1970 Jaguar E Type S2 2+2

‘OCK 350H’ is a left-hand-drive Jaguar E Type S2 with 2+2 seating that the seller bought it from us in February 2021. Since owning it he’s covered fewer than 2,000 miles, albeit with most of them being accrued driving to Le Mans and back.

Because creating a fast-road E Type to blast down to Classic Le Mans was the whole point of this project: “I wanted to do with this E Type what Frontline do with MGBs”, he laughed. “So, I’m not worried about the odd mark on the paint because who wants to worry about a £30,000-paint job when you’re flying along a gravel-strewn road in rural France?”

We’ll go into the full-spec later but for now you need to know just two things: that it’ll lay two black lines on the road changing from third to fourth, and that he estimates that the suspension alone set him back £25,000.
 

We understand the E Type was resprayed in the United States not long before coming here, with the previous owner spending another thousand pounds or so on minor improvements.

So, the fact it looks as good as it does isn’t a surprise – but, as we all know, beauty of more than skin-deep so we need to probe beneath the glossy (and it is VERY glossy) red paintwork to establish what lies below.

And it’s nothing but good news there too with decent shut-lines on the bonnet and boot thanks to nicely aligned panels.

The smaller stuff, like the louvres on the bonnet, are all good too and the E Type wears its years so lightly you could take it out in any company and draw nothing but admiring glances.

It helps, of course, that it sits on a set of refurbished wire wheels. Very shiny and free of rust, pitting, and tarnishing, they also benefit from being fitted with four matching 185R15 Blockley period-authentic tyres.

We will never get tired of telling you that experience shows that matching high-quality tyres are an infallible sign of a caring and mechanically sympathetic owner who is prepared to spend the appropriate amount in maintaining their car properly.

As for flaws, our man crawled over it with a magnifying glass and identified the following: there are scuff marks on the front bumpers and overrider, as well as stonechips around the grille, a fitting that also appears to be slightly distorted.

The rest of the chromework is good, although the trim around the offside lamp lens is loose and the mirror stems are lightly pitted.

Moving on to the paintwork, there are minor paint defects on the nearside front wing by way of bubbling, orange peel, and stonechips. The paint has also cracked around the offside headlight, and there is evidence of localised repairs to the same panel below the chrome trim as well as to the nearside rear wing.

The paint is also damaged around bonnet shut, with more scratches, flaking paint and rust being present around the door shuts and sills.

Finally, the doors are slightly misaligned, which might be due to the hinges, which need attention.

This might seem like a damning assessment, but our chap’s final assessment is “overall this is a very tidy example, and while it does show signs of age the exterior of the car is in a decent condition.”
 

It gets even better inside because the retrimmed black hide interior looks terrific, blending in very nicely with the original parts that were good enough to be reused: “I’ve never been a fan of pleather, so all of that is proper leather now.”

Other new stuff included carpets and door cards, replacing the vulnerable the dashboard top, and much more. Perhaps the quality of what he’s commissioned over the years can be best  demonstrated by looking at the bill for the latest work, which comprised only a few modest bits and bobs, including new seatbelts, door pulls, speaker covers, and a radio console.

That doesn’t sound much for £3,695, does it?

But the result is perfectly-judged and not so overly restored as to have lost its romance and charm.

Because the rest of the cockpit is every bit as good including the beautiful three-spoke, wood-rimmed steering wheel that sits in front of good Smiths instrumentation and the E Type’s iconic row of switches.

The headlining is also taut and free of damage having been refastened not long ago, although there are a few light stains to it around the rear edges.

The seller chose the 2+2 bodystyle not only for its extra seats but because he appreciates the ease of access it offers while retaining the sportscar-feel of the earlier cars, something he feels the S3 lost in its pursuit of being a better grand touring car.

He also had the heavy air-conditioning system removed; while he refuses to compromise on the quality of his car’s engineering, he’s happy to accept the loss of the (often only mildly effective) air-con in the pursuit of better overall performance.

A new Bluetooth-equipped Becker Europa head-unit and speakers were professionally fitted in May 2025, and the later were installed behind new and modified speaker covers for an OE look – and he went to this trouble despite thinking he’d probably never use it: “Fiddling with the bloody radio is not the purpose of the car!”

