Most of us would much rather purchase a car that has been sitting in a heated garage for a few years, but there is just something cool about a real deal barn find. This 1964 Jaguar E-Type is about as “real” as they come. That isn’t always a good thing though and in this case the barn didn’t do much to protect it during the last 33 years that it has been parked. This is a highly desirable Series I car though so undoubtedly it will be saved. Bidding is already heating up at $15k with the reserve not even met! Find it here on eBay in Charlotte, North Carolina. Thanks goes to Jim S for the tip!

E-Types are one of my favorite cars to find hiding in barns. That doesn’t mean I would necessarily want to buy one as a restoration project. These car are complicated and expensive, but they are also so beautiful that even most sensible of us can be tempted. The seller claims that this one was driven into the barn in 1981 by the second owner. The car had already suffered a color-change and some repairs to the floors by that time though so its not as original as we would all like.

Not only were these cars beautiful, but they were also very fast. Top speed was right at 150mph! You won’t be going anywhere fast in this one though until a full restoration has been performed. There’s rust and lots of it. The doors are claimed to open and close properly though so maybe there are good bones underneath. While most cars used a body-on-frame design, the E-Type utilized a monocoque chassis so any corrosion can wreck havoc on the structural integrity of the car. It kept things light and cheap when new, but isn’t always the best option when you want to restore a rusty old car today.

The black leather seats are still in place, just unbolted in order to inspect the floors. I love these early E-Types with their toggle switches and headlight covers. They are just so much more visually appealing than later cars. The original sand over black color scheme of this one will look sharp too. It’s hard to imagine that someone would just park and forget such a wonderful machine. These cars came standard with independent suspension and disk brakes all around. They made great touring cars that were capable of some spirited driving action too.

No shifting into first while moving though! The Moss gearbox didn’t have syncromesh on first gear until 1964 when they replaced the 3.8 with the larger 4.2 liter inline-six. Still, this was a wonderful engine that was capable of similar speeds even with less torque. The seller mentions that this one is fitted with a high compression head, but from what I have read they all so-equipped in 1963. Please correct me if I am wrong there. Either way, this was a silky smooth engine with lots of power on tap.

This project may be too ambitious for most, but hopefully someone will take pity on it. The journey will be long and hard-fought, but the end result will be one of the most beautiful high velocity vehicles that the sixties ever produced. Of course, if money were no object I would rather have one of those new lightweight E-Types that Jaguar just announced. Then again, it would never be as cool as a real barn find, now would it?