Hi folks, new to the forum and to Jaguars although I do own a lot of old metal of both the two- and four-wheeled variety.
Buying an E-Type series 1.5 off a good old friend of mine who’s downsizing. He provided the following numbers, but I’m having trouble making sense of them. Anyone offer thoughts on the following?
CAR…# 1E34972
BODY #4E26752
ENGINE#7E15473-9
GEAR BOX # EE2024
Thanks in advance.
Those are the numbers from the data plate:
Off the top of my head…
Car No is what is usually used to title the vehicle (like a VIN on modern cars). It is stamped on the top of the ‘picture frame’:
Body No may be on a tag somewhere on the body - I know where it is on a S2 but not sure about an S1½.
Engine number is stamped on the engine and possibly the flywheel.
Gear Box number is stamped in 2 places on the gear box:
Here is the entry on XKEData.com:
Seem to look like proper number formats to me for a LHD 1.5 FHC. My car was built Feb 19 1968 per the Heritage Certificate and matches numbers for
Car 1E35152
Body 4E26959
Engine 7E16125-9
gear box EE2582
Your numbers all look earlier than mine.
1E34972 does appear on XKE data but I guess would take a Heritage certificate to say if all numbers match how it left Coventry
CAR No. 1E34972 tells you that this is a Left-Hand-Drive Series 1 4.2 litre Fixed Head Coupe, and the size-aspect of the number tells your car was made in late December 1967.
Numbering started at 1E30001, so yours is the 4972nd made and the serial 34972 will tell you a lot of detail of the build of your particular car, including it will have been built to USA 1968 Model-Year specifications, and thus the ‘unofficial’ terminology Series 1-1/2.
ENGINE No. 7E15473-9 tells you it is a Series 1 E-type 4.2 litre Engine original to either a FHC or an OTS (but not a 2+2), and can be from a LHD or a RHD car, but in conjunction with your CAR No, we know it will be built to USA 1968 Model Year specification, that uniquely has twin-Stromberg emissions-control carburetters (and not triple SU carburetters if it was a new car in any other world market). The -9 suffix on Engine Number tells you car has 9:1 compression-ratio pistons fitted.
BODY No. 4E26752 tells you it is a Series 1 4.2 FHC body with numbering starting at 4E20001, so yours is the 6752nd made.
GEARBOX No. EE2024 tells you it is a Series 1 4.2 all-synchro gearbox, with the first E telling you it is what is now called a close-ratio gearbox (was standard originally), but later gearboxes were wider ratio as designated by first-letter K.
The second E tells you it has the later wider-helix-angle cut gears for quieter running (but absorb a little more power), as opposed to the earlier shallow-helix gears designated letter J.
Most Series 1 4.2 E-types have EJ prefix gearboxes, with the EE prefix as per yours being short lived in late 1967/early 1968, before the revised KE gearbox was introduced from March 1968 onwards.
Hope that helps!
Roger
Email: mailto:rogerpayne@bigblue.net.au rogerpayne@bigblue.net.au
