Jaguar E-type

Fate and fortune

You rarely saw the mythical E-type in rural Cumbria in the late Sixties/ early Seventies, then one day when I was about seven or eight, my obsession was sparked bythe appearance of one at the home of my neighbour, Alf. A non-runner, it sat there, never locked and Alf didn’t mind me spending hours playing in it.

Sometimes I’d just stand in the road staring at it. One day it wasn’t there. Years later I got to know Alf’s motor engineer friend John South and there on his workshop wall was the registration plate, 15 HLB. He’d restored the car for the next owner, Cedric Philp, before he took it to Norway. When John sold off his parts and stock, I bought that old plate for £5 and hung it on my garage wall. Fast forward to December 2021 and I was at home with man-flu, reading the classifieds in Classic Car Weekly, when I stumbled over a dark blue E-type. I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw the registration number – 15 HLB! The advert even confirmed that it had spent time in Norway, registered to Philp. Prompted by my son Matthew, ‘It was meant to be,’ I called vendor David Morris at Valley Cars and Classics and didn’t expect him to agree to keep the E-type a further three months until my retirement, but he did. He’s made my childhood dream come true.