1971 Jaguar E Type S3 OTS

Full disclosure – the vendor is well-known to us here at our Oxfordshire HQ.

We’re sure he won’t mind if we tell you that he is a man who does things properly.

He doesn’t cut corners, entertain compromises or otherwise deviate from the right course of action, regardless of any cost implications.

He is as fastidious, exacting and timely in his upkeep and curation of his cars as he is with his collection of classic boats.

It is entirely in keeping with that fastidiousness and attention to detail that he spent two years looking for the right Series 3 OTS.

He felt inside many a wheel-arch, tapped an exploratory knuckle on countless bulkheads and was, repeatedly, disappointed by what he found lurking beneath.

Eventually, in 1992, he ended up at a small, part-time dealership in Worcestershire, where he had travelled to look at an advertised car.

Once again, the car wasn’t right.

It had been over-restored, was sending all the wrong signals and didn’t fill him with confidence.

Just as he was about to wend his weary way home, he spotted another Series 3 OTS parked further back in the garage.

That one looked like the real deal, and passed his tests for authenticity, originality and structural integrity with flying colours.

“How much is it?”, he ventured.

“It’s my personal car and it’s not for sale”, came the unwanted reply.

He told the dealer (rightly) that the E Type market was dropping and that now would be a good time to sell.

Two weeks and two phone calls later, the dealer changed his mind and our vendor became the proud new owner of this splendid car.

A quick look at the Jaguar Heritage Trust Certificate will tell you that of the 15,287 Series 3 cars to leave Browns Lane, this car was the 20th.

Rumour has it that the first 30 were allocated to various celebrities of the day, but we’ll never know if that was the case with this car because the original production data and build ledger was damaged.

It’s worth noting (and you’ll see this in the documents), that various MoT testers and other official bodies have incorrectly stated that this is a 1974 car.

Well, it isn’t, but it is wearing a 1974-specific personal registration number, which was a chronological anomaly allowed by the DVLA at the time.

This discrepancy is the cause of any confusion in relation to the car’s date of birth, which, just for the record, is August 24th 1971, as stated on the Jaguar Heritage Trust Certificate.

We have driven this car and were entirely unsurprised to find that it started first time, pulled strongly, stopped confidently, handled impressively, and was notably free of any extraneous creaks, rattles, groans or squeaks.

As previously stated, the vendor does things properly and this car is in first-class mechanical and dynamic condition.

It’s also very original and unrestored, which were the principal reasons the vendor bought it in the first place.

The bodywork is really very straight and true on this car and we failed to find any dinks, dents, ripples or other aberrations of real significance anywhere.

The car’s shut-lines and panel gaps are even, crisp and entirely consistent with what you would hope to find on Browns Lane cars of this era.

Much of this good news can be traced back to nearly £15,000 of expenditure through the highly respected firm of Southern Classics in 2007. It was they who were entrusted with the task of addressing any corrosion or other bodywork issues.

They cut out any corroded sections, fabricated replacements and did the job properly, with clean welds and lead loading. The details and receipts are in the documents section.

The car’s black vinyl hood, which was a new replacement item in the not-too-distant past, is in excellent order, fits snugly, and goes up and down with a minimum of resistance or recalcitrance.

For the most part, the paintwork is very decent throughout, and not least because white is a very forgiving colour when it comes to entirely standard stone chips and light, swirly scratches of the sort that you’ll find on any car that’s lived a bit.

The chrome-work is beyond reproach, and we know that the headlamp eyebrows and rear bumper sections were re-chromed in 2007.

The (correct) four-branch, fan-array exhaust tail-pipes were retrofitted to the car by the vendor because it had been supplanted by the twin-branch set-up adopted for later models.

Like we said, this car is all about originality, authenticity and being as true as reasonably possible to what Jaguar’s engineers and designers intended for the first Series 3 cars.

Having been sandblasted and powder-coated in 2007, all 5 wheels are in very decent condition and have clearly been kept well away from kerbs or other roadside obstacles.

They are shod in matching Dunlop SP Sport rubber which appears to have a good deal of useful life left in it.

From what we can see, the badging, lights, lenses, and other exterior fixtures and fittings are all in unimpeachable condition, including the newly replaced electric arial, an aftermarket item that is operated by a switch cunningly placed behind the driver’s seat.

It’s part of our job to find things to moan about on any and every car that comes our way.

This car was never intended to be a concours show-pony and, despite its low mileage and light use, it has been driven and enjoyed.

Consequently, there are a few cosmetic considerations here and there.

Most notable (but not obvious, unless you’re on your hands and knees) is some bubbling under the front valance on the nearside.

