Some cars are valuable because they’re rare. Others because they’re fast. This one’s valuable because Rowan Atkinson hit a sculpture with it.
It’s the 1963 Jaguar E-Type Coupé from Man vs Bee, the Netflix series in which Atkinson plays a house-sitter locked in mortal combat with an insect.
During the carnage, the E-Type’s rear window gets shattered, the dashboard takes a crowbar to the face, and a diamond cutter is taken to the bodywork. This is that very car.
Now it’s up for sale at the NEC Classic Motor Show on 8 November, offered directly from Atkinson’s personal collection, without reserve.
The car
Underneath the celebrity chaos, it’s actually a rather lovely early-series 3.8-litre coupé - Opalescent Gunmetal Grey, manual ‘box, matching-numbers engine block, and all the usual adjectives anoraks like to whisper to each other over a pie.
Originally a US-market car, it came back to the UK in the late ’80s and was converted to right-hand drive with fresh chrome, retrimmed interior, and an SS exhaust.
Following its on-screen beating, it’s been properly repaired - except for one detail. The small hole Atkinson cut into the rear wing during filming has been sealed back in rather than fixed.
Apparently he insisted on keeping it that way, which is exactly the sort of pedantic authenticity you’d expect from a man who owns a McLaren F1.
The most beautiful car ever made
The E-Type’s legend doesn’t need retelling. Geneva, 1961, Bob Berry driving through the night, Enzo Ferrari calling it the most beautiful car ever made - you know the story.
But six decades on, it still looks better than most new cars, and the fact that this one survived a comedy demolition scene only makes it more interesting.
Atkinson has form for this sort of thing. His F1 famously had a hefty prang on the A605 and was repaired at enormous expense.
The man doesn’t just collect cars - he uses them. And, occasionally, reverse-parks them into expensive art.
If you'd like a bid on Blackadder's Jag, you may do so on the 8th of November at the NEC Classic Motor Show.
