The Last Jaguar E-Type
HDU 555N, a black V12 roadster built on 12 June 1974, was the last E-Type and the last of fifty Commemorative cars that closed production. Jaguar kept it, and it now belongs to the Jaguar Heritage Trust.
On 12 June 1974 the last E-Type was built at Browns Lane: car 1S 2872, a right-hand-drive V12 open two-seater in black. The line stopped 13 years and three months after the launch at Geneva.
Its papers and its life, stop by stop, are in the panels below; the Series 3 it belongs to is on the V12 page. This page tells how production ended and the stories that have grown around the last cars.source 1source 2
The end of production
Sources for The last E-Type (HDU 555N)
Jaguar Daimler Heritage Trust, "1974 Jaguar E-type Series 3 V12 OTS HDU 555N: The Last E-type Built"source 1; Motor Sport, "Jaguar E-type: the end of production and end of an era – but not of a legend", May 1975, p. 29source 2; XKEdata (xke.collectordata.com), Car page 1S2872 (5.3 open two-seater, HDU 555N)source 3; Dominic Tobin, "E-types assemble for 60th anniversary celebration at Shelsley Walsh", Motor Sport (motorsportmagazine.com), 11 Jun 2021source 4; Jaguar Land Rover (Jaguar media newsroom), "Jaguar Marks Sports Car Anniversary with Final F-Type" (press release), 13 Jun 2024source 5
The 2+2 cars of the Series 3 had already ended in 1973, and by 1974 only the roadster was being built. Production closed in June 1974 with a run of fifty roadsters, and 1S 2872 was the last of them.
Motor Sport said goodbye in May 1975, with a drive in this car and the production figures.source 1source 6source 2source 3
When did production end?
The Commemorative 50
The last fifty roadsters, called the Commemorative cars by enthusiasts and dealers rather than by Jaguar, were finished alike, and Motor Sport gave them their epitaph:
Jaguar celebrated (if that is the right word) the end of the E-type by distinctively finishing 49 of the last 50 V12 roadsters in black with chromium-plated wheels.
The other car was green, British Racing Green by the Trust's record ("dark green" in Motor Sport's), and it was the second-last, supplied to a private collector. The fifty cost no more than any other V12 roadster. No list of their car numbers has been published, and no source read says whether all were built with right-hand drive.source 1source 2
Two myths about the last cars
Kept
Where it has been
- 1974
Built, the last E-Type
12 June 1974. A right-hand-drive Series 3 V12 open two-seater with a manual gearbox, the last of the fifty roadsters that ended production in June 1974: 49 black and one green (British Racing Green, by the JDHT's record), each with a dashboard plaque bearing a facsimile of Sir William Lyons's signature. Motor Sport noted that this car's plaque was worded a little differently. Jaguar kept it from the day it was built
Jaguar Daimler Heritage Trust, "1974 Jaguar E-type Series 3 V12 OTS HDU 555N: The Last E-type Built"source 1; Motor Sport, "Jaguar E-type: the end of production and end of an era – but not of a legend", May 1975, p. 29source 2; XKEdata (xke.collectordata.com), Car page 1S2872 (5.3 open two-seater, HDU 555N)source 3
- 1975
Registered HDU 555N
5 February 1975. It was registered on 5 February 1975. That is the registration date only: production had ended in June 1974
Jaguar Daimler Heritage Trust, "1974 Jaguar E-type Series 3 V12 OTS HDU 555N: The Last E-type Built"source 1
- 1975
Motor Sport's farewell drive
May 1975. Motor Sport's writer drove it before it went into Jaguar's exhibition hall and found it noticeably slower than earlier V12s, the engines having lost some power to emission rules
Motor Sport, "Jaguar E-type: the end of production and end of an era – but not of a legend", May 1975, p. 29source 2
- 1983
To the Jaguar Daimler Heritage Trust
September 1983. Ownership passed from Jaguar Cars to the Trust in September 1983
Jaguar Daimler Heritage Trust, "1974 Jaguar E-type Series 3 V12 OTS HDU 555N: The Last E-type Built"source 1
- 2021
At Shelsley Walsh with 77 RW
June 2021. It made demonstration runs with 77 RW at the E-Type's 60th-anniversary weekend at Shelsley Walsh
Jaguar Daimler Heritage Trust, "1974 Jaguar E-type Series 3 V12 OTS HDU 555N: The Last E-type Built"source 1; Dominic Tobin, "E-types assemble for 60th anniversary celebration at Shelsley Walsh", Motor Sport (motorsportmagazine.com), 11 Jun 2021source 4
- 2022
In the Platinum Jubilee Pageant
5 June 2022. David Gandy drove it in the Queen's Platinum Jubilee Pageant in London
Jaguar Daimler Heritage Trust, "1974 Jaguar E-type Series 3 V12 OTS HDU 555N: The Last E-type Built"source 1
- 2024
Joined by the last F-Type
13 June 2024. Jaguar placed the final F-Type built at Castle Bromwich in the JDHT collection beside it, marking 50 years since the end of E-Type production
Jaguar Land Rover (Jaguar media newsroom), "Jaguar Marks Sports Car Anniversary with Final F-Type" (press release), 13 Jun 2024source 5
Sources
Sources are given as plain text; their addresses are on the sources page.
- Primarymade at the time, by the maker or by people who were there
- Referenceserious later work: clubs, specialists, magazines, books
- Jaguar Daimler Heritage Trust, "1974 Jaguar E-type Series 3 V12 OTS HDU 555N: The Last E-type Built". Primary
- Motor Sport, "Jaguar E-type: the end of production and end of an era – but not of a legend", May 1975, p. 29, p. 29; p. 29, the Commemorative paragraph. Primary
- XKEdata (xke.collectordata.com), Car page 1S2872 (5.3 open two-seater, HDU 555N). Reference
- Dominic Tobin, "E-types assemble for 60th anniversary celebration at Shelsley Walsh", Motor Sport (motorsportmagazine.com), 11 Jun 2021. Reference
- Jaguar Land Rover (Jaguar media newsroom), "Jaguar Marks Sports Car Anniversary with Final F-Type" (press release), 13 Jun 2024. Primary
- Jaguar Daimler Heritage Trust, Research Guide No. 001F: Chassis Number Runs and Change Points by model – Jaguar E-type, Issue 3, January 2023, the last Series 3 cars. Primary