The 'E' Type Forum

Hi all. Hopefully someone on here might be able to answer a question for me please
Back in 1962 an American customer ordered an E-type roadsters from the Coventry factory and decided he would like to collect it himself from the factory and drive it here for a while before taking it back home to the states.
The car was built as a lhd but registered by the factory here in the UK and given an early "WK" registration number, which it still retains today having now returned back to this country.
So how does this stand with being an export as although it was specified by the owner to be built as a lhd model it was first registered in the UK when built?
Was this a common practice by some overseas owners to collect their cars from the factory themselves?

Thanks
Steve

As it was first registered here, I would say it is a UK car, just happened to be exported to USA shortly after. I imagine the LHD status is irrelevant.

The chassis number will determine if it is genuine RHD or not. If it has a RHD chassis number then it will be considered a genuine UK car.

1954Etype wrote:The chassis number will determine if it is genuine RHD or not. If it has a RHD chassis number then it will be considered a genuine UK car.

It is not a genuine rhd car as it was built as a lhd with a lhd chassis number but my question is why would the factory have gone to the trouble of registering the car here in the UK if it was built for export?

Jaguar specifically offered a personal export/collection service. They even made a film about it with a Yank collecting a yellow fhc from Browns Lane and driving down to the Med before shipping the car to California? It's here somewhere. I think the scheme saved purchase tax in the UK and some US tariffs, because it was considered used personal property being imported by the returning citizen. Typically the car would have been specced for the eventual permanent market, but they did swap the steering overif required. I had a personal export 62 fhc that had its original gearbox replaced before it left the UK and that same box showed up on the production records as being fitted again to another new car a few weeks later...

Someone here bought a factory-swapped car (allegedly), which instead of a new dash harness had every relevant wire cut and extended with an extra length section in the middle. Bit of a bodge, but it was only when he dug into the taped-up extended section he found every wire was the same colour...

Not sure about Jags specifically but US servicemen based in England were known to get their cars there, register them and use them until posted back to the US when they would ship them back, US spec mainly. It would be interesting to see a factory record for such cars...

Steve
Long time after you posted but this may help others with a similar question about personal exports.
There is a video on YouTube about a US guy who did just that and took delivery in Europe via a personal delivery driver taking the car out to meet him. You can see the story and the film which is in two parts, together with car and roof rack installed on his FHC to take his luggage, yes a roof rack on an E Type, but here is the link. If it does not work go to YouTube an put in "E Type through Europe and the US part 1".

Also I can confirm what Tim said about US service guys as I used to visit the USAF bases in the UK in the 1960-70's and would occasionally see an E Type been driven whilst the guy was waiting to return to the US.



Tony

I am confused by the Jaguar film in that the car is a series 1.5 but the registration is a "C". How did that happen. Or were the 1.5s introduced for export before the UK models?

Stuart

Stuart
This film was commissioned in 1967 by Jaguar Cars USA and reference is made to the removal of the headlight covers in late 1967 a short way into the film, not that this has much relevance to your query. The "C" registration plate was issued between during 1965 as we know, being a Coventry kid I have a niggle at the back of my mind that at the time the car tax office kept blocks of registrations for issue in special circumstances, and I wonder if export was one of them?

Casting my memory back I cannot recall seeing many HDU plates around, but how we find out more I don't know, as the old car tax office was closed a long time ago. I wonder if anyone on here has or has seen another E Type with a 1965 HDU plate?
Tony

The C plate probably belonged to another car, maybe a demo, and was just put on to enable it to be driven for the film. Although technically illegal this was fairly common practice by factories at the time, I know of Austin Healey cars, as well as BSA and Triumph motorcycles doing this.