1961 family Jag reluctantly on sale

Making the decision to sell a car for cash can be hard but few people will have faced the same reluctance as Basil Thompson of Evansville, U.S. As reported by the Evansville Courier Press, this British ex-pat isn't just selling a car - he's selling a vintage 1961 Jaguar.

Mr Thompson, 85, inherited the classic race car from his father in 1988 when the former newspaper editor passed away. Described by its owner as "like a member of the family" and referred to as "Dad's Jag", the vehicle has been a family treasure since long before it was shipped to the US.

Thompson has lovingly restored and refurbished the arctic blue 49-year old classic car ahead of its final appearance at the 15th annual British Motor Car Day, where it will bear the sticker "reluctantly selling this car".

"I don't know how I can sell it," he told the Courier Press. "It's been in our family all its life."

Yet having abandoned racing the vehicle in 1970 and with four other classic cars - a 1965 British Morgan, a 1984 Honda Prelude, a 2006 Mini Cooper S and a 1994 Firebird - Mr Thompson says he's running out of room for the Jag. Whilst he had originally planned to give the car to his younger brother in England, Brian, both siblings have agreed to sell the car due to its poor rate of fuel consumption (14 miles per gallon) and the rising price of petrol.

The reluctant seller says that he hopes that whichever car buyer takes the family car off his hands isn't from the area. "I don't think I could handle seeing it on the road," he told the local newspaper.

According to Thompson, everything in the car works - except the odometer and the clock. Although the former reads 43,133, he says "it's really 143,133". Meanwhile the clock has been broken since his father owned it. "When I arrived with the car in Evansville, I put it at 12:15," says Thompson. "So it's right twice a day."

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