(Silverstone Auctions)
The Jaguar E-Type Series III V12 Roadster is one of the most beautiful and lusted-after sports cars of all time, so of course if you owned one you’d leave it in storage for 25 years.
Well, perhaps you wouldn’t, but that’s exactly what a family in England did with theirs, which has finally come out of hibernation to be auctioned off.
(Silverstone Auctions)
Prior to a recent restoration, the 1973 Jag was last registered for the road in 1990, by which time it’d rang up just 7,700 miles on its odometer. In 1993 its original owner died and left it to his son, who himself passed away last fall and did the same.
(Silverstone Auctions)
The car had not been forgotten all that time, however. It was prepped for long-term storage from the start, kept in climate-controlled garages, and was fully serviced once in 2006.
It’s been brought up to running order again to pass inspection and is road ready. Aside from a bit of rust on the chrome, a few water spots on the paint, and the patina of time on the interior, it’s reported to be in near original condition.
Silverstone Auctions will be putting it on the block on May 23rd both in person at the Silverstone racing circuit in England and online, where it’s expected to fetch about $125,000, about 15 times what it cost when it was new.
Not a bad long-term investment, even if they didn’t get to enjoy it much along the way.