1961 Series 1 3.8 Roadster - Flat Floor

A hugely original survivor that has never been taken apart or restored, and that is genuinely believed to have covered just 12,641 miles from new.

Essentially hand built in that now-coveted first year of production this Jaguar E-Type, like so many during Britain’s export boom, made an Atlantic voyage from Coventry for a life in North America. Finished in the quintessential colours of Carmen Red with Biscuit trim, this Roadster features almost all of the definitive early production features such as the flat floors, welded louvres and number-stamped bonnet.

Built on 25th October and dispatched from the factory on the 8th November, the E-Type was delivered new to a Mr Burton J Coughlan – thought to be the locally well-known theatre owner from Maynard, Massachusetts. Among the contemporary traffic travelling through the historic colonial towns, the svelte and vibrant red Jaguar must have drawn many admirers.

By the late 1960s the E-Type belonged to a doctor, also of Massachusetts, whose uniquely numbered American Medical Association enamel badge is still mounted proudly on the rear numberplate aperture. When a stroke left the doctor unable to drive in the early 1970s, he sold the car to collector George W. Bolster Snr. Proprietor of his eponymous garage in Winthrop Massachusetts, George’s love for cars spanned both his professional and private life.

Among his private collection of some 60 cars, the Jaguar led a quiet and comfortable life for the next five decades. Little used and incredibly well preserved, we acquired the E-Type from the Bolster family for our own collection in 2017.

George’s son has since confirmed to us that the E-Type remains effectively as his father had bought it when it was merely 10-years old, prior to which it had received an external coat of paint and some amendments to the trim – but almost nothing else.

The original factory paint finishes remain beautifully intact in the engine bay and on the frames, the matching numbers engine looks to have never been apart, the original body panels remain astoundingly conserved and from our thorough examinations we are confident in believing that the mileage is genuine.

Ideal for a sympathetic recommission, prior to preserving as an important unrestored survivor – now 60-years after production began, finding an example like this really is exceptionally difficult.