1963 Jaguar XKE - Jay Leno's Garage

welcome to the jay

leno

garage

episode today we're going to talk about my favorite type of original and unrestored vehicle now we're here in the

jaguar

section of the

garage

if you've been to this website before you know a huge

jaguar

enthusiast that's my xk 120 1954. I've had that car, oh my goodness, for almost 30 years, but heavily modified. It has the 4.2 engine. It has 5 speeds. Some other tricks. The one next to it is a 1954 original jaguar xke 3.8 series

1963

100, one that I bought from the original. The owner, a lady, bought it new in

1963

. I bought it earlier this year and all I did was clean and restore it.

This is a classic example, if you take care of something, it really can last you a lifetime. I bought it because I had it for 50 years. It has never been an accident. You know, a few small dings if you look closely, but everything has been well maintained and, as a result, it is a perfectly original running car. Most surprising, even the clock works. one tip still works after 50 years which is amazing to me, it's original paint for the most part, I think it's been touched up in places, I'd say it's about 85, 90 percent of the original paint.

The lady who bought it for me told me that she once had it. up to 80 miles per hour, can you imagine that? But she took care of the car and maintained it. We've done a few things to it now, when I bought it it had been sitting for about two years and I would say any deterioration occurred. in the last few years because they put it under a garage we took the car to the shop here we took out the gauges we cleaned them we cleaned everything good this is what it looked like give me an example of what I'm talking about I took out the gas tank just to check it and Look, look, look inside, here, oh my God, you would have so much rust and corrosion, but there is none.

This car was well maintained, like I said, one new owner, these are the original wheels, you know, when you have a car capable of going 150 miles per hour, you don't want to risk rusty spokes, so we're going to remove these wheels in At some point, we'll rebuild them, but you can actually buy them. New wheels that are stronger, that are exactly the same and maybe about a half inch wider to take a more modern tire, that's what we're going to put on here, that's what's going to be on it, uh, that's what there is at this moment.

They're the originals, we're going to take them out, rebuild them, put them on the shelf, so if you ever want to go back to the stock 100, we can everything worked, attack the speedometer, take out the gauges, just clean them, take them. up to our speedometer just to check everything and make sure it's okay, there's almost no wear on this engine, the head has never deviated, huh, but she's all stuck, that's pretty much how it is, we're not going to paint it, We'll just clean it up and drive it like a 1963 car. The other interesting part is what the engine bay looked like when we first bought the car.

Let me show you these still photos of everything we did. It was cleaning it, just working with a lot of effort, a lot of metal polishing and everything came back. I didn't want to paint anything. I didn't want to restore the car I mentioned in the video a moment ago too much. We had the one we are sending. The original wheels are to be rebuilt. I bought a set of these wheels to put on the car. Spare wheels. Modern spare wheels so we can drive it. And you want to be sure. A car as powerful as this and as fast as this. you want to, you don't want to take any chances with the brakes, the wheels and the tires, but for the most part it's exactly how it came from the factory and oh my goodness how nice it is to drive, it's really amazing, let me show you below. the hood, let's open it up, let's see what we're talking about, well, I have a bunch of these books, factory original jags e-types, and when you open this, you realize that every picture here matches exactly what I have the old one. two blade fan corrosion around the gas cap I mean all the things this is proof that this car has not been modified at all because everything is exactly this is what my wheels look like when I bought it everything is exactly as it should Let's open the hood and you'll see what I'm talking about, as much as I like Aston Martins, I don't think they're as nice as these cars and these cars are half the price, okay, that's what an original is.

The engine compartment looked freshly cleaned. I don't think the head was ever out of this car. You can see the corrosion on the porcelain of the exhaust. What happened? The water entered through these grates and the rain, the rain. Rainwater would fall on the exhaust manifold and of course cause it to corrode a little and crack. We just cleaned everything, even the surface rust we cleaned, obviously there is a new battery. We have changed the fluids. I just replaced our heater valve, cleaned the radiator, okay, I don't think it has the original exhaust system, but it is an original exhaust system and all we did under the hood was clean this all out, this is very greasy and very dirty from years of all the dirt and stuff thrown on it, ok I changed the shocks.

I have the original shock absorbers. I put them on the shelf. I changed the shock absorbers front and rear. What else does the interior have that is original? Everything I did here was clean. We lifted the steering wheel, lifted it and sanded it and repainted it and as you can see it looks good, this is the original leather, I haven't touched it and that original piece of brushed aluminum in the center, on the transmission towel, normally . They are all scratched, no, it looks very, very nice, it has some scratches, but not bad and the sexiest part of this car is this, open the back door here, get a little latch here, open the hatch up here, I always like this. hatch I thought it was very sexy this is all the original material here it looks very very nice uh your spare tire and everything sinks here you saw how well it was taken care of you have a storage area here call it glove box if you want Will we get your tools?

