The 'E' Type Forum

Leicestershire Police need your help. Have you seen this Jaguar?

It was stolen on Saturday 29 April from an open public parking area outside Donington Park, Leicestershire.

It happened between 10.50am and 6.50pm.

It is a white Jaguar E- Type Series 1, manufactured in 1965 and has registration number ELO775C.

Did anyone see the car being moved, driven away or loaded onto any other means of transport?

Anyone who saw the incident take place, knows someone who has recently acquired a vehicle like this, or believes they could have any information, is asked to call 101 and quote 17*178393. - https://goo.gl/iLrGVp

Jaguar Owners Club | Jaguar Enthusiasts' Club

Shit...the thieves are out again. I hope it is recovered but I am far from optimistic.....did we ever hear any more about the several that vanished last summer?

Richard,
Put it up upon XKE data as a stolen ASAP (I've checked but cannot find it on that registration ?
Here: http://www.xkedata.com/cars/

Just read about this in ccw. It was stolen between the hours of 10.50 am and 6.50 pm from a over flow car park ...... this is one reason I would not take my E or any other interesting car to an event just to park in the car park
. I know that's no consolation to the owners loss . But it's something to think about..... along the lines of taking a classic jaguar to the likes of international spares day , leaving your pride and joy in a unattended place where the event has been advertised all over the world . !!!!!
Yes nice to drive to these events in something interesting but not worth the potential loss

Fit an alarm, hide a tracker somewhere, fit a secret kill switch for either the fuel pump, or the ignition, or both (2 switches).
The alarm prevents the casual opportunist. Cost a few hundred quid.
The kill switch stops it being driven away or very far. Cost a few quid.
The tracker lets you know where it has been if it is taken away. Cost about £30-50 including a mobile phone SIM card.

Total cost less than the excess on an average insurance policy.

I hope they find this one and get it back home. Back when E-Types weren't as valuable as they are today, I still fitted a kill switch for the fuel pump in a discreet location, and also installed a battery cutoff switch. Even something as simple as removing the distributor rotor will discourage 99.99% of thieves, although I feel that many of the thefts today are of the professional variety, and the cars are soon in a shipping container and on their way to some banana republic.

I attend this event very year , although this year not in the E .
I would never leave my E outside unattended in the public car park .
The deal for car club members is 2 for 1 tickets and a free infield pass with designated areas for each club .
I can only guess this poor chap has not pre purchased tickets but just turned up on the day , maybe in case it rained ? .
Even so , if tickets were purchased from the gate , they would maybe have let him into the infield as a JEC club member, i've never seen it short of parking space or for that matter asked for the infield pass every time with the E Type . Of course even in the infield your car is not totally safe but the risk is greatly reduced .

Moeregaard wrote:I hope they find this one and get it back home. Back when E-Types weren't as valuable as they are today, I still fitted a kill switch for the fuel pump in a discreet location, and also installed a battery cutoff switch. Even something as simple as removing the distributor rotor will discourage 99.99% of thieves, although I feel that many of the thefts today are of the professional variety, and the cars are soon in a shipping container and on their way to some banana republic.

I always fit a switch to the fuel pump. Then anybody can start the car, and just as they are making their getaway, it will conk out on them hopefully in the middle of a busy intersection. My wife's Morris Minor will go about 3/4 mile on a carb-full.

Looking over other posts it does seem as though series 1 FHC are being targeted. This was a series 1. The one that vanished from a hotel car park in Kent was too. A couple of other series 1 cars vanished last year...

I am certain any E is going to be a target but if you have a series 1 and, it seems FHC/2+2, be extra EXTRA vigilant.

Sadly I am. Even at shows it has all the electrics killed. If I go for a wonder a huge wheel shroud sometimes goes on the steering wheel. I often use a mirror to view the underside to check for trackers that may have been attached to track the car home. On the way home I make a point of not going directly home. Always go via a friend/petrol/etc just to confuse anyone who has followed me....shows are an obvious target for thieves....they get to see a wide selection of cars in one place and can select the ones they want with nobody suspecting anything...99.99% of show visitors are honest but it is as well to guard against the few that are not.....

