology was not lost on the young Michael in a world where everyone from the fleetingly famous DJ Simon Dee (in the opening credits of his Dee Time talk show) to the ‘Milk Tray Man’ was availing themselves of what was then considered to be the world’s most desirable sports car.

Three decades later, as one of the best-known faces (and voices) in British television newscasting – famed for his spare and powerful reporting of the dying embers of the apartheid regime in South Africa – Michael was finally in a position to realise his E-type ambitions with the fully restored, aluminium-dash 1962 fixed-head coupé pictured here.

“It doesn’t have a bad angle, although I am struck now by how narrow it appears compared to modern cars”

“We came back from South Africa and picked up life here,” says the trim, 78-year-old former news anchorman, “and I became a presenter, which was a bit safer.

“At about the same time the classic car price bubble burst, so I got this for £25,000 – which was a good deal.”

It certainly was: two years earlier, fresh from a classic car magazine cover appearance and a Mill Lane Engineering restoration, AJB 396A had been valued at £65,000.

“It’s a car for posing in really,” says Michael, admiring the play of light on a shape that is the most instantly recognisable of all Jaguar profiles.

A look inside the Jaguar E-type’s pristine cockpit

“It doesn’t have a bad angle, although I’m struck now by how narrow it appears, when compared with modern cars,” he continues.

“Looking at it from the back it’s almost like a toy.

“From the front they didn’t look as good without the faired-in lamps, but you probably got better headlights on the S2.

“The ones on this are like having someone walking in front of you with a candle.”

Michael Buerk’s Jaguar E-type gets limited use, but remains much loved

Michael comes from a family of engineers and has always been keen on sports cars: “My grandfather ran a gear-making company and my uncle worked for Armstrong Siddeley; my great-grandfather was a leading academic specialising in internal combustion engines.

“I suppose some of that filtered through to me.”

His car-ownership CV includes a Morgan Plus 8, too.

“I did love my Morgan,” Michael smiles, “although you needed to have a little breather every 20 miles or so to recover from the hard ride.”

The Jaguar E-type S1 3.8 coupé has faired-in headlamps, unlike later models

It appears that Morgans were in the blood: “My uncle, who lived with us, had a 4/4 that I can remember my mother driving.”

Numbered among the Buerk family’s more everyday cars have been a Saab 96, a Volvo P1800 – that had to go when his identical twin sons arrived, 50 years ago – a Jaguar XJ40, the inevitable Volvo estate and a Mercedes-Benz SLK: “That was great, although really a bit of a hairdresser’s car.

“But I had it for 10 years and sold it for what I paid for it.”

Replacing a worn-out cam-follower guide on the Jaguar E-type turned into a much larger job

Michael’s first car was a Mini: “I bought it new with the money I inherited when my mother died.

“My subsequent Austin-Healey Sprite I adored, it was fantastic, but it fell to pieces.

“I remember driving it up the M6 when I was about 21 and working for the Daily Mail in Manchester, with my girlfriend Christine holding the hood down all the way because the retaining clips had broken.”

Michael Buerk is still in awe of the Jaguar E-type’s timeless shape

Having given up on joining the Royal Air Force due to eyesight issues, Michael turned to journalism: his writing is as respected as his presenting skills, and he came up through the ranks of local papers in Bromsgrove and South Wales.

The likes of Kate Adie and Sue Lawley were his friends and work contemporaries: he shared a house in Bristol with the latter in her pre-Nationwide days.

Michael’s BBC career started on local radio in Bristol in 1970, the year he married Christine (after her sterling work in holding down the Sprite’s flapping soft-top).

The Jaguar E-type’s twin-exit exhaust

“Then I got a job with the BBC as a network TV news presenter,” he continues, “and we were issued with Ford Escorts.

“In those days they had two-way radios, so it felt a bit like being James Bond.

“You also got a credit card and a ‘functional clothing allowance’ from Manchester – a sort of anorak.”

For a “ghastly” year Michael was the BBC’s industrial correspondent, covering the various disputes at British Leyland’s Longbridge plant: “It was endless; really depressing. I only did it because it paid more.”

“I used to drive it into BBC Television Centre occasionally when I was doing the news. I was a little bit worried in the summer in a traffic jam, but it was usually okay”

Being an international reporter proved to be more fun, and as energy correspondent Michael covered the stories concerned with North Sea oil and OPEC (the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries): “I went to some amazing places, such as Alaska, Venezuela and the Middle East.

“We lived in Edinburgh, which was a nice place. The kids were young, and most nights I got home in time for their bedtime.”

Michael served as the BBC’s South African correspondent from 1983-’87.

His ’84 reporting on the Ethiopian famine inspired the Band Aid charity single Do They Know It’s Christmas.

This Jaguar E-type’s wire wheels

“I had a VW Kombi to drive the family around on long journeys,” he recalls.

“It was about that time I nearly got my first E-type, albeit through extremely unfortunate circumstances: we were down in Cape Town at a squatter camp and George, my cameraman, was killed.

“Back home he’d owned an S1½ E-type, but I couldn’t think of a tasteful way of putting in an offer.”

Although he semi-retired in 2002, Michael is still busy doing the Moral Maze on Radio 4 (now in its 34th year), various bits of freelance and voice-over work.

