Hi all, I signed up on this site to kindly ask you for your help identifying my dad’s old Jaguar. Please take a glance at the photos and if they allow you to deduce the type and model No., please let me know as much as you can about the car.
My dad’s 80th birthday is on the distant horizon, and we wanted to organise a drive in something as close as possible to the favourite car he ever owned - from time to time, he’ll start talking about it again, and about what a wonderful car it was.
We were even thinking of the whole family banding together to try to buy him a roadworthy one that is as similar as possible. (If the whole family chips in as much as they can, provided we all still have our jobs when he reaches 80 in two and a half years’ time, we could probably afford somewhere along the lines of 8,000 GBP / 10,000€.)
So thanks for taking the time, and here’s one of the pics (it seems I can only upload one):
Welcome - that should be a Mark 1 (with the doors wrapped around the windows-others will know much more-3.4 litre?), but if it’s British can‘t you people look up the license plates and find when the car was last seen?
Good luck! Very nice of you.
Thanks for that incredibly fast reply, David!!!
I tried an online number-plate-looker-upper-site, but it couldn’t find anything, though since I don’t live in the UK like my dad used to, maybe there’s a tried-and-tested way of finding cars over their number plates that I simply don’t know about.
My dad lives in Switzerland, I currently in Germany.
I hadn’t seen that the number plate on the last picture is different - it could be the same car though (?), because I believe he took the car to Germany when he was stationed there - maybe he registered it there.
Oh - I live near Stuttgart!
Neither plate is German. The last picture has too many mainland cars to have been made in Britain, the Mercedes, the Fiats and the beetle… and is that a goggomobil in the left corner?
Edit: Yes… and since that’s probably not making the alps this must have been taken in Germany
I live much further up north - between Berlin and Leipzig.
Well spotted - the form of the chrome certainly seems to fit.
Apropos chrome: I was just trying to figure out if the three chrome lines on the bonnet on the third photo are missing on the first (proving they are actually two different cars) or just hard to see due to the angle and poor photo quality…
I think it’s there, but I‘m at the end of my wisdom.
Regarding the Mk 1, you might find one (or closely related a Mk 2/250, S-Type, 240/340) for rent if you don’t want to buy. 10000 might be realistic, but definitely not for a good example. I don’t know the market, just have an eye out. Unless you have a workshop and time you should always get a good, driving example… small things add up. I‘m getting an old XJ on the road and it just takes time and many parts. But I do enjoy it very much.
if it turns out to be a MK1, that may work slightly in the OP favor in that they are usually much lower in price than MK2,
it may be possible to find one in fairly original condition that is still maintained and road worthy for around that price, probably not many people restore MK1, as restoration costs are similar to more desirable models
It’s a MK1 for sure and same car on different plates, the ones ending with a ”C” are later, ca 1965.
Look at the mirrors and aerial (antenna) 100% the same, the chrome is brighter and more prominent in that last photo only due to lighting, so it reflects more light, the same chrome finishers are present in the other photos too, just not so brightly lit.
The wider grille that this mk1 is having was introduced when the 3,4l arrived. It narrows it down to 1957-1959. If it is a 2,4 or 3,4 is only reviled from the outside by the exhaust pipe (single on 2,4 and twin on 3,4) and a possible 3,4 script on the boot lid. I believe it would be cheaper and easier to find a decent mk2 2,4 instead of a mk1. At least around here, which in my case is Sweden.
Yes it’s definitely a MK1. Not a MK2 which had different window frames, cut away rear wheel covers and separate side light pods on the tops of the front wings.
The number plate doesn’t look like a UK plate. It has the wrong shape digits and wrong number sequence.
There’s plenty of MK2 cars for sale here in UK and prices seem to be falling a bit. 2.4 models look identical to the 3.4 and 3.8, but a hell of a lot cheaper. The spares situation is also very good, with just about all parts available, at a price.
15000 pounds should buy a decent 2.4. Be prepared for some big maintenance bills. If you can’t do the work yourself, don’t bother as it will never be on the road.
The engines have a lot of niggling faults and one job leads to another.
On mine, last year, what I thought was a minor valve problem lead to a complete engine rebuild… Took me 6 months!
Was you dad in army in West Germany? Because wikipedia says: " From 1963 until around 1990, in West Germany, private vehicles owned by members of British Forces Germany and their families were issued registration numbers in a unique format (initially two letters followed by three digits plus a “B” suffix, e.g. RH 249 B"
That would explain AK 970 B and another plate after he was not anymore there.
Köpi
As your dad lives in Switzerland, you could contact Jaguar Drivers’ Club of Switzerland, maybe they have a member who owns Mk1 and could give your dad a ride on his birthday. Or rent a car for a day. Or sell it!
The position of the fog lights and the shape of the turn indicators mean it is definitely a MK1. It appears to have full rear wheel covers, which makes it a 2.4.
That looks like a UK plate to me, but the longer one does not. But it’s not German, Dutch, French nor Austrian either, so where is it from?
Cheers!
Ps. Ok the answer to the odd reg plate was already there, thanks Köpi! ” From 1963 until around 1990, in West Germany, private vehicles owned by members of British Forces Germany and their families were issued registration numbers in a unique format (initially two letters followed by three digits plus a “B” suffix, e.g. RH 249 B "
That would explain AK 970 B and another plate after he was not anymore there.”
