Jaguar E-Type Coupe

The Jaguar E-type was launched in 1961 at the Geneva Motor Show. The Coupe was unveiled by Sir William Lyons - Jaguar's founder and then Chairman of the Coventry-based luxury car manufacturer. Such was the response that Sir William immediately asked for a second car to be brought from Coventry to allow international motoring journalists to experience the E-Type's dramatic 150 mph performance. Norman Dewis, Jaguar's chief test driver at the time, got the message whilst he was testing the E-Type roadster near Coventry. To meet Sir William's deadline, he drove through the night from to join him in Geneva the next day. The E-type went on to have a 14-year production run at Jaguar’s Browns Lane factory. There were four main engine variants 3.8, 4.2, and the 5.3, and over 70,000 were made, with the final E-type produced in 1975.

Performance was only part of the package. The extraordinary elongated bonnet and the sinuous curves of the body shell have excited stylistic taste buds ever since the first model hit the drawing board. But the E-type (or XKE) was never just about styling. Technically speaking it was very advanced for its time and came with a double overhead cam engine, fully independent rear suspension and four wheel disc brakes. And it did all this at a price of around £2,000 for the Fixed Head Coupe, almost half that of its major rivals the Aston Martin and the Ferrari.

The majority of these innovations were developed through Jaguar’s racing heritage. The E-type has direct links back through the Jaguar racing pedigree to the XK120, the C and the glorious D-type that captured the Le Mans 24-hour race in 1955, 1956 and 1957. Little wonder then that the E-type became an almost instant classic. Simply, there is no other road car like it.