As recorded on the Jaguar Heritage Trust trace certificate, 860079 was manufactured on the 7th of December 1961 and dispatched on the 2nd of January 1962 to Charles Attwood, Wolverhampton, Staffordshire. It rolled off the production line finished in stunning Opalescent Silver Grey with dark blue interior, which is how the car is today. 860079 is the 79th right hand drive flat floor coupe and one of only 175 produced.

We have no records of the cars history in the UK, it’s first recorded history in Australia was being first registered in Victoria as (Vic) BER310 on the 9th of September 1981. The car participated in the Jaguar Car Club of Victoria’s annual concours and display day in 1981, 1982, 1983, 1985, 1987, 1989 and 1990 whilst in the ownership of Robert Boyd, Kealba Victoria. The car was noted as being white with black interior and was registered (Vic) EFHC-1.

Robert sold the car to Mark Hurlst in April 1994 and was registered in Queensland bearing plate number 61JAG. The car was placed on Queensland conditional registration in January 2002. In 2012 Mark took the car off the road and dismantled it for restoration. Concours Sportscar Restoration was commissioned to restore the body and the first step was to have the body and all body panels alkaline dipped. The body required a lot of work, new floors, sills, bootfloor and a lot of restoration of the outer body panels. The bonnet was too far gone so we hand made a new aluminium bonnet for the car, incorporating the distinctive riveted in louvre section which is an important feature of an early E Type. In 2014 the body was finished and ready for paint preparation but Mark offered the car for sale and it was purchased by John Warren of the Sunshine Coast area of Queensland. The body left Concours Sportscar Restoration and John commissioned Terry Lister of Cooroy to continue with the restoration.

Gavin was contacted in April 2022 to come to Cooroy to inspect the vehicle which was almost finished but there were issues in getting the car completed. On inspection, the biggest problem was the car had been painted silver but not the correct Jaguar Opalescant Silver Grey. There were also issues with the engine and the fitting up of the body. John commissioned Gavin to dismantle the car to paint it the correct colour, to go right through everything that had been done and to also ensure that all components used were totally correct to make the car as accurate as possible.

The engine was rebuilt and it’s worth noting that most early E Type’s left the factory with 8.0:1 compression engines but this home market car is a 9.0:1 compression. A host of components were changed to accurate 1961 specification components such as the correct aluminium finned radiator, Girling sock absorbers, the correct rimmed steering wheel, painting the cylinder head the correct early pumpkin colour, restoring the correct early inlet manifold and carburettors and many more smaller details.

The car now is finished in it’s correct colour combination and retains all of the distinctive early 1961 features. Deviations from factory original are the alloy bonnet, radial tyres, alloy flywheel and diaphragm clutch for mush easier operation and a modern electric thermo fan.

The car has completed 250 testing miles since completion and performs perfectly and looks absolutely stunning. This is a very rare opportunity to purchase one of the most collectable and desirable models of the legendary Jaguar E Type.