The boot is as nicely trimmed as the rest of the interior, and it contains a full-size wire wheel and tyre.

As for cosmetic stuff you might like to look at, the gear-lever surround is damaged, and the ashtray is rusty with a loose Jaguar badge. Trivial stuff then, and certainly something you could sort out at your leisure. 
 

The 4.2-litre straight-six engine’s cylinder head was rebuilt in 2022. Done to fast-road specification with the emphasis on torque and real-world driving rather than big numbers to boast about in the pub, the three Weber carburettors you can’t have failed to notice came about because he couldn’t find an SU inlet manifold for love nor money during lockdown.

So, he did what anyone else would have done and fitted the triple Webers that he happened to have lying around. Taken from a DB4GT, he freely admits that these are gloriously OTT and took a lot of setting up, but says he’s delighted with the result.

It also benefits from a Lumenition ignition system, a fast-road camshaft, and gas-flowed head and tubular manifold; throw in money-no-object maintenance – the last service was done as recently as May 2025 – and it’s no surprise that it this now-UK-Spec engine has a dyno-proven 210bhp as well as 30% more torque than it left the factory with.

As the video shows it also fires into life willingly and makes a glorious noise. It also drives incredibly well but then it is also fitted with a remanufactured gearbox – and the seller stuck with the four-speed ‘box as he prefers those ratios for A- and B-road driving.

Given the vastly increased performance it’s no surprise that he had the suspension uprated and, like everything else he’s done on the E Type, he didn’t hold back opting for Nitron coilovers at the rear, Nitron dampers at the front, and uprated Polybushes all round: “It now turns in properly and the front end doesn’t lift at three-figure speeds anymore. It’s actually surprisingly Lotus-like in its handling  now and drives better than most of the cars in my garage.”

A new four-core aluminium radiator was also fitted, and this works in conjunction with the new waterpump and coolant hoses to keep the engine at a sensible temperature, even in mid-France at the height of summer. (That could be the title of a Bonnie Tyler song, couldn’t it?)

Not that the story ends there either because it has also had new heat-shielding fitted to the exhaust system plus a rolling road session and attention to both the braking and steering systems. The latter included having the power-assisted steering removed for better road feel.

A new 100-amp alternator was also fitted only this year and the final bill, albeit with the sound system we mentioned above, came to more than £3,000. It’s had new wiring looms too, plus LED headlamps, and much, much more.

Skimping is not a word the seller understands, and it’s worth browsing the bills that are on file to appreciate exactly what this means.

The engine bay is nothing short of glorious with that expansive bonnet folding forward to reveal a nicely detailed and very clean engine that needs nothing other than an occasional wipe over with a clean cloth.

It also exposes the newly rebuilt suspension, glorious Blockley tyres, and that hideously expensive alternator.

It’s very far from being all-show-and-no-go though because engineering delights include that gas-flowed tubular manifold that leads to a Bell stainless-steel exhaust system.

Together they get rid of the combustion gases generated by the high-pressure fuel system that includes the fuel pressure regulator, filter, and gauge combination that’s needed to feed three greedy Weber carburettors.

 

The recent Vehicle History Check is clear bar the marker for being an imported car, and the history file is stuffed with invoices and bills for the work it’s had carried out in the past decade, almost all of which are eye-wateringly  large.

Oh, and prior to being repatriated in 2015, it had lived in Texas in the United States for 45 years, having arrived there new in 1970.

Our in-house assessor’s summary is “this E Type would make a good addition to any collection”, which might seem grudging but is actually high praise indeed from a man who can spot a dodgy repair from half a mile away.

Mind you, given the bills on file add up to more than £87,000 since it came here a decade ago, that’s not too surprising, is it?

Which means our estimate of between £30,000 and £35,000 represents outstanding value for a car you could drive down to Le Mans (again) while having more fun than any modern Jaguar of the same value could ever give you.

Not that the seller is too worried if it doesn’t sell. While he needs the space for his latest project, he’s sanguine about it going; while the reserve is very reasonable, he’d be equally happy to keep it if it doesn’t reach it: “I’ve got to either keep it forever or cut my loses!” he laughed.

Which makes him exactly the sort of chap to buy a car like this from.

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