Images from the Cohort by William Garrett. It was identified as a ’67-’68 on its original post.
Further reading:
Curbside Classic: 1965 Jaguar 3.4S (S-Type) – Sir William’s Bastard Child
Curbside Recycling: 1965 Jaguar S-Type 3.8S – The Upper Lip Seems A Bit Aquiver
I never realized just how much the modern S-Type grotesquely bastardized this design until now.
Turn of the century Jaguar styling was not a happy place. See the X type for more details
Someone please explain the reason for the foil around the steering lock.
I don’t think it’s a steering lock. I think it’s just garbage.
I suspect it was there to protect the wood below the windshield, but fell off…
At first I thought the blue California license plate might give a clue as to this car’s model year, since the blue plates were first introduced in the late 60s, but that plate actually has a 1980s number pattern. So most likely this car was originally purchased in another state and was first registered in California in the early 1980s.
Vintage Jaguars are nice to look at, but absolutely useless as a transport mechanism. But, this one has Jaguar branded knock-off hubs and true wire wheels, and at least one redline “tyre”. I would have liked to see the “offside”, it being a left hooker.
Useless as transport? I dare to disagree. I used my 1967 – 420 for a couple of years as daily transport. Reliable and very comfortable.
https://www.curbsideclassic.com/cars-of-a-lifetime/coal-15-1967-jaguar-420-beautiful-classic-jaguar/
I rather like it. I haven’t seen a brown one before, and this one is just downtrodden enough to be driven with carefree abandon. Assuming it starts, of course. But anything that was going to go wrong with it from new most likely has been fixed by now though, so all should be good going forward.
The rear trunk opener block’o’chrome with ye olde Jaguar logotype looks great on my office mantel, where it has resided since I removed it from that junker one linked to above…
The plate dates from around 1985, btw. My ’86 GTI’s blue plate was 1RSU678.
Had a ’62 Mk II 3.8 with a 4 spd. Navy Blue finish with red leather, a spectacular combination. A wonderful car to drive, we called him “Morse”. The problem was it needed a full and correct restoration, and with all that wood, leather and wool, all of which gave it the ambiance of a proper English library, it would have cost a fortune to refurb it properly, so it moved on. The “S Type’s” big trunk and hooded headlights did it no favors, but it was still a very pretty car. These cars exemplify British taste and class even more than a RR in my estimation, their traditional understatement being a prime virtue.
Always loved the styling.
It reminds me of seeing a Citroen CX (early 70s one) near the Chateau Marmont hotel in West Hollywood. It looked more French than a garlic-flavoured bread stick wrapped in the Tricolour smoking a Gitane. I live in Denmark – English cars look so much better here than when in their native country. And in Switzerland an 80s Cadillac oozes style that maybe it lacks on home turf. They tend to be well-looked after, I suppose.