H&H Classics – Jaguar E-Type Owned by Brian Clemens OBE

The car appeared in The Avengers with Clemens’ personalised number plate ‘140 MPH’

This stylish Jaguar E-Type was supplied new to the acclaimed screenwriter and television producer Brian Clemens OBE (1931-2015) whose credits included The Avengers, The Persuaders and The Professionals. It is estimated to sell for £65,000 to £85,000 with H&H Classics on 16^thOctober at Duxford, Imperial War Museum.

The car appeared on screen in The Avengers alongside John Steed and Emma Peel whilst wearing Clemens’ personal registration number ‘140 MPH’ (as seen below) making the E-Type a star in its own right.

Subject to a protracted restoration in the 1980s-1990s, it is a ‘matching numbers’ car and has just been treated to a very thorough engine overhaul by renowned marque specialist XK Engineering plus brake / suspension fettling.

One of just 1,473 RHD E-Type S1 4.2 Fixed Head Coupes made before the introduction of the so-called Series 1.5 cars.
It is offered for sale with an extensive history file including Heritage Certificate and XK Engineering bills.

The British Film Institute credits Clemens with ‘fashioning the television model of op-art and pop fiction in the world of espionage’, it also describes The Avengers ‘as a paean to the mid-1960s . . . that all but invented cult TV’. Damian Jones of H&H Classics comments: Given the cultural importance of The Avengers and Jaguar’s E-Type, it is no surprise that Clemens bought this car new and who can blame him for sneaking it on to the silver screen. For many, Jaguar’s sleek Fixed Head Coupe is just as memorable as Emma Peel’s leather catsuit or John Steed’s umbrella and bowler hat combination. An E-Type that has appeared in The Avengers is almost an overload of Sixties’ cool”.    

Brian Horace Clemens OBE, the screenwriter and television producer, is possibly best known for his work on The Avengers and The Professionals. Clemens was related to Mark Twain, a fact reflected in the naming of his two sons, Samuel Joshua Twain Clemens and George Langhorne Clemens.

He started his professional life by working his way up from messenger boy at the J. Walter Thomson advertising agency. While a copywriter at this agency he wrote a thriller screenplay shot by the BBC TV as ‘Valid for Single Journey Only’ in 1955.

He wrote the pilot episode for The Avengers in 1961 and was associate producer and scriptwriter for the series from 1961 -69. He cast Diana Rigg to replace Honor Blackman and he chose Joanna Lumley as Purdey from 700 girls when casting for The New Avengers which sold to 120 countries.  He had a distinguished film career writing and producing films from 1957 to 2012.

For more information about the auction please contact visit H&H Classics.