Jaguar E-Type Colours

Most of these are American papers, and the bulletins list repair paints for every Jaguar, not the E-Type alone. No British colour list for the E-Type was among the sources read.⁠source 1​source 2

Jaguar Cars Inc. sent its dealers the "Standard Range of Color Schemes for All Models for 1962" in December 1961. It was a list for every Jaguar sold in America:

Opalescent was Jaguar's word for its metallic paints. The memo also changed the trims: "Biscuit has been discontinued, Maroon has been added and the new Black is smooth-grained rather than pebble-grained." What it took out of the paints is told under British Racing Green, below.⁠source 1

In December 1964 a service bulletin listed three "new paint colours recently introduced in production": Warwick Grey, a Dark Blue that was not opalescent, and Pale Primrose. By August 1965 Jaguar Cars Inc.'s range for America had 11 colours for every model, Cream, Warwick Grey, Sherwood Green, Dark Blue, Black, Carmen Red, Opalescent Silver Grey, Opalescent Silver Blue, Golden Sand, Opalescent Dark Green and Opalescent Maroon, and one more for "'E' Type models only": Pale Primrose, with black or beige trim.

Black trim, too, was for E-Types only, with Cream, Carmen Red or Pale Primrose paint, and Jaguar's chart of December 1966 kept both rules. The roadster's hood came in Black, Fawn, Blue, French Grey or Sand. Denis Jenkinson of Motor Sport took delivery of his 4.2 coupé in March 1965 "in Carmen red with black interior", and explained: "I chose the red colour as I think all fast cars should stand out vividly."⁠source 1​source 4

Jaguar's service bulletins of April 1966 and March 1967 list the paints "in current production" for all models, with the firms that made them, so that a repairer could order the right enamel:

Jaguar's other papers call the same colour Golden Sand, without "Opalescent". Old English White was in Jaguar's range from 1966, but no E-Type list read offers it before the American V12 brochure of 1971, so a bulletin is evidence that Jaguar used a paint, not that it painted E-Types with it. Cream is missing from both bulletins although the dealers' lists of 1965 and 1966 have it; a repair list need not name every colour, so its absence proves nothing.⁠source 1

The colour guide for the 1968 model year, printed in America, marks the E-Type's own choices with an asterisk, "On E-type only":⁠source 1

British Leyland Motors Inc. printed the V12's colours in its American brochure of March 1971:

Of the trim it said only "Color coordinated interior trim available". No Jaguar list from the Series 2 years, or of the British Series 3's colours, was among the sources read. For the last two years the XKEdata register lists Azure Blue, Fern Grey, Green Sand, Heather, Silver and Turquoise, but by its own account its paint information has not been verified, and on several older colours it disagrees with Jaguar's dated papers, which are followed here.⁠source 2​source 5

British Racing Green was in Jaguar's colour guide when the E-Type was launched. Then, in December 1961, the American dealers were told:

It is missing from every list read from 1962 to the 1968 model year. The greens in those lists are Sherwood Green, Opalescent Dark Green and, from the end of 1966, Willow Green. Someone wrote "British Racing Green G.I.P. 24400" by hand at the foot of the March 1967 bulletin, a paint reference for repairs, though not evidence of a catalogue colour. By March 1971 it was back, printed in the American V12 brochure.

At the very end it had a car of its own. Jaguar finished the last 50 roadsters in June 1974 in black, all but one: the second-last car was green, British Racing Green by the Jaguar Heritage Trust's record and "dark green" by Motor Sport's.