Barn Find E-Type Jaguar sells at Coys for £88,000

An E-Type Jaguar left undisturbed in a barn in France for almost 40 years has sold at Coys auction at Ascot for £88,040.

Barn find cars are becoming rarer as the world’s classic car collectors have spent years scouring every nook and cranny for a hidden classic car.

But they still turn up from time to time, and this E-Type Jaguar was discovered just last month by a Coys specialist in a barn in France, virtually untouched since 1974.

One of the first right hand drive coupes to roll of Jaguar’s production line in 1961 – it was actually the 40th RHD E-Type – it was bought by the current seller’s estate in 1969, got a new coat of paint – a change from Grey to the current Aubergine – and driven to the family home in France in 1974, since when it’s sat under a dust sheet in a dry barn.

That means this E-Type is in remarkable condition for its age, with a wonderful patina of age – inside and out – and, it would seem, needing nothing much more than some mechanical TLC and a good clean.

In fact, it seems to be in better condition than a similar barn find E-Type sold earlier this year for £110k.

And it may be that the new owner – who paid a total of £88,040 for the E-Type at Coys Spirit of Motoring sale at Ascot yesterday – will decide not to return his new baby to ‘as new’ condition, but make the most of its very original condition and declines to make this E-Type another over-restored pastiche.

Let’s hope so.