Rod
Your E-Type is a 71 – one of THE earliest I have ever seen. BRAVO.
The magazine ad shows a US-style 71 or 72.
Thanx for posting the photos, You KNOW I am a visual kind if guy.
The photo of your car has the 5-MPH impact bumpers introduced with Jag 1S21029. I would posit that a PO transplanted a 73 or 74 bonnet onto your car. Nothing wrong with that - lots of owners did that to keep their car looking new-er. I have even heard of owners removing the split rear window from a 63 Vette to make it look like a 64.
That is an interesting theory about bonnet replacement, but I see no sign of any past collision damage, and the original paint on both bonnet and body matches perfectly. Howver, anything is possible. I bought the car locally in about 1984, so the car was 13 years old and who knows what had happened before. But the prior owner was not the kind of guy who would swap bonnets for the fun of it. In other words, he seemed fairly sane.
The magazine ad is clearly a 1971, since they were introducing the brand new V-12 and Opus ignition system if you read the print below the photo. I had never noticed the overriders on my car did not match the picture until I got it out to show you. Is my overrider style one that was in between the type in the ad and the 74 big black uglies?
Another theory (admittedly pure speculation) is that at the start of the Series III production, some of the new parts could have been late coming from suppliers and they slapped on anything that would work, including any overriders that were in the R&D department. I bet when I get into it I will find a few things that were changed early in the S3 production. That mystery is similar to, but not quite as interesting as, the story of how the Jaguar dealership came to install a 1971 engine in my 1974 OTS with restamped engine numbers. My guess is that the dealership or the Jaguar U.S. parts warehouse had a replacement 1971 V-12 on hand and did not use it until my PO blew up the engine in my 1974. That one gave me fits when I started on the engine build and found that water pump, oil pressure sender, gulp valve plumbing, etc., did not match the parts book for a 1974.
I checked the past 71 auctions in BAT and did not see another one with bumpers like mine.
The short answer is “I don’t know.” I tried to look but I am not even how to check and am not sure what I am looking for. I have not even started on the bonnet of the 1974. But do these photos on the 1971 just taken provide any clues?
Hi Rod,
Indeed! That long cylinder in the top center of your first photo is the “shock absorber thingie” of which I previously spoke. The back end of that cylinder is not visible in your photo, but it should have a flat plate on it that comes close to making contact with the front face of your picture frame when the bonnet is shut. I stand to be corrected, but this set-up seems indicative of a 1973 bonnet. Others more knowledgeable will hopefully chime in…
All the best,
Jay
Yes, the cylinder has a flat rubber plug at the end, so there seems little doubt that somehow a 1973 bonnet made it onto the 1971 car at some point prior to 1985, likely being a less expensive option than fixing some damage on the old one. When I was crawling under the car last evening, I did note that the bottom member of the picture frame does have a decent sized dent on the lower flange that I had attributed to careless jacking, but that could be a remnant of a long-ago accident. It was the 1970’s in Ann Arbor, Michigan, so maybe there was an incident going home from the annual Ann Arbor “hash bash.”
Actually finding out that yet another of my cars has been modified in some strange way seems oddly appropriate, given the lack of “normality” in their owner.
Hi Rod,
The dented flanges on the bottom of the picture frame are quite common, and they are typically caused by jacking from that point. Check the archives, and you will see numerous references to hardwood slats that many owners have built into those flanges to facilitate jacking without damage. Even the “usuals” supply aftermarket wood for just this purpose. Be glad nobody used the lower radiator support to jack the car up!
All the best,
Jay