You have your original tools, manual registration, all that goes in there and I love these clamshell seats, you know, without the headrest, yes, I know it's not as safe, but sometimes it's better to look good and be safe, I know. that's ridiculous, but it had seat belts, there you go, but you know you had an interior like this, it's a well-equipped car, this is a fast, grand touring sports car, I don't know how many, actually, 150 miles per time, probably not. many, but you can certainly go 125 130 because I know because this has been at that speed, but it's a wonderful car to drive, very sexy, very light, very mechanical, you know, a lot of guys I think will ruin these cars and try to get them up because When they came out, they competed with the Corvette and other cars like that and people just tried to force them to do things well that they could do but really shouldn't have done.

This makes it a wonderful classic car. Contrary to popular belief, they are quite reliable. and those motors are pretty bulletproof if you know what you're doing or find someone who knows what they're doing, don't mess with it, don't modify it, bring it back to original specs, uh, this mirror is, uh, This is real. 60's piece, you know, most people would have put the bullet type, but that's what came with it when it came out of the factory. In fact, this car probably had whitewall tires, as silly as it sounds, but I love the fact that everything in this book matches everything under the hood of my car, the exhaust system, the steering , the handbrake, I mean, everything, everything is there and that makes it cool, it's a real-time warp car and I have to say I'm excited to have it, it's a lot of fun.

Drive around, you'll see, I have exactly the same corrosion there, where is it here? Let me see, wow, look, look, look, my corrosion matches that corrosion, how is that? How is that authentic? I have a leaking rear main seal so the engine will probably have to come out for replacement but it's okay the chrome is original none of the chrome has been redone uh even the license plate bracket is original and has the company British car dealership, this is exactly what you would have. Obtained in 1963. Very very sexy car, original old style two blade fan and you know it works well, it runs at about 70 degrees Celsius and that is in California where it is quite hot, with the exception of our modern battery and some other things, it's from 1963. we're going for a ride in an original factory jaguar e-type.

You know, it's great to drive a perfectly original 1963 xke because a lot of these have been modified over the years and you don't really know how good or bad they were when they were. brand new and like the original car god unmolested this thing is amazing you realize how good they were when they were new and what a bargain they were compared to Aston Martins and Ferraris these are half the price of the cars from the competition, this is my favorite generation xke this series one, you know, the best board, the best gear, uh, you know, it's, uh, it's the most romantic era of moss changes, even in '63 they complained that it did not have a synchronized first gear, but you know that this one is so well run that it shifts perfectly years of not abusing the car the gears have simply run very well you know that the mid-60s were a very romantic time for cars they wrote songs about cars nobody writes songs about cars nowadays but Jan and Dean, Dead Man's Curve and you know, the little cobra Xke and Spring and all these cars, uh, it was just a different time .

You know, it's amazing when you realize how small this car is compared to modern cars. It's very long, but it's actually not particularly wide, it's a pretty small car compared to modern cars. Enzo Ferrari called it the most attractive car of all time and I think he is not far from wrong, the fact that they produced so many of them might have taken something away from it. because of how exotic it is, but what an incredible car it is. I know a lot of people like the convertible, which is the car everyone loves, but to me, these coupes are much better looking and more aerodynamic looking.

I love the tailgate, just fantastic. Now there are a lot of cars that don't look good in white, but this one has such a great shape that it looks good in any color, let's take it out on the highway and see how it drives, huh, so at 70 you're spinning around 3 3000. rpm, you know they could never put overdrive in these because there wasn't enough room. I imagine if they had continued making this car they would have put a 5 speed in it, but while it could use a 5 speed, I'm just going to leave it stock, it just shifts and drives great, you know, this car epitomizes the classic dash an English sports car, you said before, the speedometer is here, tachometer and again, the most surprising part, the clock still works.

You know, after 50 years, the clock still works. and a jag which is amazing to me, I think it's an omen, it's a sign that the car has been taken care of, you know, these were considered illegal because they were dangerous in an accident, they would hurt you and you had to go to those klutzes. plastic rocker switches, but I thought they were very stylish. I have your ashtray there for your Don Draper Mad Men type of stuff. Another interesting part is looking at the radio which is a radio from the British motor corporation division they put their own radio with their own label there once again the classic English xke steering wheel classic four speed gearbox right here your box of moss like I said there's no timing at first but that's okay, that's not the end of the world, it's a lot of fun to drive a car, I love these clamshell seats, you know, no headrests, you know, these were said to go 150 miles per hour and I think in 1963 we looked at 150 miles per hour the same way we look at 200 miles per hour today or maybe even faster than you couldn't.

Hit these cars any way you could, I think corvettes or even Porsches, but I think they are better classic cars than probably a new car because when they came out, American gas stations and garages didn't know how to fix them and if the Jaguar had a problem in the America, it was probably in service, but if you took care of them and treated them well, they would last forever. This is a testament that you know we Americans tend to own these things for a couple of years and throw them away. it drives away and then someone else gets it and they fix it and the car ends up with a bad reputation.

Well, I hope you enjoyed the ride on the uh 63 xke. You know, this is still one of the great classic car deals. If you can find one, grab it now because these are going to be crazy at the crazy prices now, but trust me, you'll look back and walk away. I should have bought it then, so if you find one, it's better than stock. market, you see that that is the firstnon-synchronized gear, yes, see you next week, thank you, bye.