There are a couple of blisters at the rearward base of the n/s/f wheel-arch; a small section of raised paint, perhaps as a consequence of a previous repair, on the n/s/r wheel-arch; a few spots of blistering either side of the chrome strips running up the bonnet from the headlamp eyebrows; and a spot of blistering and a small flap of lifting paint at the rearward base of the o/s/f wheel-arch.

Some of the rubber seals around the windows and the bonnet closure are starting to perish.

Apart from that, it’s all really very good indeed.

The interior of this fine Series 3 OTS is every bit as impressive - and original - as its exterior counterpart.

The black leather upholstery is in remarkably good condition and, aside from some light creasing and a little wear to the outer bolsters, you’d be hard-pressed to correctly guess the mileage of the car to which it belongs, let alone its age.

Both seats have had the foam interiors replaced to original specification.

The door cards are decent and have held up well. There’s a small split to the vinyl atop the passenger-side sill cover, plus another small split to the vinyl on the driver’s door handle.

The car is fitted with new, pristine mats. The black carpets are reasonable throughout, save for some heavy wear to the carpeting at the side of the driver’s footwell.

The hood lining is in fine fettle, as is the interior of the boot.

The boot contains a soft car cover, a black vinyl tonneau cover for the stowed hood, a full-sized spare and some original tools.

The steering wheel, gear lever and handbrake are all in very good order and, as far as we and the vendor are aware, all buttons, knobs, dials, switches and levers do as they’re told without hesitation, deviation or repetition.

The engine bay is notably clean and tidy, with everything in its right and proper place.

There are no leaks that we can see, and all pipes, cables, hoses and ancillaries appear to be present and correct.

The undersides of the car look, sound, solid and possessed of plenty of structural integrity.

Absolutely nothing we’ve seen has prompted us to frown, tut or otherwise question the car’s honesty or character.

This car comes with a thick file of bills, invoices and receipts covering routine work, maintenance and repairs carried out over the years, including prior to the vendor’s 34-year tenure of ownership.

A brief glance at the car’s MoT trail will tell you that its indicated mileage of 57,000 miles is almost certainly true (aside from the entries for 2017, when a tired tester mistakenly attributed 66,000 miles to the car).

The mileage in 1980 was 47,695 and, by 2007, it had risen to just 54,954.

But, despite the car’s very sparing use, the vendor has routinely drained the car’s fluids every year, always filled it with fresh fuel, replaced the tyres when they’re past their sell-by date, and generally done all the things you’d hope and want a fastidious owner to do to a car that’s spent a lot of time kept warm, dry and safely stored.

Immediately after buying the car, the vendor sent it off to XK Engineering for all and any pressing mechanical and body repairs.

Since then, as the paperwork reveals, the car has gone through a few mechanical overhauls over the years as and when necessary.

The most recent of these focussed on the ignition and brakes, with the servo and master cylinder having been replaced with (only recently available) newly manufactured versions, which we understand are made using the original tooling and result in rather more reliable components.

Most of the main work on the car over the last 30 years has been carried out by Southern Classics, who are known for their diligence in observing and protecting originality and authenticity in the cars entrusted to them for remedial work.

The car comes with a box of useful spares, parts and other bits and pieces.

These include, but are not limited to: some chrome and stainless-steel hood fixings and finishers; a new, unfitted nearside door mirror; an ignition coil and an ignition control unit with a terminal block; and various original items that have been replaced, including the factory-fitted fans that were superseded by new, more effective, Kenlowe items.

The car comes with a user manual and handbook, a V5C, a recent HPI report, full sets of keys, and an MoT certificate – with no advisories whatsoever – that’s valid until 22nd July 2027.

This, then, is one of the very earliest E Type Series 3 cars to roll off the production line and it has managed to reach the ripe old age of 55 without being restored, mucked about with, or otherwise turned into some automotive equivalent of ‘Trigger’s Broom’.

Not only is it a low-mileage, low ownership example, it also comes to us courtesy of a vendor we know well – a man whose cars are never less than meticulously maintained and curated without consideration to time or expense.

There really aren’t many like this out there anymore.

It’s a cracking car.

We are happy to offer this car for auction with an estimate in the range of £45,000 - £65,000.

Viewing is strongly encouraged, and this lot is located at THE MARKET HQ in South Oxfordshire. Viewings are STRICTLY BY APPOINTMENT and we are open weekdays (apart from Bank Holidays) between 10am - 12pm or 2pm - 4pm. To make a booking, please use the ‘Enquire About This Vehicle’ button on the listing. Feel free to ask any questions, or try our ‘Frequently Asked Questions’.