Sound advice, but what a lawless country we have become! If I wanted to steal an E-type, none of your mods would stop me. I would get a wrecker, get some signs on the side saying "Joe's garage" a pair of overalls with the Joe's garage logo, hoist the car up and drag it straight out of the car park. That's how motorcycles get nicked - shove 'em in the back of a van with all the right logos on the outside.
Hidden in plain sight is the best way to do it. If you look as though you're meant to be doing what you're doing, nobody will challenge you. Except perhaps the owner. "Sorry guv, wrong car!".

Have measured the standard steering whell (16") and reckon I need a 'Medium' disklok......can someone confirm that this size fits the standard wheel nicely with the protective 'glove' fitted?
Thanks

"...hoist the car up and drag it straight out of the car park."

Correct. They came for the first at 10pm and tge second at 2am. S1FHC & S2OTS

david muir wrote:Have measured the standard steering whell (16") and reckon I need a 'Medium' disklok......can someone confirm that this size fits the standard wheel nicely with the protective 'glove' fitted?
Thanks

Pointless - the standard wheel is so flimsy you can easily twist the Disklock off. Buy a removable steering wheel kit if you want to go down that route. Certainly causes some bemusement as to what the hell you can do to move the car (I leave the steering of full lock before removing).

So sad when you read some of the reply's, the whole point of having a nice car is being able to use it when and where you want.
Not being willing to travel to events for fear of the car being stolen is like having a valuable oil painting
and keeping it in the safe.

Driving home whilst checking for thieves following you is like something from a James Bond movie.
In the high tech world we have today, you would think there would be a fool proof way of preventing cars being stolen.

Have to disagree David. The disclok is not pointless. It fits over the wheel not through it. Once fitted it rotates freely independently of the wheel. It cover the boss entirely making it impossible to remove the wheel and makes access to the spokes almost building not quite impossible. Mine is a medium disclok and fits over a std 16 inch wheel. It is also Thatchham approved.

It would be impossible to drive the car with it on and while nothing is impossible to remove given tools and time it would certainly require power tools to remove it.

When mine was pinched the crime prevention person said the aim of security it to make it difficult for the thief. Think like them then look for ways to make life difficult. Thieves go for easy pickings where they can be away in minutes without attracting attention.

When you think like that I wonder what the point of a removable wheel is....tea leaf comes prepared with his own wheel as they are freely available and not keyed to the fixing so far as I know...pops it on...drives away....sorry but entirely possible given we are talking professionals here.

cactusman wrote: When you think like that I wonder what the point of a removable wheel is....tea leaf comes prepared with his own wheel as they are freely available and not keyed to the fixing so far as I know...pops it on...drives away....sorry but entirely possible given we are talking professionals here.

Walk into Tesco and spend £20 on a Nokia Handset (with 7 days standby) battery life.

Top it up with a pay as you go Simcard.

Register the number and IMEI with a tracking service ie-

https://www.lociloci.com/en/7

http://www.planetcreation.co.uk/sat-gps/

When you take you car out, hide the mobile somewhere. The Nokia are tiny and indestructible.

If your car has vanished, contact the tracking service.

You can then give the police the location the phone and hopefully the car of it within 10m.

Happy days?

I get around this problem by the simple expedient of always parking my humble S2 next to an S1

politeperson wrote:
You can then give the police the location the phone and hopefully the car of it within 10m.

Happy days?

Sadly using the GSM triangulation system alone is probably only accurate to within 1/2 - 3/4 mile since it relies on relative signal strength from nearby cells and not GPS AFAIK.

Nevertheless, it would probably be useful in locating the car if the thieves stole it and stored in in a barn in a remote area.

Think the gsm is only accurate to bits of miles...gps to the nearest yard....and sorry folks...removable wheels and most likely steering locks of any sort will stump an opportunist but not a pro in my view.

We have to be realistic ...cars of value are targets....the police who dealt with me gave me numerous tips and hints from their experiences....there have obviously been instances of cars being stolen from shows. I know of at least one example of an attempt to track a car (not a jaguar) back from a show. Fuel pump switching etc is fine to deter the opportunist but I would be pretty sure thefts of high value cars are done by professional thieves with a flat bed around the corner and a wealth of experience to boot. The best way is to put physical inconveniences in their way that will take time and tools to defeat and attract attention if attempted. Locks, alarms, etc....and get a proper tracker fitted so if the worst comes then you at least stand a chance of finding the car again...