A Rebirth of the Jaguar E-Type
Words NZ Autocar | Images Jaguar
Here’s a story you might not have expected. Jaguar is restarting E-Type ‘production’ to mark 50 years since its retirement. There’s a catch though; they’re making just two of them, these two below.
Regarded as the most beautiful car ever made by Enzo, and the most important car of the 20th century by Autocar UK readers, the E-Type is steeped in history.
Now Jaguar’s historic vehicles division, Jaguar Classic, has used original blueprints to build two new E-Types from the ground up. A wealthy client in Southeast Asia ordered them.
Designed to original Series I E-Type specification and inspired by the final Series III Commemorative Edition, they are the only ‘new’ E-Types to exit the Jaguar Classic workshop. The last ones in production were made in 1974.
The pair of newbies are drophead coupés, finished in Signet Green and Opal Black. Powering them is the 3.8-litre straight six the E-Type used from 1961-1964. It now gets fuel injection instead of triple SU carbs and a five-speed manual gearbox. The original had four cogs. No power figure is available but back in the day it made the equivalent of 208kW.
Modern additions include a Bluetooth radio and a heated windscreen, not that the latter will find much use in SE Asia.
The Commemorative E-Types come with hand-woven Bridge of Weir tan leather seats, an aluminium centre console and knurled silver toggle switches.
A jeweller, Deakin & Francis, refinished the ‘growler’ badges in 18-carat gold and mother-of-pearl.
Each took more than 2000 hours to build, said the firm, though no cost was mentioned. But they will have gone for considerably more than £315,000 which is how much the 2021 builds sold for using refurbed chassis.
The Commemorative E-Types were finished not long after Jaguar ended production of the GT’s successor, the F-Type. The XE, XF and the E-Pace crossover have also gone by the wayside. Meanwhile, the final F-Pace SUV will exit the Solihull factory in a matter of days.
And, in unusual timing, a concept of the latest Jaguar GT will get an outing before Christmas. This is a preview of a luxurious electric car. After that, there will be no new Jaguars on sale for another year. The company will use that time to focus on brand-positioning activities ahead of an all-electric reinvention in 2026. Let’s hope for Jaguar’s sake that sales of EVs have started to lift by then.