The Jaguar E-type’s elegant front end

He was an unlikely I’m a Celebrity… contestant, although he takes himself nothing like as seriously as his heavyweight image as a traditional BBC broadcaster might suggest.

Schooled in the robust newsrooms of the 1970s and ’80s, he is not shy of letting his views be known.

“I did a Channel 4 documentary about pensions, looking at alternative investments to see you through to your old age,” he recalls.

“We thought classic cars would look good and went to a place in Essex where they provided us with a 1962 Ferrari worth £1.5m.”

This S1 E-type received a mechanical refresh from an ex-Jaguar Heritage specialist

“I was sitting in the car doing the ‘only time will tell…’ piece to camera, with a young man in the back with a fire extinguisher,” he continues.

“Suddenly fumes – and then flames – appeared from under the dashboard.

“I pulled into a ditch and ran, but then the lad made the mistake of opening the bonnet, and the fire erupted.

“I was almost disappointed when the cameraman, instead of filming this drama, put out the fire with mineral water.

“Mineral water? It just shows you how camera crews have changed – in the old days they’d only have had a bottle of whisky on them!”

Michael Buerk’s Jaguar E-type is now driving as well as ever

Meanwhile, the blue E-type was lurking in the garage, still much loved but little used: “I only took it out to stop the tyres from going square.

“I used to drive it into BBC Television Centre occasionally when I was doing the news.

“I was a little bit worried in the summer in a traffic jam, but it was usually okay.”

When the engine developed a top-end noise, Michael sought help from former Jaguar Heritage employee Sam Morton.

‘“It’s a car for posing in really,” says Michael, admiring the play of light on his Jaguar E-type’

Having been heavily involved with the Continuation Lightweight E-types, the 37-year-old had recently gone freelance and was working out of premises on his father’s farm in Warwickshire as Sam Morton Engineering.

The noise turned out to be a cam-follower guide, which meant removal of the head.

In the end, the whole engine was taken out to change the clutch, which in turn resulted in the refurbishment of the engine bay and spaceframe; naturally, it would have been rude not to go through the front suspension while all of that lot was apart.

Ditto the famously complicated independent rear suspension, whose ‘cage’-type design means that even relatively small jobs necessitate its removal and dismantling.

This aluminium-dashboard Jaguar E-type’s cabin is very original

During a road test the rear end had proved noisy, so various leaky seals and tired bearings were replaced.

Meanwhile, attention turned to the body, which was superficially – at least to Michael’s eyes – still quite smart: “It wasn’t rusty – after all, it hadn’t been anywhere – but the paint was crazing in places.”

Michael’s Jaguar E-type is an interesting case study of how standards of restoration have evolved over the past 27 years, bearing in mind that AJB 396A was less than three decades old when Mill Lane Engineering restored it at the end of the ’80s.

This Jaguar E-type’s original Motorola radio is still fitted – and it even works

The bodywork was tackled by Paul Taylor, formerly of E-type specialist Clayton Classics, who has been working for himself since 2014.

The 49-year-old is on a mission to bring some of the standards legally required in the modern-car crash-repair world into the realm of restoration, along with the generally improved technology in terms of corrosion-inhibiting filler applications that make some purists bristle.

Although it was by no means terrible, Paul felt there was more old-style, moisture-trapping filler in AJB’s flanks than there should have been; on the other hand, the length of Michael’s ownership – and the E-type’s relative lack of use over the past three decades – meant, by default, it had remained relatively unmolested.

The Jaguar E-type fixed-head coupé’s tapered rear

In other words, it had been restored just the once, not twice or three times in the same period like most of its ilk.

Michael slips behind the wheel easily.

“It’s not tricky to drive at all,” he says, effortlessly negotiating the long-throw, straight-cut first gear.

“I like the dashboard and the driving position, and, as long as you pause in neutral, the Moss gearbox is no problem.”

Inside, much of the detail trim is original, whereas most Series 1 Jaguar E-types have now had complete retrims, losing various nuances of the Browns Lane factory finish in the process.

Michael now plans to use his Jaguar E-type more often

The original Motorola radio is still fitted, too: “You have to wait for it to warm up. I keep thinking it will pick up something like Round the Horne.”

After three years, Michael now has his Jaguar E-type back, and feels content that he has enjoyed a painless, almost pleasurable brush with the gentlemanly end of the restoration industry.

But he also now quietly wonders what he is going to do with his beautifully refurbished classic car: “If I get back into a situation where I just take it out for the sake of taking it out, then it gets a bit silly.

“I don’t just want to keep it as an investment, I want to keep it going.”

Although Michael Buerk realised his Jaguar E-type dream three decades ago, he’s not ready to let go of it just yet

“Yes, I really ought to use it more,” he adds. “I’m glad I still have it, but, sooner or later, I suppose I will have to sell it.”

Given that the Buerks don’t need the garage space or (presumably) the money the car might realise, it is hard see to anything other than ill health parting him from it any time soon.

Can you imagine a car being introduced in 2024 that would have such a profound effect on enthusiasts old and young as the Jaguar E-type did back in 1961?

Six decades on, Michael is just as in love with shape – and the idea – as he was as an awestruck schoolboy.

Images: Max Edleston

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