Like many others, after my first glimpse of a Jaguar E-Type, I had to have one. And I had one of the first 'glimpses'. As a boy on an extended holiday in London, I visited Earl's Court in 1961, the year the car was introduced.
It was to be many years later that I finally bought one. I had looked at a few over the years but circumstances prevented a purchase. In January of 2002 a 1968 FHC came up on ebay. It had most of the features I wanted - manual tranny, late series 1, not 2+2, and was close enough that I could readily go and get it. Right away I knew it was to be my car, and I was able to win the auction with a bid that I was comfortable with and that was well within the published value for such a car.
On 1 Feb 2002 after driving for 18 hours from Winnipeg I took delivery of the car. It was in running condition, and I drove it 'around the block' before loading it onto a borrowed closed trailer and driving another 18 hours home. It appears that someone some years ago had started to restore the car, but had quit and it had sat dormant for some time. The windshield sticker was from 1989. New floors and sills had been welded in , and there was a complete set of new rubber seals unopened in the trunk. The paint was terrible, and the brakes almost non-existent, so I knew I had some work ahead of me. The process of restoring the car to a decent driver is documented in these pages. Known History.