1969 JAGUAR E-TYPE

DON’T COME HOME WITHOUT IT WAS THE ADVICE

Bill: We’ve owned it for about three years. I was sitting at work one rainy day (Sue starts laughing) and went online and saw this. I thought that’s a nice-looking E-type and a good price. I didn’t want to be at work, so I rang the guy up and he said there have been 14 phone calls so far this morning, so you better get down here. It turned out to be literally down the road.

Sue: He came home and said he was going to have a look at this car – and I said if you want it, I don’t want you coming home without it. I don’t want to listen to you whingeing!

Bill: That’s true, so I went and had a look and said to the guy can you take me a for a run in it, and he said no, it’s raining.

I said I really like it and he said you better make up your mind soon as another guy has gone off to talk to his wife about it. I said hang on a second and I’ll whip down to the autoteller – will $500 do? He said that would be fine.

Then I asked can you give me a week to pay for it, because I haven’t got the money, but I’ll find it.

It’s running the 4.2 straight six and four-speed manual. There are discs front and rear – inboards on the rear.

What’s it like to drive? A bit like a truck! I had one when I was young and you think you’re going to relive your youth, and it will be fantastic. And they are fantastic cars. But last year I brought my 944 turbo along, which does everything perfectly. (Bill and Sue were on the Targa Tas Classic Rallye, featured last issue.)

We were about four streets into the Georgetown run and Susan said this thing feels like a truck. Bloody oath it does. I’m thoroughly enjoying it. It’s a challenge to punt it around quickly.

I haven’t for one second regretted buying it or bringing it down here and we’ve decided to keep it down here – we’re lucky enough to have a house in Tasmania. In Queensland in summer it’s just too hot to drive around in a black E-type., so you really only get six months’ use out of it. But down here we can use it all year, plus the roads and scenery down here are sensational.