Game Changer: Jaguar E-Type

Only two cars have a place in the New York Museum of Modern Art’s Collection of Iconic Designs. One is an obscure but elegant Cisitalia, the other is a Jaguar E-Type.

After its launch in 1961, Enzo Ferrari famously described the E-Type as “the most beautiful car in the world” and he was not alone in that opinion. During 2008 a British newspaper survey placed it first in a 100-strong list of the world’s best-looking motor vehicles.

Curves had served as a Jaguar hallmark since the days of the XK120 and this model drew its influences from the Le Mans-legendary D-Type. Its tiny oval grille, abbreviated wheel-arches and faired headlights all echoed Jaguar’s most successful competition car. The slim, wrap-around bumpers had first appeared on the short-lived XK-SS derivative.

A clever, front-hinged bonnet provided easy access to both sides of the twin-cam Jaguar engine and could be quickly detached if the power unit and transmission needed to be removed.

The design of Jaguar’s most famous car originated in 1958, codenamed E1-A due to its aluminium bodywork. This car, even with an underpowered 2.4-litre engine, would reach 120mph and confirmed its designers’ faith in the aerodynamic shape devised by in-house stylist and former aeronautical engineer Malcolm Sayer.

Anyone who attended the 1960 Le Mans 24 Hour race got more than an inkling of Jaguar’s plans. The E2A ‘prototype’ campaigned by the US-based Briggs Cunningham team was an E-Type in all but the finer details of the finished design. Few could imagine it would appear so soon or at a price that had rival manufacturers shaking their heads.

From any angle, the Fixed-Head E-Type coupe was a gorgeous car and immensely practical. While the Roadster struggled to find any space for luggage in a boot filled with spare wheel and fuel tank, the coupe offered a sizeable luggage platform accessed via its side-opening hatch.

The engine was the same triple-carburettor 3.8-litre XK unit that had been added a year earlier to the company’s XK150 range. Output was 265bhp (197kW), but the E-Type was some 220kg lighter than an XK150S Roadster and demonstrably faster. Just how fast was debatable.

A flurry of requests for magazine test cars simply couldn’t be met until full production began, but Jaguar managed to find one for evaluation by ‘The Motor.’ With a longer 3.07:1 rear axle ratio and “some tuning”, this coupe managed to crack the desirable 150mph (242km/h) barrier.

However, it was generally acknowledged that the maximum available from standard cars was 225-230km/h.

Early cars had design and other problems which Jaguar addressed via regular upgrades. Flat cockpit floors obliged occupants to sit uncomfortably, so in 1962 deeper footwells were introduced. Perversely, ‘flat-floor’ E-Types are today more desirable and valuable than more common and comfortable versions.

A real bugbear was the graunchy Moss four-speed transmission used in XKs and absolutely incongruous for the E-Type. During 1964 when the XK engine was enlarged to 4.2 litres, the Moss ’box was replaced by Jaguar’s own all-synchromesh manual and a more efficient clutch design.

The sleek ‘XKE’ looked every inch a racer and US owners were particularly keen to test their cars on the track. In Europe there was serious competition from Ferrari and Aston Martin but across the Atlantic the E-Type dealt easily with early Corvettes.

In Australia, Bob Jane was the only local driver to receive a ‘lightweight’ E-Type and used it to win the 1963 Australian GT Championship.

• The E-Type was presented to the world’s press at the restaurant du Parc des Eaux Vives in Geneva on March 15, 1961. Such was the media excitement and clamour for demonstration runs up a nearby hillclimb that Jaguar founder Sir William Lyons instructed chief test driver Norman Dewis to drive through the night from Coventry to bring another model to Switzerland.

• The E-Type’s straight-six engine powered Jaguar to five Le Mans victories in the 1950s and by 1961 in 3.8-litre form produced 265hp (197kW), making it capable of 150mph (242km/h) and, like its XK120 predecessor, the world’s fastest production car.

• At launch the E-Type cost £2256 ($A4420), including purchase tax and the all-important optional wire wheels.

• The E-Type remained in production for 14 years, finding more than 70,000 buyers and making it Europe’s first mass-produced sports car.

• E-Type owners have included celebrities such as George Best, Brigitte Bardot, Tony Curtis and Steve McQueen.

• As synonymous with the Swinging Sixties as the Beatles and the mini-skirt, Jaguar’s iconic sports car has been available in all-electric form since 2018, when Jaguar Classic launched the E-Type Zero.