So beautiful, to the point of being considered a milestone in automotive design, and to have integrated the collections of one of the largest museums of contemporary art in the world.
So daring, that Enzo Ferrari himself, although usually so quiet, would have made a glowing comment about it when it was released.
So desirable, that those who did not have the chance to drive it invent faults in it. So rare, and yet 77,000 copies were produced in its various versions.
Here is the Jaguar Type E, a sports car icon, emblematic of the sixties, which we can safely say that it has never left and will never leave anyone indifferent.
A real thunderbolt! Incredibly modern and extremely attractive, it claimed performances superior to most of the major sports cars of the time for a standard car rate.
The E-Type is unlike any other sports car and is closely derived from the racing Jaguars of previous years, Type D victorious at the 24 Hours of Le Mans from 1955 to 57 and the ephemeral E2A of Le Mans 1960. As a result, it puts into practice and offers in series the principles and technical lessons from the competition, including aerodynamic research conducted by Malcolm Sayer applied to a technical architecture defined by William Heynes. The result is this astonishing line, to say the least, where the hood occupies half of the car, combined with rounded sidewalls half-hiding the almost careened wheels.
The whole thing probably surprised some visitors to the Geneva Salon, who were more inclined to appreciate conventional and nevertheless very successful forms of contemporary Italian or British productions.
However, the rest of the characteristics displayed by the E-Type left no one in doubt about the bomb launched by Jaguar in March 1961 in the small world of sports cars.
Imagine: 4 independent wheels and 4 disc brakes combined with rack and pinion steering in a mixed, semi-monococo structure with a tubular mesh for the front part, propelled by the 6-cylinder engine with double overhead camshaft and 3 carburettors, already known, of course, but still modern. The top speed was given for 240 km/h and all was displayed at a price equivalent to barely half of Italian competitors Ferrari and Maserati! A real pavement in the pond. Because in addition to this barely believable price, no sports car of this time was in a position to offer such modernity and very few, such performances.
Even the most seasoned observers will note the presence of the ancient Moss box, solid but slow, inherited from previous models and somewhat dissonant in the middle of this anthology of novelty.
It is also possible to imagine that traditional Jaguar customers were a bit disoriented when it came to the Type E. Indeed, when compared to the venerable XK150 that it replaced, no continuity in style or proportion can be detected. We even get the feeling that one or two generations of intermediate models are missing.
The three examples presented in Geneva are in fact prototypes, two of which arrived from the factory by road, and the Type E is still a long way from serial production, which would only start a few months later.
Nevertheless, the Geneva demonstration coupe carefully prepared by Jaguar technicians will soon demonstrate the capabilities of the new model by reaching the 240 km/h promised by the catalog, a performance that is difficult to replicate with a production car, even if a few E-types in shape will manage to approach it later.
The customers that the new Jaguar is aimed at will not long resist the appeal of the sublime lines of the E-Type and its astonishing performances. Orders poured in and deliveries began during the second half of 1961 only for exports, at least at the very beginning. The United States was the main market for Jaguar at that time and for many years to come. Demand for the new Type E is immediately very strong there and about 2/3 of the total production of the model will be exported to the USA.
As we saw briefly, the Type E offers in this category characteristics that were new in 1961, more similar to a race car than to those of a car available at the dealership down the street.
In this regard, it is useful to remember that Jaguar, in 1961, was already a brand that offered luxury and sports cars built in series. In this sense, it cannot be compared to semi-artisanal firms like Ferrari or Maserati whose annual production figures represent only a tiny percentage of those of Jaguar. Thus, for the year 1962 for example, Ferrari delivered 493 cars of several types while Jaguar released 6,253 copies of the E-Type alone (so not counting the Mk2 and Mk X sedans assembled in parallel!).
These production volumes partly explain the very low selling price of the Type E, while further highlighting the audacity that reflected, for a manufacturer of this importance, the study and marketing of a car so advanced in terms of style, technical innovations and performance.
When it was released, the Type E replaced the XK 150, which was derived from the XK 140 and 120, the latter having been presented in 1948.
Although having also benefited from the lessons of racing, the XKs remained of a classic design inherited from the pre-war period. The 4 disc brakes and the rack steering of the XK150 could not make you forget the ancient frame with side members and the rigid rear axle on leaf springs.
