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As I am going to spend a lot of money on the conversation, the resulting car body, suspension, brakes, interior, chrome etc. need to be in mint condition. I want to drive the car for many years and need to start with a well restored and corrosion protected car.

Nothing is more expensive than a cheap classic car. I need to find the best one that meets my colour preference.

The European market for Mk2’s is rather big and some of them meticulously restored and protected via epoxy coating or galvanic dipping. I could pick the 2.4 litre engine, however, even in the 90s very few people spent a lot of effort on restoring these. Most good cars are 3.8 litres MOD – manual transmission with overdrive. An automatic would have the advantage of being able to keep the center console trimming and the stick behind the steering wheel for drive mode selection. But anything goes, really, provided the car and axles are in condition categories 1 or 2.

I need to get my preferences clear on paint colour, interior color and how much original I want it. I def. want seat belts and headrests, but will I be happy with XJ6 or XJ6 seats in a Mk2?

Let’s start with the paint colours.

Preferred colours

Dark green, any shade, really. British racing green is a little dark but would be acceptable. The darker the less favourable would be black interior.

This one is particularly nice in a very light silverish green, currently on offer in the Netherlands. Dark blue interior, very good condition.

Plain silver works as well. Preferred with red interior.

And I still love the light blue as it reminds me of my beloved Jaguar E-Type.

This one is very dark blue with a lovely bright red interior. Very original. Currently on offer in Cologne.

All of the above work for me. I personally like a not too bright shade of red as well, but my wife disagrees, so this i not going to be a choice – every husband knows what I mean.

It was in August 2026 when the decision was made between my wife and me to embark on this journey and spend a considerable amount of money on a dream we both want to come true.

I won’t bore the reader with a long personal background, but I will mention a few points in my biography that seem to be relevant and if anyone is reading this who considers a similar project, it might help putting things in perspective.

I’ve been a car guy all my life. I still remember the very date of my Führerscheinprüfung and the conversations I had with my driving teacher. I started car life with an accident damaged 1981 Honda Civic, that my engineer father gave to me for free if I promised to fix it myself. Not a bad educational act I think.

From Fiat to Jaguar to Bentley

I went on with a 1980 Fiat 124 spider and after a few years I got myself a rather rusty 1964 Jaguar E-type Series 1 Coupé in opalescent silver blue, the best colours of all. I restored it from A-Z incl. engine and Moss gearbox rebuild, interior trimming (I feel I still have glue in my hair from the headliner I removed). The metal work and welding was done by a friend and I assisted as much as I could. I learned so much and the car was fantastic to drive.

I’ll skip a few cars, I might mention the 1962 Bentley S3 Standard Steel Saloon in Regal Red (what a beauty) in a later post.

Driving an electric car makes you not go back

Now the problem: In 2018 I purchased a new Tesla Model S, solid black paint, light grey (not white) interior and free supercharging. Beautiful car, in fact, I enjoyed driving it so much that I sold all my other cars because I did not use them anymore. The Tesla had everything: Space for the family, unbelievable performance, great design, modern digital conveniences. I never wanted to sell it.

That was until the owner of a company became bros with a criminal leader of a country.

I am not going to continue driving a car with that jerk’s signature on it. I looked at the BEV market and there was absolutely nothing that I wanted. Two years later: Still nothing.

British. Nothing else.

And I always wanted to get a classic British car again. I love the British culture, their design, their language, their literature, Shakespeare, Oscar Wilde, Edgar Alan Poe, Mary Poppins, Hogwarts – and I started looking around.

Lunaz does fantastic Jaguar, Aston Martin and Land Rover electromods – starting at 600.000 pounds. Sorry – I am not going to spend that much. RBW creates new MGB’s: They purchased the old body shell presses from British Motor Heritage and a producing new cars for the UK and the US market at a price point of approx. 120.000 GBP. I talked to them. Unfortunately, they are unable to make the car road legal in Germany at this point.

Next one: Halcyon in Sussex fully restores and rebuilds Rolls Royce Silver Shadows and Bentley T model. Lovely car with modern design, prices around 450.000 pounds. Doable, but still very expensive, and to be honest, the design is a little too blinky blinky to my eyes.

Settling on the concept

I then researched getting a well restored Silver Shadow or T model and getting the drive train replaced by an electric one. Obviously, I would need to find a company that had done this a few times – and there are quite a few. And I realised I was now flexible on the choice of car model! That made me decide very quickly to focus on the Jaguar Mk2. I always wanted to own one but never had!

For now, I have settled on Retro Electrics. I talked to one of their founders, Tim, and I should receive a concrete quote soon. The costs are going to be around 100.000 pounds, plus the donor car of course. Still a lot, but not much more than I spent on the Tesla eight years ago.