E-type hoard heads around the block
Nobility-owned ‘quad headlight’ FHC stars in five-car Devon Collection
Silverstone Auctions is to hammer away a ‘dream team’ of five Jaguar E-types at the Lancaster Insurance Classic Motor Show with Discovery (12-14 November).
The E-type cache, known as the Devon Collection, has a very early external bonnet lock roadster from 1961: the vendor has owned the 39th built production, ex-experimental department roadster for more than 45 years. It’s to be sold with a substantial quantity of paperwork and photographs documenting its extensive re-build alongside its Heritage Certificate, handbooks and other items of interest.
XK Engineering re-built the 1961 ‘flat floor’ roadster, which is joined by a 1962 FHC Series 1 that raced in period and which the late Sir Norman Dewis OBE drove on Top Gear. A 1964 3.8 FHC is also on offer, having benefitted from a baremetal re-build ten years ago.
The final car in the collection is believed to be one of three E-types that Abbey Panels customised using a quadheadlight bonnet. This matching numbers 1964 Series 1 was built to special order for Hugh John Vaughan Campbell, the sixth Earl of Cawdor.
Silverstone Auctions’ sales controller, Gary Dunne, said: What a special opportunity we’re offering in our final sale of 2021. Each one of these E-types has its own unique history and story to tell.’
Classic Cars magazine editor and E-type owner, Phil Bell, told Classic Car Weekly: ‘E-type values have been slipping for a while but examples with special histories or significance always attract a premium.
‘The collection’s ex-Jaguar Experimental Department 1961 roadster, the 1962 fixedhead coupé with period race history or the Abbey Panels-modified 1965 twinheadlight coupé previously auctioned by H&H in 2018 should certainly attract competing bids.’
■ silverstoneauctions.com