A 1961 Jaguar E-type that first turned heads at the Scottish Motor Show has been brought back to life by marque specialist Classic Motor Cars.
The car was the 15th right-hand-drive, fixed-head-coupé to leave the production line in 1961 and was put on display at Glasgow’s Kelvin Hall for that year’s Scottish Motor Show. After its flirtation with fame it disappeared into private ownership, before eventually being discovered by CMC lying in a garden in Cernay, France three years ago.
Suffering from its time outdoors, the E-type required a complete rebuild, which is estimated to have taken just shy of 3000 hours. As much of the original car as possible was saved during the restoration.
“We found chassis 15 in Cernay, a French town close to the border with Germany,” said managing director Nick Goldthorp. “It had been owned by the same person since 1976, who dismantled it some 20 years ago – that is as far as he got.”
“The car was underneath some covers in the garden, very rusty and corroded – there was even a bird’s nest in the rear quarter panel! We carried out a full nut-and-bolt restoration, which proved to be quite a challenge due to the sorry state in which it was found.”
