Oct 15, 2017 • Uncategorized •

This poor 1964 Jaguar E-Type has been unlucky twice, but perhaps its past misfortune will be the next owner’s good luck! All the pieces seem to be present to put it back together, so a patient new steward could end up with a desirable Series I roadster to enjoy at a considerably smaller initial outlay than what fully restored cars are going for these days. That asking price is $45,000 for this New Orleans-based car, which can be seen here on craigslist (archived ad).

If you saw New Orleans and thought “Hurricane Katrina,” well, we’ll get to that. This car’s first misfortune occurred in 1997, when a trip through what must have been an especially large puddle “got water into the engine and…sent a connecting rod out through the oil pan.” That’s when the hood and engine were removed; the project fell to the back burner and, yup, the car and garage were submerged in the flooding of 2005. The good news, I guess, is that the car wasn’t insured at the time, so it still has a clean title, and the seller says that there is only minor surface rust on unpainted surfaces and a few bubbles on one of the rockers. Still, it doesn’t look like the car was thoroughly cleaned after the flooding, so there may be some lurking biohazards to contend with.

Depending on your feelings on E-Types, I suppose you could count it an additional misfortune that this is an early enough Series I car to feature the smaller 3.8-liter six instead of the more tractable 4.2—along with the attendant non-synchro gearbox—but not early enough to be one of the ultra-rare “flat floor” cars built at the beginning of production in 1961, or that its colors have been changed from opalescent silver blue over navy to BRG over tan. Frankly, I think most of the interior will have to go anyway, so that won’t be an obstacle if you want to change the colors back.

The original, numbers–matching engine and transmission are still with the car, along with a donor 3.8 from which the seller planned to remove the crankshaft. The seller also has a number of other spares available separately, including a synchromesh transmission from a 4.2 E-Type; unfortunately, the factory hardtop shown on the car is among the extra-cost items.

This hapless old Jag has seen enough bum luck, don’t you think? I hope it can find a luckier lot in life with a new owner; fortunately, it’s not beyond hope—and a cat always lands on its feet!