Jaguar E-Type 'Barn Find' heading for auction - should make £100k

This barn find 1963 Jaguar E-Type (pictured) is up for auction

A 1963 Jaguar E-Type Series 1 FHC, which has been lying untouched under a hedge for 30 years, is heading for auction at Coys and could fetch £100,000 plus.

You would have thought, by now, that any classic cars hiding in barns would have been found, sold and restored.

But they still keep appearing as owners of cars laid up with plans to restore at some point get older, or die, and the cars they once cherished are found in a dilapidated condition, but with the potential to sell for big money.

Once such car is this 1963 Jaguar E-Type Series 1 FHC, which has been lying under a hedge for 30 years.

This car’s first owner was Ivor Arbiter – the man credited with giving The Beatles their drop ‘T’ logo – who kept the car for a couple of years, after which it eventually ended up with Frank Riches in 1967 who used the E-Type to race with at Brands Hatch, Oulton Park and Blackbush for a couple of years.

When the E-type’s clutch burnt out, Frank put it in to storage until the 1980s, after which he moved it in to his garden, stuck it under a tarpaulin and pretty much forgot about it, as the garden hedge slowly engulfed the covered E-Type.

Now removed from Frank’s garden, the original, unrestored, matching numbers E-Type – complete with all its interior, original log book, 1969 tax disc and all the bits in a box Frank took off to take his car racing – is up for grabs at Coys Spring Classic auction on 8 March 2016.

There is no reserve on this very original E-Type, but bidding will probably get to £100,000 – if not more.