A famous Jaguar racing car smashed to bits in a fatal crash nearly 50 years ago was shown off yesterday in all its restored glory.

The last competition car to be prepared at Jaguar’s Browns Lane factory in Coventry, the lightweight E-type crashed at the Montlhery circuit outside Paris in 1964.

After the accident, which killed the car’s driver, Peter Lindner, as well as another driver, the car was so badly damaged that a restoration was thought to be impossible.

It was discovered in a garage by a Frenchman 10 years after the crash and four years ago Peter Neumark, chairman of the ­Classic Motor Cars company, started the vehicle’s restoration from a large box of mangled metal parts.

Today, after 7,000 hours of work, the restored E-type – now thought to be worth as much as £5 million – was displayed at Classic Motor Cars’ site at Bridgnorth in Shropshire.

Mr Neumark said: “This is one of the rarest Jaguars as only 12 of this particular style were made. It’s certainly been the most difficult restoration we’ve ever done.”

Mr Neumark’s team have painstakingly restored the car using more than 90 per cent of the original parts.

The car will be displayed at the Villa d’Este motor show in Italy later this month and will also be shown at the Goodwood Festival of Speed in Sussex in July and at the Pebble Beach motor show in California.

The car will be looked after by Mr Neumark at his North Wales home. “We are not racing the car but it will attend rallies and shows,” he said.

At the unveiling were Patrick Lansard, who found the E-type languishing in a garage, and Thomas Fritz, a nephew of Peter Lindner.