You may recall that my last post featured an Ecto-1 replica built from an old Cadillac Hearse. Oddly fitting, in view of the death I'm dealing with in my personal life -though I don't believe the blog had anything to do with my dog's passing -advanced age (10.5 years -which is ancient for a 170 lb Great Dane) and Addison's disease is what caused the onset of symptoms that ultimately lead to his departure. -Today’s post picks up where that left off with hearses and Hollywood, and a vehicle that’s neither, but derived from both.
There are a few movies I really love, and one of them is a film from 1971 called Harold and Maude. It was written by Collin Higgins and directed by Hal Ashby, whose other work I am also fond of -most notably, Being There, starring Peter Sellers of the Pink Panther movies. If you haven’t seen Harold and Maude, then you should find some way to watch it. I’ll try not to make too much mention of the plot so I don’t spoil it for those of you who haven’t seen it, but I am going to talk about a couple of the cars from the film in order to lead up to the vehicle I’m actually featuring today.
In Harold and Maude, the main character, Harold (played by Bud Cort), buys a 1959 Cadillac hearse from a junk yard and shines it up to use as his daily driver. You’ll recall that the Ecto-1 hearse-ambulance/ghost busting mobile from the last post here was built on a 1959 Cadillac Chassis as well. The Harold and Maude hearse was not a Miller-Meteor modification like the Ecto-1. Instead, Harold’s hearse was customized by a company called Superior. As hearses of 1959 go, this was a more expensive builder to buy from than Miller Meteor. If you want the specs on a 1959 Cadillac, go check out the Ecto-1 post -it never hurts to do more reading, after all, and besides, I don’t want to rehash it so soon after presenting it, anyway.
Harold’s mother finds his chosen means of conveyance unacceptable and has it towed off. She replaces his hearse with a gorgeous 1971 Jaguar XKE roadster. The Jaguar E-Type is one of the most beautiful and gracefully designed cars in the history of automotives. Throughout its production run, they could be had as roadsters, 2 seat coupes, and 2+2 coupes. They were built from 1962-1974. Any E-Type would be lovely to have, though the earliest ones are the most valuable and desirable among collectors and aficionados. Those would be the 1961-1964 models, of which right around 15,500 were made that featured a 3.8L I6 engine with triple SU carburetors capable of producing 265 HP and 260 lb ft of torque. The very first 500 are the most sought after of these, and they can be told apart from their E-type siblings by their external hood latches.
1965-1967 E-types fall into what’s called Series 1 XKEs. They were powered by a 4.2L I6 that would be featured in various stages of tuning and detuning to meet environmental standards up through 1971. The 4.2L I6 came with dual overhead cams and was capable of 265 HP and 283 lb-ft of torque. The late 1967-1968 models are sometimes called series 1.5’s because they are a mish-mash of modifications made to accommodate evolving safety and emmission standards, and the ‘68s feature looks of a series 1 with interiors of a series 2 (most notably, toggle switches that were deemed dangerous to smack against in the event of a crash were changed to a less poke-your-eye-out variety of switches and controllers).
From the late 1968 E-types on forward, the most immediately noticeable outward difference is the lack of glass cover over the headlights (safety standards). 1969-1971 E-types were considered series 2 and were subject to even stricter emission standards than the series 1.5 -as such, they are the least desirable E-types to have. 1971-1974 was the time for Series 3 E-types, and they featured 5.3L V12 engines that produced 314 HP and 349 lb-ft of torque. You can tell the V12 E-types easily by looking at their tail end. If there are 4 exhaust ports, then it’s a V12, but if there are 2, then it’s an I6 -and if it‘s got 2 exhaust ports AND is a 1971 model year, then technically, it is considered a series 2 in spite of its model year.
1971 was the only year when an E-type could be had with either the I6 or the V12, and in Harold and Maude, the E-type roadster Harold’s mother presents him with is the I6, judging by its dual exhaust ports rather than quad exhaust. These 1971 I6 E-types are (aside from the first 500 E-types ever made) the rarest of E-types out there, but that doesn’t add much to their value in the eyes of collectors.
Not that any E-type is a bad thing. I can’t imagine anybody being presented with an XKE of any year not finding it a desirable car…. Unless we’re talking about Harold from Harold and Maude. After his mother leaves, Harold takes it upon himself to modify his gorgeous new E-type, and one can’t help but feel just a slight bit terrified at the thought of taking an oxy-acetylene cutting torch to such a gorgeous car, as Harold does in the film -by the way, I do not recommend welding while wearing polyester or any type of man-made material that is not flame resistant while operating a welding or cutting torch of any kind -bad example to set for folks, Harold!.
Rest assured, the beautiful roadster that was shown in the film did not actually feel the burn of Harold’s cutting torch…. Another E-type did, though. Later on in the film, we see the results of Harold’s customization efforts in this form.
Harold turned his E-type into a hearse. Though it’s not actually built from that lovely little roadster from earlier in the film. The car used to build the E-Hearse is a series 1 XKE, rather than a series 2, from what I can tell. A guess would be that it’s a 1968, so it could possibly be a series 1.5, even.
Harold’s hearse-building handiwork is not bad, actually, though there’s a reason you don’t see people converting their E-types into this movie car the way you see folks with old Miller Meteor hearses making Ecto-1 replicas, or people with 1969 Chargers turning them into General Lee wannabes. An E-type is such a thing of beauty, that, in spite of how cool the E-hearse from Harold and Maude may look, nobody would dream of sullying the purity of the E-type’s form in such a way. Of course, now that I’ve written that, I’m sure somebody will take up the challenge (not sure how I feel about that -I love the E-hearse, but I love the E-type in its intended form, too).
You might be wondering what ever happened to the E-hearse from Harold and Maude. It’s gone. The scene at the end when it sails over a cliff is for real. They only had the one E-hearse, and they did that scene in one take -during which one of the cameras that was filming at the time froze up, so the footage is grainy and freezes in the movie at one point. That beautiful custom E-type was destroyed for real and was not salvageable for rebuilding.
So, nobody can have Harold’s E-hearse unless they custom build it and defile the epitome of automotive beauty in the process…. Or can we? Well, turns out, we can -kind of. That brings us to today’s real featured vehicle -one I spotted cruising down the interstate this past summer.
Say hello to the BMW Z3 M Coupe. The designers of this little coupe openly admit that this car’s appearance was inspired by the Harold and Maude E-Type hearse. These odd little ducklings were available from 1998-2002, and while they may look bizarre outwardly to those not enchanted by the Harold and Maude E-hearse, it is said that their driving characteristics can charm even the harshest critics.
These M coupes carried sticker prices right around $45,000 when they were brand new, and they are sought after enough that pristine examples can command upwards of $30,000 even now, over 10 years after their production run. They have a 0-60 time of 5.1 seconds courtesy of the gutsy little 3.2L I6 (an I6 under the hood -yet another thing in common with the E-hearse) with 315 HP and 251 lb-ft of torque (European versions have more power, yet). This one today is even painted black like Harold’s E-hearse. You can definitely see the similarities between the two vehicles.
I would urge anybody who might be contemplating a custom conversion of an E-type to match the Harold and Maude car to consider instead tracking down and buying a BMW Z3 M Coupe. They’re both cool in a most peculiar sense of the word.
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