Moreover, these attributes were then very common in 1961 and Ferraris as well as Maseratis still rely (and for a long time) on a chassis, very well designed, but also including rigid axles and leaf springs.
The Type E unibody, completed at the front by a tubular mesh supporting the engine and the suspensions, is a new solution on a production car, taken from the Type D competition. The rear suspension with independent wheels with 4 combined coil spring/shock absorbers is another innovation. As for the one-piece tilting cover, it is very practical for accessing all the mechanics in addition to creating a spectacular effect when opened.
This design also has the advantage of a significant reduction in weight, with the Type E being at least 200 kg less than an XK 150 on the seesaw. You don't need to be a seer to understand that, powered by the same 3.8-liter 3-carburetor 265-hp engine as the XK 150 S, the new E-Type will prove to be much more agile and faster.
Find yourself in front of a Jaguar Type E and you will immediately understand what a majority of visitors to the Geneva Motor Show felt.
Sixty-two years later, the effect produced seems to be intact!
This car is beautiful. From every angle. It seems very small and almost unreal as it is unlike any other. Its proportions are implausible and yet the result works, surprisingly.
No unnecessary decorations or superfluous ornaments. Just thin bumpers interrupted with taste, delicate almond-shaped lights, a small mouth, bubble headlights and large vents on the hood. Some car designers of the time probably lost sleep for some time after seeing the first Type E!
Another unusual fact: the convertible is as successful as the coupe, and at no time gives the impression of a version that you would have hastily cut the roof over, as is often the case when the closed version is very balanced.
The 1963 3.8l convertible that awaits us confirms this feeling and appears quite sublime in this Golden Sand metallic gold dress.
The opening of the (very) small door reveals a very high threshold forming a large pontoon that must be stepped over to reach the seat below, one leg at a time, avoiding putting one foot through the large steering wheel. The exercise is particularly complicated when the condom is in place or if you are over 1m80 tall and lack flexibility.
But once you are seated, your efforts are rewarded by a fairly extraordinary environment.
In the foreground, a superb steering wheel with a varnished wooden rim and aluminum spokes with holes and holes, which precedes a very aeronautical dashboard, decorated in its center with an alignment of gauges and other pressure gauges to which, one floor lower, respond to a series of rocker switches aligned as if on parade. Of most of the 3.8 liters, the center console normally has a hammered aluminum finish, which our car is strangely devoid of. Beyond the dashboard, through a tiny windshield with a minimalist frame, your eyes are in the distance on a hood that seems to have no end, with in its center a large boss that you certainly did not guess as impressive, when viewed from the outside. And yes! You have to house this big 6-cylinder XK, a monument of verticality, in such a frail car.
Bucket seats are as beautiful as they are uncomfortable. The fixed backrest does not rise higher than your shoulder blades and they do not move back enough to be properly installed, if you are always more than 1 m 80.Fortunately, the steering wheel can be adjusted in depth, allowing you, as best you can, allowing you to define a relatively acceptable driving position.
The small gear lever is very well positioned, which is fortunate and we will see why later.
Contact key in the center, in the middle of the switch battery. Starter button right next door. One press and the XK starts with a whirring that is as evocative as it is pleasant.
The sound of this engine is undoubtedly one of the great pleasures delivered by the Type E!
A pleasure that can be immediately ruined by the sinister growl emitted by the sprockets of the box if you have engaged the first one too eagerly... Indeed, the antediluvian Moss box whose 1st gear is not synchronized has just reminded you of your good memory! Inherited from previous generations of Jaguar and kept for reasons of economy, this box has the only quality of being solid and, as its main defect, being slow and unsuitable for a modern sports car, such as the Type E when it was released. This pitfall will be corrected on the 14.2 liter series in the summer of 1964 with a brand new gearbox designed by Jaguar.
We will therefore have to deal with this restive gearbox and take our time to raise and especially lower the gears with the help of a good double-clutch. The precision and frankness of the gear lever then prove to be very useful, unlike the pedalboard, which does not allow, at least on our example, to achieve heel-toe.
And there the criticisms stop, because at the first acceleration, a beautiful smile will settle on your face, a smile that will be accentuated with the first turns.
