Chassis Number: 85004
Sir William Lyons’ leadership allowed Jaguar to flourish. He had appointed the gifted engineer, pilot and racing technical wizard Frank RW “Lofty” England to lead the company’s racing department. Applying his experience working with Tim Birkin’s team and the Blower Bentley cars, as well as Prince Bira’s White Mouse Stable, in preparing his ERA race cars, Lofty’s management of the Jaguar Works team is worthy of careful study to this day. He ran the team with hard-nosed authority and discipline, and demanded strict adherence to his orders from his staff and drivers. Upon the release of the E-type in 1961, which was the runaway hit of the Geneva Motor Show that year, Jaguar found itself in the spotlight of the world’s automotive stage. By this time, with his racing days behind him, Lofty was Jaguar’s assistant managing director under Sir Lyons. Seizing the importance of the model’s launch, Lofty handpicked the first fortunate owners of the E-type, including high-profile race drivers and well-known celebrities. The first two numbered cars were prototypes, solely used for internal testing; chassis 850003, registered 77 RW, was famously dispatched to the Geneva Motor Show and, following an all-night drive, provided rides to reporters who were beguiled by the E-type. Lofty allocated himself the next right-hand-drive roadster, chassis 850004, the car offered here. Famously registered as 1600 RW, it was the very first production E-type to be sold. Lofty drove 850004 as his personal car and loaned it on several occasions for press coverage and publicity events, and it appeared in numerous print articles in 1961. It became a familiar sight in various racing paddocks, and racer Graham Hill was photographed with it, wearing the day’s laurels of a victory in another E-type. Lofty later sold the roadster to his friend Thomas EB “Tommy” Sopwith, founder of Equipe Endeavour, the British Saloon Car Championship team. Sopwith drove the Jaguar for several years before selling it to noted race driver Michael Parkes. By 1971, 1600 RW was in need of reconditioning and was taken to KS Mather Engineering in St. Helens, U.K., for extensive work. Mr. Mather later assumed ownership in 1975, and it was to remain in his shop in a disassembled and deteriorated state until it was sold to the current owner in 2002. Soon thereafter, 1600 RW was entrusted to the renowned Classic Motor Cars Ltd. in Shropshire, U.K., for a painstaking multi-year, concours-level restoration in its as-delivered colors. Today, this immensely important Jaguar appears as it did when the public first laid eyes on it. As the first E-type ever sold, the significance of 1600 RW to collectors and enthusiasts of the Jaguar marque is beyond measure.
