If you’re reading this book, of you know that former Tonight Show host Jay Leno is a car guy just like the rest of us. Sure, he might have a couple more bucks—and the most famous chin on television—but he likes to follow up leads and make discoveries just like you and me.
Most of Leno’s finds have been well documented in my In The Barn series of books, such as the Duesenburg he found in a public New York City parking garage, the Gullwing Mercedes 300 SL that had been parked in a storage container, and discovering the “missing” Vincent Black Shadow. But a good car collector or barn-finder is never satisfied, and when people with car stories write him, he follows up with the best.
Leno bought this cream-colored beauty 1963 Jaguar E-Type Series I coupe sight unseen.
“People send letters to the studio and tell me about a car they would like to sell, but they want it to go to a good home,” he says. “They don’t want to sell their prized beauty to someone who will profit on it. People know I never sell. They trust that I will care for their cars.”
The storage compartment in the back included the original factory tool bag and the owner’s manual.
One day, Leno grabbed a handful of letters from the mailbag and came across one from a woman with a message that intrigued him. “This lady wrote me about the 1963 Jaguar E-Type Series I coupe that she purchased new 50 years ago,” he says. “She wrote that she once had driven it up to 80 miles-per-hour. And she wanted it to go to a good home.”
An E-Type with one-woman ownership and never driven above 80 mph intrigued Leno. He called her and discovered she lived on a huge cattle ranch. And the more she talked, the more interested he became in her car. “I wound up buying it over the phone, sight-unseen,” he says. “The car is straight and true, and even the clock and tach work!”
The white coupe with black interior is just what Leno had long hoped for. It has the 3.8-liter engine that he prefers over the later 4.2 liter. It has mostly original paint, and the carpeting and leather interior are factory original.
“We cleaned up the engine compartment, removed the gauges to have them inspected, and changed the shocks,” Leno says. “But this car has absolutely no corrosion, even under the floor mats and gas tank.”
When he opened the storage compartment in the back, he found the original factory tool bag and the owner’s manual. “It was well maintained and driven by a woman, so even the often troublesome Moss gearbox still shifts like new,” he says. “It’s a car that even Enzo Ferrari said was the best looking car ever, which I believe. I’m so thrilled to own it—it is so much fun to drive.”
By the way, the original owner may not have exceeded 80 mph in its first 50 years, but Leno has had it up to 125 mph since purchasing it in early 2013. And how did it feel?
“Like it was brand new,” he says, “like it was brand new.”