This car, Lot 381, sold for $168,791, including buyer’s premium, at Bonhams’ RAF Museum Sale at Hendon, North London, U.K., on April 29, 2013.
This is the 60th E-type off the production line, and it has 65,000 miles from new. It was expected to make $30,000–$45,000, but it blew that by four times — to no real surprise.
It was completely rotten, with the doors rusted out, crude repairs to the backs of the sills, modified floor pans and everything crystallized with a layer of dust or rust.
The very 1970s Pirelli Cinturato tires date it to when it was last used — yet remarkably, the seat leather appeared to be mold- and mildew-free, bearing light wear and creasing commensurate with the mileage.
The instruments were all there, although their bezels (rims) had rusted. The engine was lightly corroded, but under the outside-lock hood everything was complete and original, down to the large airbox and filter housing and the bellows-type Kelsey-Hayes brake servo.
Untouched restoration projects are all the rage right now. So many early E-types (and Astons, and others) suffered poor restorations earlier in their lives, when they were just old cars that didn’t warrant spending large sums of money. So, few of them can be described as truly original. In fact, not even this one, but it’s a detail, as we shall see.
A big bid, big resto bill
The man who bought this was the initial bidder who showed his hand at £40k ($61,400), and then kept his powder dry and snuck in with the winning £90k ($138,500) bid when proceedings tailed off. The car was immediately trucked to leading E-type restorer Classic Motor Cars of Bridgnorth, U.K., which recently unfolded and resurrected the mangled Lindner-Nocker Lightweight, as well as 1 VHP, the first right-hand-drive coupe off the production line.
Top restorers’ work is never cheap, and I’d estimate that on top of the huge money spent to buy it — which would get you a very nice restored car, remember — at least another $250k needs pouring into this to make it perfect. That’s still cheaper than restoring a Superleggera Aston.
The point about it, the thing that makes this car so desirable, is that it is a near-virgin canvas, untouched apart from the ravages of time and atmosphere, and with every original detail present and correct, including jack and tool kit.
The hard top is a grotty Lenham aftermarket item. Nick Goldthorp, Classic Motor Cars’ managing director, said, “The amazing thing about this E-type is that every original part is there, although in a very rusty and corroded condition.
“We can save the tub,” Goldthorp said. “The front and rear bulkheads are usable, and the boot floor is savable. It’ll want floors and sills, but that’s normal. Someone had crudely added footwells — copying what Jaguar did — which happened to a lot of the early cars. The bonnet is original and usable, too, though it’s full of 1970s filler.”
The new owner’s plan
Chris Anderson bought the car at Hendon and he said, “Apart from the battery and tires, it is totally original, making it currently one of the most original E-types in the world. I’ve been looking for one for ages and this was the perfect opportunity. It is also one of only 91 outside-bonnet-lock, right-hand-drive open two-seaters ever built.
“I recently read that it is thought that only one-fifth of those 91 cars survive today, and some of those have been badly restored, or converted to race cars,” Anderson said. “That makes 564DFJ not only one of the most original E-types, but also one of the few cars that represent the early semi-prototypes that were the genus of the E-type line.”
This restoration is going to be taken to an almost-molecular level, as CMC has been instructed to restore and re-use every nut, bolt and hose clip, at a cost of something like $50 a clip, which Anderson admits wouldn’t make financial sense in the usual scheme of things.
“But putting new ones on would be wrong, and that means it will remain one of the most original E-types — something I would not be doing if cost instead of preserving history was the issue,” Anderson said.
But this car’s not going to be hermetically sealed once returned to its former glory. Anderson plans to drive it.
“I’m lucky to have another early flat-floor car that’s been driven loads — they don’t last if they’re left stationary,” Anderson said.
So there we go. A proper car bought by a proper bloke who really understands the issues, with a mountain of work ahead — to be carried out meticulously at a top restorer. But although the money’s irrelevant, compared with the prices of top early restored E-types, the new owner knows the car would just about wash its face if — hypothetically — it came to sale.
That’s not so important, but surely the wait to drive it will be worth it. Let’s call it extraordinarily well sold, and thoughtfully well bought ?
(Introductory description courtesy of Bonhams.)
