I’ve been a Jaguar fan since I bought my first E-type in 1990 and have graduated from a 2+2, to a Coupe to a Roadster. Having been hiring out classic cars since 1997 and our E-type since 2000 the time finally arrived in 2004 when, to answer customer demand, we started looking for a Jaguar Mk2 to add to our hire fleet.

Knowing little about them, I bought a couple of books, re-read the Mk1 & Mk2 Register sections of some of the back issues of Jaguar Driver and started looking seriously. As always it took many months to find a car. Some just weren’t as advertised, some looked brilliant from the outside but the interior or engine bay needed too much work to bring them up to standard. Some people just didn’t reply when I responded to their adverts. One company which listed itself as a Mk2 specialist didn’t even send me the information he promised. Another company took the opposite view and even videoed the car to help me decide to make the trek north.  

This was a 1961 3.8 engined car which was exported to New Zealand when it was built and had only been back in the UK for about 6 months. On checking through my library the chassis number listed the car as being a 3.4 but the dealer assured me that it had a 3.8 engine. The car looked very good, very solid, good both inside and out. He even put it up on the ramps so I could have a good look underneath. We agreed a price and a part exchange deal on an MG RV8 of mine and I owned a Mk2. The price included a new MOT and a full service.  

I collected the car a week later and headed south for home. Before we let cars out on hire we normally run them for about 500 miles to iron out any wrinkles and make sure they will be reliable with our customers. The next weekend I drove it to the Jaguar Day in the Midlands and the guy on the gate suggested I entered it into the concours. I didn’t think it was good enough and hadn’t even cleaned it since buying it, but took a punt anyway. Despite being dirty and having a red painted air cleaner (since re-painted silver), I came away proudly clutching a plaque for 2^nd prize in the ‘Pride of Ownership’ category.  

Being keen on the history of all my cars I ordered a Heritage certificate to add to the paperwork that came from New Zealand showing it has had 24 previous owners. Yes the car had left Browns Lane with a 3.4 engine and British Racing Green paint instead of its current red. It doesn’t have fog lamps beside the front grille and apparently this was standard for export cars. I guess someone in Jaguar thought it didn’t get foggy in New Zealand.  

Being an early car, it has the famous (infamous) Moss gearbox with no synchromesh on first and fairly weak on second gear. That and having reverse gear very close to first, make gear changing a bit of a challenge and sometimes we have to take our customers round the block for a second lap, before they master it. Not being power assisted, the low geared steering involves lots of slow speed twirling with too many turns from lock to lock to count. A day out driving our Mk2 is a bit like having a day at the gym.  

Disks on all four wheels and a servo mean the brakes are phenomenal and must have been a complete revelation in 1961. No wonder Jaguar put a red warning triangle on the rear bumper. Mind you, if anyone is driving close enough to read the warning, they will die as soon as the driver hits the brakes.  

Other than an initial steering problem the Mk2 has been fairly reliable over the past 5 years and has covered almost 30,000 miles with only a few very minor issues. One bit of rough running was traced to the ignition leads breaking down and easily cured by fitting a new set. A year later I had a similar problem with the car running rough under load, but ok at a steady speed. The carbs checked out OK, as did the electrics. The problem turned out to be a broken mounting on the back of the gearbox.

I have had to replace clutch master and slave cylinders and a complete clutch but I regard these as wear and tear. The AED unit never worked properly making it difficult to start from cold. I installed a bypass switch to turn it on/off manually and now the car starts first time. I think I have a dodgy oil pressure sensor (as reported in the magazine) as the gauge reads nothing when the engine is warmed up, so this will be replaced this winter.  

While out on hire the car got stuck in the floods in July 2007 with water lapping at the bottom of the doors, so the door panels now show some water marks. I put the car in the garage afterwards to check that the brakes, axle and gearbox etc hadn’t been contaminated. I’ve also had to replace the alternator.  

As I write this (January 2010) the car is in the bodyshop having some minor rust repairs to a couple of the doors and the tops of the front wings around the indicator housings. I have ordered a set of door panels to replace the watermarked ones and will re-lacquer the woodwork myself to improve the interior.

I don’t drive the car much and most of its mileage in the past five years has been done by our customers. They always come back saying they enjoyed having to actually put some effort into ‘driving’ a car and think it is a great cruising car.  

After 5 years what do I think of a Mk2?  

For a car that is approaching its 50^th birthday it is fairly reliable and very comfortable. Most of the problems have been reasonable wear and tear for a car of its age. The brakes, as already mentioned, are brilliant. The power from the 3.8 engine means that straight line acceleration is tremendous and once I inadvertently managed to spin the wheels in 2^nd gear. Unfortunately Jaguar seems to have sourced both the steering and suspension components from the Royal Navy. Once following Elaine driving home in our MGB GT I couldn’t keep up as the car was wallowing all over the place. I wouldn’t want to have to drive it in a car chase in an episode of the Sweeney! I guess a later Mk2 with a proper Jaguar gearbox and power steering would turn this into a reasonable car.