You don’t need to be a fanatic petrol head to know some of the iconic sports cars from the past. Even the most casual car guy can identify a Porsche 911, a Shelby Cobra, or a Ferrari GTO.
If we push the knowledge of this casual enthusiast a bit further, he might recognize a Jaguar E-Type if he sees one on the street. After all, this is the car that, allegedly, Enzo Ferrari described as “the most beautiful car in the world.”
I took this picture in September 2021, when I was living in Markham, ON. What caught my attention was the fact that it is not every day you see not only one but two convertible E-Types, parked side by side, on the same driveway. Who is this guy? Is he (or she) so passionate about the E-Type that owning one wasn’t enough?
Exploring the car’s mythology helps explain why enthusiasts are so passionate about it.
The E-Type is much more than a pretty face. The car was heavily based on the Jaguar Type-D, the brand’s official race car, which won Le Mans in 1955, 1956, and 1957.
The E-Type debuted in 1961, bringing revolutionary racing features to passenger cars, such as unibody construction, independent suspension on both ends, and disc brakes on all four wheels. The first generation was equipped with a 3.8-litre inline-six engine, fed by three SU carburetors, delivering 265 hp (198 kW). This enabled the 1350 kg vehicle to reach a top speed of 240 km/h, and the whole package came at a very competitive price. No wonder the E-Type became a success all over the world.
In 1964, Jaguar increased the engine’s displacement to 4.2 liter, with the same power output but a bit more torquey.
In 1971, Jaguar adopted a few changes to make the car appealing to a broader customer base. The last version of the E-Type offered a longer wheelbase, a 5.3 V-12 engine, automatic transmission, air conditioning, power steering, and fuel injection. Its last year of production was 1974.
Memories
When the subject is the Jaguar E-Type, there are two stories that always come to my mind. This is the first one:
In-line 6 vs V12
Back in the early 2000s, I was watching a classic car race at Road Atlanta, and there was a guy competing with a convertible E-Type. The sound of that in-line 6, coming out of the 6×2 straight pipes, was like a beautiful symphony. At the end of the race, I went to talk to the guy, and I asked him why he chose the 6-cylinder car instead of the V12.
“The car was designed to be powered by an in–line 6. The V12 was just a marketing tool. The 6 cylinder E-Type is a much better car on the racetrack.” He answered.
Judging by how fast that Jag was, he was absolutely right. I thanked him for the interesting lesson and left. It is sad I didn’t take a picture of the car and its owner.
This is the second one:
The trim tag.
In 2014, I had the privilege to work for Phoenix Studio, one of the most prestigious restoration shops in Brazil at the time. During my one year there, I had the chance to see quite a few E-Types stripped to bare bones and confirm that the car does look like a race machine.
On one occasion, I was reviewing the parts list to be ordered from the UK for an E-Type, when a colleague came to me and said he had found a guy in town who could reproduce the car’s trim tag for a fraction of the OEM price. We ordered the tag, and when it arrived, we were surprised by its quality. It was a real work of art, but there was a minor mistake that forced us to refuse it: the artist misspelled the name of the city, writing ‘Cofentry’ instead of ‘Coventry’.
You get what you pay for, I guess. Anyway, we decided to give the guy one more chance, and the second tag arrived without any flaws and was perfectly installed on the car.
I hope you have enjoyed this catch of the day. See you next time.
The Classic Machines 
The wife’s all time favourite, always wanted one, never going to get one! Strangely they do nothing for me. I always reckon the tyres were too skinny and it just looked odd. Can’t fault those straight 6 Jag engines though. Over here they were the motor of choice for a lot of drag racers back in the day.
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I agree with you, the skinny tires always threw me off, but now I think it is part of the car’s charm. I wish I could have seen a Jaguar 6 cylinder car on the drag strip.
Hot rods powered by V12 Jaguar engines and equipped with the brand’s independent rear axle was a thing back in the 1960s and 1980s. My ex boss at Powertech has a 1934 Ford coupe like this, but the car is not done yet. It is a project that has been going on for over 20 years now,
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There are still a few Jag engined cars running in the nostalgia meetings today but those motors are expensive, whereas in the ’70’s they could be picked up in scrap yards for a few quid!
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When I was a poor student in Coventry I was always crazy about motorbikes and made friends with the local Honda deal who serviced my CB750 K6. Martin’s Dad had a beautiful E Type V12 which he once let me drive, goodness the bonnet was so long it was like steering an ocean liner!!
And as Jaguar was in those days based in Browns Lane Coventry and as a student I was sponsored by JRT, I also ended up working for the Jaguar Marketing Manager (Peter Battam) and the MD was John Egan. I got to know John Egan when we all worked a full weekend getting the Jaguar showroom ready for an event, they had the Jaguar Heritage collection and my goodness WHAT a car collection that was.
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I can only imagine how cool this exhibition must have been. What a nice experience.
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And ps the V12 had aircon but if the weather was warm, the exhaust pipe passing under the car made the cabin terribly hot and the aircon could not keep up….
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Perhaps another indication that the V12 was not supposed to be there. Besides, the engine looks absolutely beautiful under the E-type’s hood.
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I agree, beautiful engine and car. But not a practical car for sure.
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Love your articles, Rubens!
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Thank you, Chris. I am happy you enjoyed it.
I am trying to rescue some pictures and the stories that they bring with, before I loose them forever in the fog of my falling memory.
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About 15 years ago, a friend of my daughter’s bought a Jaguar off a used car lot. Her friend and his father knew cars and worked on it. He let me drive it. I believe it was four on the floor. It was the biggest lemon this side of the US. Whoever owned it before him likely messed it up driving like a lunatic and not doing regular maintenance. Another great post, Rubens! 🙂
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Thank you Nancy. I believe the 4 on the floor was the standard tranny for all the Jaguars until the 1980s, fun cars to drive, when everything is working fine. Reliability never was the strongest point for British car and motorcycles. Those machines are very peculiar and you need to really love them to accept their flaws. The biggest complains at Studio Phoenix was the electrical system as a whole and the carbs.
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