HISTORY
Produced in mid-1961, this E-type Series 1 open-two-seater features many details only found in the very early examples. Although recently restored, those features haven’t been lost resulting in a fascinating example
IN MY experience it’s rare for someone to become excited about numberplate lights. Like windscreen wipers, wheel nuts or grab handles, few of us pay attention to these seemingly mundane areas.
But when Mike Wilkinson from respected marque specialist, Sayer Selection located in South Yorkshire, shows me round this beautiful E-type Series 1, he points them out with the same excitement as an art historian would the subtle brush strokes that would prove a painting to be a long lost work by Leonardo.
Yet the lights aren’t the only things that Mike wants to show me, directing my attention to several other details that reveal this to be an extremely early example. But I’m not talking about the better-known attributes such as the exterior bonnet locks or flat floor, but less recognised details that only appeared on cars built during the first few months of production.
And one of the main reasons why it still has many of these is its unique, two-owner from new history.
The car in question, chassis 875204, is a left-hand-drive open-two seater (potentially the 203rd) in Old English White and built in late June or early July 1961. Although it can’t be confirmed, it’s thought the car appears in the famous photo of the first batch of E-type convertibles taken outside the Browns Lane office block on 14 July, 1961.
The white E-type was then exported to America when it was bought by Chris Well Servicing Co Ltd based in Oklahoma City. Incredibly, it was purchased as a sales related bonus and gifted to a lucky employee, Grant Grumbine Snr.
Although the car was taken off the road in the early Eighties due, it’s thought, to a gearbox issue Grumbine still kept the car. By being a one-owner car assured its future condition; it was never messed around with or restored badly like E-types often were.
It wasn’t until 2011, 50 years after he first took delivery, that Grumbine decided to sell the car when it was brought to the attention of Scottish Jaguar enthusiast, Stuart Skimming. “An American friend of mine mentioned that a very early E-type that he had known about for a long time had surfaced and was possibly up for sale, but the guy was asking big money,” he tells me.
While visiting family in Toronto not long after and taking advantage of air miles, Stuart decided to fly down to Dallas for a classic car race weekend with the aforementioned friend at Hallett Motor Racing Circuit in Oklahoma.
“On Monday morning while rushing to the airport for my flight back to Toronto, my friend motioned that the 1961 E-type was at the next off ramp and
