1962 Jaguar E Type Competition ‘2 BBC’

1962 Jaguar E Type Competition ‘2 BBC’ – one the most successful and significant early racing E-Types – a unique entry for Goodwood.

In truth this car has always had a tendency to double up, on its jobs, its careers and even its number plate. Sitting outside the BRDC Clubhouse at Silverstone, its deep-red gloss shrugging off the fine smirr of a gloomy day, it’s wearing the number ‘2 BBC’. Which is odd, as nearby is a Land Rover Discovery Sport carrying the same plate. Have we rumbled some nefarious car-cloning scheme?

Here to unscramble the mystery are the car’s latest owner, collector and racer Mark Midgely, and its very first, Robin Sturgess, whose Leicester company has been a Jaguar distributor since the 1940s. He also went racing in the products he was promoting, which is where we came in. For this beautifully restored machine, delivered from the production line to Sturgess in January 1962, was both Robin’s customer demonstrator and his weekend racer. Remember that at this time it wasn’t the norm to modify cars radically for sports and GT racing, although that doesn’t mean that Robin’s prospective customers always knew exactly what was under the bulging bonnet stretching in front of them. It’s the first time he has seen this particular car since a proud customer drove it away from his dealership 55 years ago.

This experimental roadster was the first mule of an upcoming race car and having said that, it featured a monocoque chassis with fully independent suspension, an aluminum alloy body and a 2.4-liter XK six-cylinder. This prototype was extensively tested by Norman Dewis, Ted Brookes, and Mike Hawthorn.

So 2 BBC was retired, the plastic window and brake vents removed, and sold (minus the numberplate, which Robin kept). Robin did race again into 1964 in Formula Libre with a Lotus-Cosworth 22 single-seater, but business and family pressure meant that couldn’t last. With Jaguar, Rover and Singer franchises plus a go-faster accessories operation, things were expanding.

Seemingly every A-list British celebrity had an E-Type, from the first soccer superstar George Best to the quiet Beatle George Harrison, who famously had a record player installed in his coupé.