1965 Series 1 4.2 Coupe

With a fantastic combination of Eagle Engineered upgrades, originality and history , this rare UK RHD E-Type has charm and usability in abundance.

London may have been the centre of the universe in the swinging sixties and images of the capital city from that period are evocatively punctuated with street-parked E-Types. Yet, while Jaguar’s new sports car may have looked at home on those iconic streets, an E-Type has always been best enjoyed on empty country roads or crossing continents. And that was exactly what the first owner of this E-Type had in mind.

Ordered from his friend, the four-time Manx Grand Prix winner turned car dealer Austin Munks, this 4.2-litre Coupe was built for 30-year old John ‘Barrie’ Callaghan on 27th May 1965. Finished in elegant Cream over Black the E-Type was ready for dispatch by the 14th June, but, rather than take delivery at the dealer, Barrie utilised Munks’s friendship with Jaguar’s top brass to organise collecting the car from the factory on the 16th.

A serial Jag man, owning an XK140, two XK150s and a 3.8-litre E-Type, Barrie was no stranger to the lusty XK engine and understood the importance of properly running it in. The journey home from Coventry provided the perfect chance to run up and down the A1, maintaining consistent temperatures and pressures.

Both the original 1965 logbook and service book have survived, showing that Barrie wasted no time in enjoying the Jag and that its first 1,000-mile service was carried out by Munks at just 12 days old. It would return twice more in 1965 having reached the 3,000 and 6,000-mile intervals by October!

Eagle managed to track Barrie down in 2020 to learn more about his time with the car. A veterinarian in rural Lincolnshire, Barrie could often be heard approaching apace by the farmers he visited with each crisp gear change audible across the open land. This of course aided by the straight-through exhausts and Koni shock absorbers fitted by Austin Munks.

The E-Type was driven with verve, but scrupulously serviced and maintained. As a travelling vet Barrie made time to wash the E-Type every morning, so that it was pristine ahead of visiting any customers. But the two-seater was becoming less practical, so the E-type was kept as a “play thing” and a succession of Munks-fettled 3.8-litre MkIIs were pressed into service for the veterinary practice.

Pre-motorway, cross-country journeys to Silverstone were frequent and a “Pits Grandstand” swing-tag pass for the 1968 BRDC International Trophy Formula One Grand Prix has been safely kept in the history file.

There were several memorable trips to Europe too, with Barrie and his wife choosing to use the era’s Air Ferries. Seeing their E-Type be unloaded from of fuselage of a Bristol Freighter or ATL-98 Carvair must have felt very ‘jet set’. Motoring into Germany once prompted border guards to wave the E-Type to one side, purely to ogle the engine bay, before Barrie could settle in for an “easy” 120mph cruise on the Autobahn.

The 1970s gave way to V12 Jaguar motoring and Range Rovers for the day job, but Barrie couldn’t part with CDO 250C. Having covered only 30,310 miles by June 1976, it was kept in the heated garage.

After the best part of three decades Barrie was looking for something a little different and, to make way for a classic Rolls Royce Silver Dawn, the E-Type was sold to a local Jaguar Drivers Club member in 1992. The second owner, a salesman at the British Leyland dealer Holland Brothers, Mr Periam enjoyed trips to Reims and Scotland during an ownership that would last for 11 years.

A third owner acquired ‘CDO’ in 2003, before we were able to acquire it and then supply it to the previous owner in 2008. Since then it has returned regularly to Eagle for servicing and sensible upgrading, all the while remaining sensitive to the originality this car has retained having still only covered 57,455 miles from new.

You can see the full Eagle Engineered specification below.

Blending huge charm with a sensible specification of upgrades, and a fascinating history with beautiful condition, this much-loved E-Type is ready for the model’s 60th Anniversary celebrations in 2021.

Fresh from a ‘major’ Eagle service and ready for its next adventure.