A couple of months ago the Inspector Morse 2.4 Mk 2 Jaguar was up for sale by tender. According to news stories at the time the asking price was 153,000 pounds, reflecting a complete rebuild by experts, ordered by its owner, who had already paid more than 50,000 pounds for it. The asking price was, I believe, described by one classic car magazine editor as 'frankly ludicrous'.
Since then I've been completely unable to find out whether it sold, in spite of numerous Google searches, scanning mags etc. And the magazine editor hasn't answered my email.
Does anyone here know if it sold, and how much for?
I don't have a personal interest - just wondering if somebody would really hand over that much money for a 2.4 Mk 2 - which John Thaw was allegedly on record as saying he didn't even like driving!
|
Silly silly money - the 2.4 had simpler rear suspension IIRC and was not even the most desirable in the range.
Non standard vinyl roof and visible panel/paint damage in several episodes. Mind you , the 'cars of the stars' seemed in pretty ropey condition when I saw them in a Keswick museum.
--
I wasna fu but just had plenty.
|
"The 2.4 litre car, which has a top speed of 120mph..." I thought the 2.4 Mk2 would struggle to hit 100mph? A touch slower than the 2.4 Mk1.
Unsubstantiated rumour dept: did this car start out as a Daimler 250 and get converted to a Jaguar for the series?
Film cars do seem to make extraordinary amounts of money - the stunt cars for the recent Dukes of Hazzard and Starsky & Hutch films went for $30,000+ each and they were both comprehensively damaged!
|
|
|
What a staggering load of carp. The piece in the weblink called it a 'vintage' car and said it had beaten Chitty Chitty Bang Bang - not the real one of course, the cardboard one in the children's moveie - and 'James Bond's Aston Martin' to become 'Britain's all time favourite car' Not even a mention of Herbie the talking, front-wheel drive VW beetle.
I also very much doubt that an untweaked Mk 1 2.4 could reach 120mph. Indeed I would be willing to bet that it couldn't reach 110.
|
Not even sure it was 110, I believe it only just broke the 100 mark. A 3.8 was only good for around 128 from memory.
Ummm. vintage car a much abused term especially by idiot journalists!
|
Yes tr7, but I said I'd bet it couldn't reach 110.
That cart-sprung beam rear axle was quite well located I seem to remember - with 3.8 it would certainly have had one of those diagonal anti-tramp links - but in the Mk 1 especially was very short. Driven enterprisingly on bumpy A roads a 3.4 or 3.8 was quite tail-happy, but controllable by an alert driver. Of course as Mike Hawthorn proved these were not cars to fool around in, especially in heavily modified guise which could make them do 140
|
Diagonal anti-tramp link: should have called it a Panhard rod I think.
Of course the Chitty I referred to was Count Zborowski's which was real, not some fictional thing... actually I think he made (or had made) three, all different. Always quite fancied a 24-litre 1,500 rpm hill-climber, but have to say from memories of Shelsley Walsh a few years ago that those kind or specials look absolutely terrifyng to drive and they simply are very dangerous to drive in anger. Always fancied one though.
|
|
|
Yup read that after posting, wish they'd get 21st Century and get an edit button, I think the 2.4 & 250 V8 only just about break the 100 mark, damn fast for the time though.
Panhard rod on all of the Mk2's not sure about the Mk1 though.
|
|
|
|
|
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang - not the real one of course, the cardboard one in the children's movie
When you say the real one, do you mean Count Louis Zborowski's fantastic efforts in the 1920s, or the 8 litre, 12 cylinder, supercharged Paragon Panther in Flemming's book?
I wouldn't turn down either!
|
|
|
|
Suspension was the same for all Mk2's Leaf springs & live axle at the back.
John Thaw hated the car in the series as it was so unreliable although Thaw was a Jag owner in real life.
Apparently the car was regularly pushed into scenes in early series because it wouldn't start!
The car was a heap when it was last sold & to be honest restoring one for £50K is pretty much spot on. Bear in mind the series was watched world wide so a big pool of buyers, also their will only be one car to buy...
3.4 was generally reckoned to be the best as it revs better than the 3.8, also less likely to pop head gaskets.
|
Thanks for all this, folks. I well remember the Panhard rod at the back of the Mk 2 (I had a Daimler) - it was the stress-limit early warning system - it used to break away with a loud bang when the sideways stress equalled the surrounding area of rust...
Hawthorn, sadly, died in a quite heavily modified Mk 1 - Mk 2s had a wider rear track to get over just one of the handling problems with the earlier cars.
|
|
|
|
|
![2017 Jaguar XF 2.0d [180] Portfolio 4dr Auto](http://images.honestjohn.co.uk/imagecache/url/crop/90x60/https/cdn.uk.prod.group-mobility-trader.com/images/fallback/coming-soon.jpg)
