Thank you to all the people who responded to my questions, George I forgot to say that although my car is 1970, the period I am initially interested in is in the mid 1980's. The elderly couple who previously owned the car could not recall the exact date and they purchased from a Jaguar dealer but as a used car. It seems the dealer they purchased from has since either gone out of business or is no longer a Jaguar dealer.
AS you might imagine to try and pin down some of this information from here in the UK is difficult and I shall be reliant on the help of some of the enthusiasts here on this and other Jaguar sites to feed in with their background knowledge.
It would appear that the car has been a California car all its life so it may be that like David my car may have come from British Motor Cars as our cars are not to far apart in age, so thank you David for that name, are they still in business do you know?
As to your question Stephan, there is basically two factors to answere your question. Firstly the exchange rate between the US and the UK has made it favourable to buy cars in the USA and ship them here. Secondly although we drive on the other side of the road to you we only have a strip of water 22miles wide (The English Channel) and we have the whole of continental Europe to visit, where of course they drive on the same side as the States. Covering large distances around Europe is made so much easier if on the 'right' side of the road.
Driving here in the UK is not so difficult with a left side car as our roads are perhaps more congested than in the US and so the opportunity to overtake is reduced. Having driven for some years with left hand drive it is not much of an issue when you become acclimatised. You tend to adopt a slightly different stance and position on the road, allowing more distance between you and the car in front and then use the power of the car to overtake when the opportunity arises.
Thank you all for your input and as posted elsewhere if you can give any help in how one traces previous owners in the US that would be very helpful too.
Thanks
Tony