The Series 1 2+2

The 2+2 arrived in 1966 as an attempt to broaden the appeal of a car that had been designed without any thought of carrying more than two people. Jaguar added two fully upholstered rear seats, suitable for small children or, for a shorter journey, perhaps one adult.

It is a body style rather than a series, and mechanically it is the same car. What this archive says about rust, engines and running gear applies to it unchanged.

What Jaguar changed

Four changes did the work.

• The wheelbase and the overall length grew by 9in (23cm)
• The doors grew in length by 8.5in (22cm)
• The roof was raised by 2in (5cm)
• The footwells were extended rearward to create a dropped floor

This archive's specifications page records the resulting 2+2 wheelbase as 105in (2,667mm) against 96in (2,438mm) for the two seat cars, and the overall length as 184.5in (4,686mm). The nine inch increase in wheelbase is therefore confirmed by a second source.

The extra length is all in the monocoque floorpan behind the front bulkhead. The tubular front frame that carries the engine and the front suspension is common to every E-Type and is not lengthened.

A handful of smaller refinements came with the change: small storage trays under the dash, a lidded lockable glovebox, and individual air direction controls for driver and passenger.

The rear seats, and what they are really for

The rear seats are occasional seats and nobody has ever pretended otherwise. The more useful feature is what happens when you do not need them. The upper part of the backrest moves forward on a cantilever arrangement, extending the existing platform by approximately 12in (30cm). That gives a genuinely useful space for luggage, or for quite large dogs.

The first automatic E-Type

The extra length is what made it possible. The 2+2 was the first E-Type offered with automatic transmission, a Borg-Warner unit. It sold well in the United States, where it mattered, and was rarely chosen in the United Kingdom. The exact Borg-Warner model fitted to the six cylinder 2+2 is not established by this archive.

What it cost

When it was launched in March 1966 the 2+2 was the most expensive E-Type in the range.

The 2026 equivalents are Stephen Ruddick's calculation. This archive has not independently recalculated them, though the two figures are consistent with one another.

That £216 difference in 1966 is the whole irony of the car. The 2+2 was the dearest E-Type you could buy, and today it is the cheapest.

How many were built

Stephen Ruddick gives the following for Series 1 and Series 1.5 cars between 1966 and 1968, with his own note that the figures are approximate and that various sources differ.

• United Kingdom: 1,205 cars
• United States: 3,409 cars

This archive's production numbers page gives 3,616 Series 1 4.2 2+2s and 1,983 Series 1.5 2+2s, a total of 5,599. The two sets of figures are not directly comparable, because the first covers two markets and the second covers all of them. This archive has not reconciled them and does not claim they agree.

2+2 production figures are among the hardest E-Type numbers to pin down, because some sources treat the 2+2 as a body style and some treat it as a model in its own right.

Buying one today

Stephen Ruddick's own summary, set out as he wrote it.

What this page cannot establish

• The weight difference between the two seat coupe and the 2+2. Two accounts disagree by roughly a factor of two.
• Whether the 2+2's public launch and its entry into the chassis sequence are the same event. Stephen Ruddick gives a launch of March 1966. This archive's Series 1 page records the 2+2 entering the 4.2 chassis sequence in September 1965 for right hand drive cars and October 1965 for left hand drive. Both can be true, but the archive has not confirmed that each describes what it appears to describe.
• Whether the United Kingdom and United States totals reconcile with the per series totals published elsewhere on this archive.
• The Borg-Warner model number fitted to the six cylinder 2+2.

Common questions