1947 Jaguar 1.5 SE Saloon

This is where the Jaguar saloon car story really begins. In the pre-war Swallow Sidecar and SS era, the company had cut its teeth building increasingly desirable sports cars and saloons, but with the 1.5 Litre, and its larger brothers, the newly renamed Jaguar Car Company really started to fly. In the aftermath of World War II, company founder William Lyons revived Jaguar production in late 1945 with cars that carried forward the make's 1937-39 styling. That renowned Jaguar design featured swoopy, close-coupled bodywork, with flowing wings and a traditional upright radiator grille flanked by large, freestanding, headlamps. Wire wheels were standard. Known to collectors (retrospectively) as 'Mark IV' models, these original post-World War II Jaguars were produced until 1948, at which point a new design officially designated the 'Mark V' series succeeded them.

Mechanically the 1.5-litre initially utilized a 1,608cc OHV four-cylinder Standard engine, but from 1938 this was bored out to 1,775cc, developing some 65bhp and was equipped with a 4-speed manual transmission. The cars were built on a separate chassis frame with suspension by semi-elliptic leaf springs on rigid axles front and rear with mechanically operated brakes using a Girling system.

Despite its lack of out-and-out performance, a report at the time, compared the 4-cylinder 1.5-litre with its 6-cylinder siblings, and opined that the smallest-engined version of the car was "as is often the case ... the sweetest running car" with a "big car cruising gait in the sixties and seventies (mph)".

This delightful 1.5 is an SE (Special Equipment) supplied new through Henlys Ltd of London to a Mrs. Dorothy Pratt in Leigh-on-Sea on 24th March 1947. The SE was equipped as standard with Lucas P80 headlamps, FT58 Fog Lamps, bumpers with curved ends and a heater!! Her pride and joy resided in the Essex area for the majority of its life until the early 1970s when it was loaned to a museum in Belgium.

It remained on display in the museum until just three years ago when it was repatriated and shortly after purchased by our vendor. The car appears in remarkable condition having been sympathetically restored in 2010 with replacement trim sewn to the original design and a new interior roof lining also copied from the original.

It has since been a long term recommissioning project for our vendor who has undertaken a full engine rebuild which included new pistons, liners, valves, bearings and oil seals, and has only covered approximately 50 'running-in' miles since. Additional work undertaken at the time included a refurbishment of the brake system and a rebuild of the car's steering box.

Enclosed within the Jaguar's history file is a Jaguar/Daimler Heritage Trust Certificate, invoices for work undertaken and past tax discs. Currently unregistered, having been on loan to the museum whilst the DVLA was updating registration documents to the current V5C system, this 1.5 is known to the Jaguar Owners Club and the DVLA and we are told with their assistance can hopefully be re-registered with its original registration.

This fabulous post-war Jaguar saloon ticks all the boxes. It's superbly presented and should be mechanically reliable, but when you take it out for a spin, that timeless, inexplicably addictive cocktail of creaks and groans and whiffs of oil and varnish and leather and hot metal are all there. Magic.

A lovely example with a wonderful charm, a rare opportunity to own a car from the formative years of Jaguar Cars.