Any HENLYS experts?

[Grahame W]

Having drawn a blank identifying the first owner of my 65 FHC I am still intrigued by the fact it was built April 21st, despatched to Henlys London May 18th yet not registered till August 6th.
Has anyone out there knowledge of Henlys at that time, were E types sufficiently common that they hung around in dealerships for 3 months or so or do these dates indicate that it might have been one of their demonstrators.
Equally was it common for cars to linger at the factory for a month or so or does that indicate that 'remedial' work was required.
We are pretty certain first owner was a film company who only kept the car a year so any fresh info or leads would be welcome
Thanks
Grahame

[SimonBrown]

Hi Grahame,
My father worked in the Sales Department for P J Evans, the Birmingham Jaguar Distributor at around this time.
Henlys, like P J Evans, was a Distributor and had a number of Agents under them, so although your car was despatched to Henlys it may have been sent on to any of the Agents and registered to it’s first owner by them.
You could confirm this by establishing where/ who first registered it.
Demonstration cars are registered to the Agent/Distributor so this would not explain the delay.
Hope this helps
Simon

[Simon P]

Mine follows a similar'ish pattern (albeit in 1969). Built in early May, dispatched to Henlys Hereford in early June, registered/delivered at the start of August.

My guess is that August being the changeover month for new registration letters, dealers and owners preferred to hang on 'til August so that the owner's new car could appear as 'new' as possible (the new registration letter being quite a big deal back in those days).

[Gfhug]

(the new registration letter being quite a big deal back in those days).

Not that they are anymore?

[Grahame W]

Wow
Thanks for the quick input guys, sadly first log book in my possession is 1968 and car had already moved to Hertfordshire.
Supplying dealer, first owner and first registration all missing from Jaguar records but it is a London registration and as registration letter change was once a year on first of Jan in those days seems unlikely it was held at distributor for registration purposes.
Grahame

[Simon P]

(the new registration letter being quite a big deal back in those days).

Not that they are anymore?

Couldn't even tell you what the latest letter (ok numbers) is anymore, nor when the changeover points are in the year!

[Nick]

If it's any help, the dates for mine are:
Date of manufacture: 26th March 1965
Date of dispatch: 5th April (to Henlys Ltd London)
Date of first registration: 7th April

Nick

[malcolm]

Delays in registration seem common. Mine was manufactured in June 1969, and not registered until 1970!
My number is DAB26H. I parked at Goodwood a few cars away from DAB28H. His car was manufactured July 1969, went to the same Bristol dealer, and again wasn't registered until 1970.

[christopher storey]

Malcolm : as a matter of interest, was your car originally white and was DAB28H also white? The reason I ask is because I can recall a time when white E types were extraordinarily difficult to sell, and this may have been the reason for delay

Fashions in colours are hard to fathom. At one time there was a not unattractive mid/darkish blue on Fords called Ambassador Blue . It was known in the trade as " doom blue" !

[malcolm]

Mine was originally white Christopher, and still is! So that could explain it. Don't know about the other car.
Funnily enough, white was the last colour I wanted really, but the car was right so I got it. But now, I've got to love the colour and wouldn't want to change it. I suppose I just got used to it! My wife is the same though; didn't love white, now does. I think modern whites are too white, but this OEW is a nice cream.

[62redcat]

New to the forum, but have owned no.878430 since 1985. Certif shows originally Opalescent Dark Blue over Dark Blue hides, Black hood, dispatched 6 November 1962. As some of you mentioned, Henlys,London was the original distributor,but the dealer is marked "Personal Export Dealer" Registration mark given at Coventry was 3557 WK
There the trail goes cold. Possible Euro delivery, the diff was a 3.07:1 ratio. France, Belgium? But it ended up in the US eventually. Previous owner to me goes back to late 1970's. He has no recollection where the car came from, other than several used car dealers have interceded throughout the years.
So...the big question, does anyone know of distribution records at Henlys being kept from so long ago?
62redcat, Punta Gorda FL, USA

[mdrobbo]

Hi 62redcat
sent you a private message , which maybe of some help
Martin

[62redcat]

thank you! Jag Heritage just reported to me, as a follow up question to info on the Certificate. records ended at Jaguar upon delivery to Henlys London, most likely bound to the US.will continue chase. Owner in the 1970's stated car came with amber euro turn signal lenses, and the 3.07 differential was original. Most cars to the US had 3.54 ratio. So, still need info from some dusty file folder at Henlys I suppose.Car has been Carmen Red over Black since the 70's.

[tonyabacus]

As an ex Coventry Kid I recall that often there were delays at car factories due to strikes or parts shortages which would have knock on effects to the car transporter firms. With so many car factories and smaller parts manufacturers in the city, Jaguar like the others was not immune from these problems. My first wife worked for one of the transporter/car ferry companies, each would be contracted to perhaps one or maybe two of the car factories. There would be times for a variety of reasons, when she could not collect cars from the car factory to move them to the compounds, before awaiting onward delivery to the dealer/docks.

In the case of shortages of parts, then the cars would be moved off the line to waiting areas in the plant waiting for parts so as not to block the production line. Once parts were available the line would continue rolling with the parts now available, whilst the stored cars would be fitted up later and then made ready to be moved to the external compounds. This could mean that cars coming off the line would be moved to the compounds straight away ahead of those waiting parts, which would be part of a backlog that would gradually be cleared. This kept production flowing but, means some cars took longer to reach the compounds/dealer than others and may explain some of the differences in the dates mentioned earlier.

Also back then cars were ferried to dealers by individuals with trade plates as well as by transporters, for the transport companies these hiccups would play havoc with their delivery schedules. The transport companies would reassign their transporters to deliver what they had in the compounds, so they did not sit idle, but this again meant cars from the backlog now suddenly available, would have to wait for a transporter to return to enable the unblocked cars to be delivered. Where a special delivery was required is often where the individual drivers were employed. Some of us may recall seeing these guys on the side of the road thumbing a lift, to save on their expenses rather than use them to get a bus or train.

Suffice to say that there are a number of possibilities between the manufacture, lack of parts, strikes at both the car manufacturer and the delivery companies to account for the variations between the date of manufacture and date of selling/registration.
Tony