How many?

[chrisfell]

Strange, the things you do when you have time on your hands. One of my foibles is to keep track of the number of E-Types registered and licenced in the UK. Over the years this number has, unsurprisingly, increased quite steadily, not due to barn finds of cars long lost and never registered on the DVLA database, but due to huge numbers of USA cars being repatriated. In normal years the increase is in the region of 100 a year. Occasionally there is a spurt. I imagine when this year has passed it will prove to be a lean year.

The numbers are published every quarter and for the most recent quarter, March 2020, these are the totals: 5,814 cars licenced for road use plus 1,709 cars SORN’d. This is an increase of 95 and 54 respectively over the numbers in June 2019. A ‘normal’ year.

Of more interest, however, is a breakdown of these numbers by engine size and fuel type. You thought that all Es were petrol powered? Think again!

According to the latest figures published, for December 2019, two Es were diesel powered. One has a 1.9l engine, the other has a 4.2l diesel engine! One wonders if this is a mistake, or whether someone has genuinely fitted a 1.9l or a 4.2l diesel to an E-Type.

Digging further I have discovered some more anomalies. 13 Cars have engines ‘up to 499cc’! I assume this relates to cars whose engines are described as 3.8 or 4.2 or 5.3. This is understandable. What is not understandable is the number of cars whose engine capacities are in other ranges. Over 1100cc – one car. Over 1200cc – one car. Over 2000cc two cars. Over 2400cc – four cars. The list goes on. 34 cars appear to have engines smaller than the smallest engine supplied as original by Jaguar.

Actually, scrub that. One car was supplied by the factory with an engine under the original 3781cc. RHD chassis number 2 was ‘discovered’ by its current owner in a hedge next to a garage not far from Salisbury. It was quite rotten and had a seized 3.8l engine. But it had a history as a race car. When originally supplied the first owner had Jaguar swap the engine with his own highly developed XK race engine, which was 3441cc. Check on XKEdata, the engine number, as shown on its V5, is VS2126-9 which was originally fitted to a XK150S. 3.8l E-Types had engine numbers starting with R. As a race car it was moderately successful, often showing the full 3.8l E-Types in period a clean pair of heels. It was hampered not by its lack of engine capacity, as much as the brakes which were frequently described as NBG after just a few laps.

About a thousand cars, currently ‘on the road’ have engines of 3.7 and 3.8l, and something over three thousand around the 4.2l mark. There are just over 1200 are 5.3l and a few 6.0l or more. There are four whose engine capacities are ‘over 10.0l’. Many of these larger capacities will be ‘lumped’ cars.

Anyway, time’s up. It is nearly the time to get my E out for one of the few Covidly compliant runs I allow myself to make at the moment. I’m off to check on my Dad, soon to celebrate his 96th birthday. Covid compliantly, of course.

[288gto]

Interesting data regarding the engines Chris. I wonder if there is a field for "electric" propulsion. I know Lanes are working on or have completed an electric conversion and we already know about the Prince Harry wedding car.

As regards import figures fluctuating I imagine that as well as market values of the restored cars, the Dollar/Pound exchange rate has a large bearing.

When I purchased my car we were at $1.63 to the pound as compared to an average closing price of $1.26 for 2019.

Simon

[Joes66]

When I was in the Philippines last,my father has a place there, I noticed an MGA
I walked over and started to chat to the owner who proudly started it up for me
The sound of that Nissan diesel engine was a shock lol