Not only is it growing, it's growing hard! There is engine capacity and therefore torque to spare, available immediately. The increases in diet are vigorous and very rapid. The repeats are astonishing regardless of the relationship involved. The red zone is set at 5500 rpm on the 3.8 l, but this is absolutely not frustrating as the acceleration is quick and clear across the entire tachometer range.
This big engine really has no difficulty in driving the Type E, whose contained weight, of around 1250 kg, makes you smile today, compared to the pachyderms that are offered to us.
Unassisted steering is direct and very natural. As you might expect on a car from this era, it is not immune to reactions and wobbles a bit on uneven roads.
On the other hand, it provides good information about the grip level of the front axle. And that's a good thing, because negotiating corners in Type E is a delight! The balance of the car is excellent and results from a perfect distribution of the masses, half distributed at the front and at the rear thanks to the central front position of the engine. The suspensions, very modern as we have seen, are neither too soft, nor too hard and very well damped.
The result is an agile and incomparably attentive behavior for a car of this time, while remaining very fun. The torque and the available power make it easy to slide the rear, predictably and progressively if you are used to, in order to wind the turns into a slight drift, without forcing the car. A limited-slip differential, which is reasonably low, is then responsible for maintaining a good level of traction.
What a great car! A real sports car. Especially if, once again, we relate it to its time.
However, not everything is absolutely perfect on this first generation and the first hard braking brings you back to some very objective realities: the brakes are not up to the many qualities of the car, in a 3.8-liter car, of course. The 2nd generation of the 4.2-liter Series 1 will be rid of this problem by equipping itself with a new properly calibrated assisted braking system. But for the time being, that is not the case. You hit the brake pedal and at best only get barely half of what you expected, despite the 4 discs at the cutting edge of modernity. If we add the reactive and delicate handling of the box during downshifts, there's enough to curb your ardor!
An old gearbox and a brake control that is apparently poorly designed are therefore the two faults of the Type E in its first definition (March 61- summer 64): it is funny to remember that at the beginning of the sixties, only the gearbox was criticized while the brakes seemed to satisfy the testers as well as the owners...
My personal experience leaves me perplexed about brakes, in the sense that the XK 150, MK2 contemporary, heavy MkX or 3.8-liter Type E racing, yes, but consistent in terms of equipment, all left me with the memory of satisfactory braking. This has never been the case with any 3.8l Type E that I have ever been given to drive... Was our test car, like all Type E 3.8s, an older car that had been restored or, at least maintained but with the spare parts available today, would have lost some of its original qualities? The question is asked and answers from experienced users are welcome on our Carsup site.
Obviously, this is more true for the coupe than for the convertible, whose watertightness can be improved to say the least. And also for the 4.2 l versions of the 1 series more than for the 3.8 l as we said, due to the improvement of the brakes and the new gearbox in addition to new seats.Nevertheless, you are well seated in a Type E, wedged between the side pontoon and the center console armrest, enjoying excellent visibility Outward and well supported by firm suspensions, just the right amount and never tiring.
All this being said and even if it means repeating ourselves, it is clear that we are in the presence of an extraordinary car. Beautiful to the point of blurring the usual references of beauty, small, small, but housing a large engine made usable thanks to a modern design and elaborate suspensions, fast as well as agile on winding roads and capable of long trips at sustained speed, the Type E is probably the first and one of the few cars to have combined a derivative appearance without deception. in line with the race with real Grand-Tourism skills, for a reasonable price resulting from serial industrial production.
It's the car I've always wanted. In fact, I have one and it will be the last one I will keep.
The Porsche 911 is the archetype of the sports car and its 60-year history is a novel. The first serial 911 left the assembly line in Stuttgart-Zuffenhausen on September 14, 1964. It is an entirely new car, propelled by a new 6-cylinder flat 6-cylinder air-cooled by air, with dry sump lubrication, of 2 liters and 130 hp allowing 210 km/h at a peak. It does not use any elements from its big sister, the 356. The 911 Turbo series, type 930, was presented at the 1974 Paris Motor Show...
The body of the 144, extended by ten centimeters with a redesigned front and a new in-line 6-cylinder engine: this is how, in 1968, Volvo created its first post-war grand tourer.
Investing in classic or luxury cars can be an interesting financial investment, as long as this investment is made on the right models.
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