Jaguar e-type 1963 Flat floor

Jaguar was an amazing mode of transportation in the sixties and seventies. The E-Type Jaguar became a legend and became very sought after and today an E-type in good condition can cost anything that a person is prepared to pay!

This was the first E-Type Jaguar that I owned and I really loved it.

It was creamy white and the Flat floor model built in 1963. The engine was the famous 3.8-litre with triple carburettors.

The first one

I used to work offshore in the Norwegian sector of the North sea and became very friendly with one of the rigs divers. Barry was a very big car enthusiast and had owned this car from new and as he wanted to get a newer model he said that I could buy the car for 600 pounds. Barry lived in Aberdeen and so I arranged to travel up from great Yarmouth on the train the next week to meet him and buy the car. The week flew by and I traveled on the train as planned and so arrived at Barry house. Unfortunately, Barry was not there but the Jaguar was and with the help of his wife we started the car and I paid the money and I drove back to Great Yarmouth.

This was an absolutely fantastic car to drive and the power it had was amazing. I decided to try the car to see what speed it could do but it got there so quickly it was a real shock. One hundred and fifty miles and hour and straight as an arrow and the miles flew past very quickly. The car was stable and as it was a Fixed head the noise was bearable. The car did have a cassette player fitted but it was more interesting to hear the sound of the car than try and listen to music.

The last one

Over the next few years, I owned thirteen E-type Jaguars ranging from the first flat floor to the roadster to the two plus two and ending up with one of the last 4.2 roadsters made. This was a beautiful car finished in brown with tan leather interior and I sold it to the president of the Jaguar owners club in Norwich UK but my good friend Brian decided to change the colour and had it painted red!

The very last e-type Jaguar that I owned was a 1973 V12 roadster. This was indeed a beautiful car and I bought it as a demo for the main dealers. The V12 just did not have the power or the drive of the original 1963 flat floor E-type. I was disappointed with the car and felt Jaguar had somehow lost its excitement.

A bit different

The Jaguar V12 E-type had to go and so I arranged to take it to a dealer in London who had a special that he said he would give me a very good deal on because the special he had was very fast as it had a half race blueprinted engine so I thought why not indeed so off to London I went.

This was a very interesting car indeed but one of the things that I did not like was the straight through exhaust system.

It was OK to drive normally but when you put your foot down then it really was earplug time. The noise I lived with but had to be so careful when coming into a town as there was certain noise restriction even in those days and this put me off a little bit. Out in the open country roads, it was an amazing sounding machine and I loved the noise and the feeling of the power and also the handling as it was very easy to drive. I think the worst thing was that the car had no roof or front window just a fly screen as you can see from the picture so it was not for a rainy day!

AER741B was the first E-type jaguars registration number and the second was AEX 230B and I will never forget these numbers because they meant more to me than any other cars that I have ever owned. I even had my name on the waiting list for the Jaguar F -type but it got cancelled and then twenty years later it was made but am very happy that I was not on the list!

What does this have to do with my cables you may ask - well it is the sound that I love. The sound of the cars, the sound of something that is alive and this is all part of my interests with sound. Mechanical and musical they are all fantastic and I just love the sound.

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