According to sir William Lyons, well known as mister Jaguar is the MKII the maxim of grace, pace and space. Nowadays it is known as one of the nicest saloons which are classic but are very usable on a daily base as well.
The MKII has two faces, one face shows a very fast sport saloon which make the car very attracting during it’s years for the police as well as for the thieves (think of the movies from Get Carter with Michael Caine and off-course inspector Morse). The other face showed an extremely comfortable, representative car which was mainly used as a business car for the “upper-class”.
The space inside, the way of sitting in the chairs, the looks, but above all the way of driving make the Jaguar one of the greatest saloons to have in a collection.
Approximately 6 years ago we were able to find a Jaguar MKII in a unique condition. We drove about 10.000 kilometers with the car in one summer.
That specific Jaguar MKII was completely restored and upgraded in the Netherlands by a company which was specialized in upgrading Jaguar MKII’s.
The so-called Roadster Group was specialized in making a classic car better then new. The goal of the company was to restore Jaguar MK2’s as perfect as possible and to do a restoration on such a way that the car could be as good in quality perspective as a new car.
From the outside, the Jaguar had to look as classic as when it was newly coming from the factory, but the inner side had to become a more modern car.
Therefore, this Jaguar MKII has been added with different technical aspects to upgrade the car.
Some of these upgrades are:
and so on and so on.
The Roadster group mainly picked up the base of the MK2’s from California or Texas as they were without rust.
Then the cars were completely stripped down. Every nut and every bolt were taken from the car and a full rebuilt started.
A rebuilt/restoration was done with keeping in mind that the Jaguar should drive at least 40.000 kilometers each year, so the quality level had to be rather high.
This specific Jaguar MKII has been tailor made for a company in Holland. The reason was that these cars could be restored for a high amount but tax wise it was very interesting to drive these car on the company’s name.
Amongst the upgrade as described above, the customer wanted to have extra options such as:
When driving this Jaguar it is clear that this has been indeed a very impressive restoration with superb upgrades.
We have had quite a lot of Jaguar MK2’s but this specific example is drive wise difficult to compare with other cars.
It would be fantastic to drive this car on a daily base.
CONDITION EXTERIOR
As this car has been completely restored some years ago, it would be possible to find some minor details on the car, but overall the car is in a very nice condition.
The body is nice with beautiful paintwork.
The chrome is beautiful as well with some minor scratches on the door handles.
CONDITION INTERIOR
The interior is wonderful with nice beige leather and very comfortable seats.
The wooden dashboard has recently been newly varnished and is almost a mirror.
The benefit of electrical windows in a MKII is superb but even the stereo installation is nice to use in the car. It makes the Jaguar a serious car to drive on a daily bas.
DRIVING EXPERIENCE
When the key of the Jaguar is turned it becomes immediately clear that this is a drivers car. The engine sounds very nice and healthy and sounds if she wants to be taken out for a long trip.
The gearbox which is a more modern 5 speed gearbox shifts very well even if the gearbox is cold.
The brakes which are 4 disc brakes on the MKII are perfectly working as well.
The clutch feels healthy and picks up correctly.
This is such a car which feels as it should be without strange noises, just a nice driver for serious trips whereby the 5th gear is a must have!