E-type at 60

Six decades of Jaguar’s icon

Oh, to have ridden shotgun on that trip. Jaguar famously unveiled the E-type at the Geneva Motor Show in March 1961. It was left to marque stalwart, Bob Berry, to drive the fixed-head coupé demonstrator ‘9600HP’ to Switzerland. When Jaguar’s talismanic founder, Sir William Lyons, realised that a second car was needed on-site, pronto, it fell to chief development driver, Norman Dewis, to guide an open-top roadster to Geneva. He somehow managed the journey from Browns Lane in a whisker over 11 hours…

The E-type caused a furore following its big reveal. And how. The Malcolm Sayer-penned, Lyons-refined outline entered into legend in an instant. Redolent of the D-type, not to mention the E1A and E2A prototypes, the E-type showcased the Coventry firm’s sporting intent. It didn’t really matter that the shape wasn’t as aerodynamically efficient as it might have been or that it suffered from front-end lift at highspeed because it looked sensational – and that was all that mattered to arbiters of beauty.

The E-type represented a stylistic quantum leap forward from its XK150 predecessor, its deceptively diminutive proportions (its wheelbase was six inches shorter, and that’s just for starters) not obvious from photographs. If you were feeling pernickety, you could argue that the rake of the roadster’s windscreen was perhaps a mite lofty, but you would be finding fault for the sake of it. We’re sticking to the pre-1968 cars, incidentally, later editions being perhaps a touch inelegant by comparison.

As we all know by rote, no E-type production car ever managed to reach 150mph as The

Autocar famously did aboard the lightly breathed-on demonstrator. Even so, it was still mind-bogglingly quick by contemporary standards; here was a car that was comfortably faster than most vowel-laden exotica and boasted advanced monocoque construction and independent rear suspension. Not only that, it comfortably undercut them all on price.

A coupé could have been yours – if you didn’t mind waiting – for £1550 back in 1961. By way of comparison, the Aston Martin DB4 was £4000 and the Ferrari 250 GT £6600. Little wonder, then, that demand outstripped supply and it had its rivals running for cover.

WIN ON SUNDAY, SELL ON MONDAY

Jaguar famously used motor racing as a means of promoting its wares. The E-type’s competition debut was belated, mind, because Jaguar didn’t supply cars quickly enough for privateer entrants John Coombs and Tommy Sopwith to field at Goodwood’s Easter meeting in 1961. This was due in part to industrial unrest at the body-making plant. It was left to Graham Hill and Roy Salvadori to ensure that the car made an impression in the 25-lap Trophy Race at Oulton Park a few weeks later. Hill won in the Equipe Endeavour entry with ‘Salvo’ third ( he had led for much of the way until his car’s brakes wilted). As debuts go, it was beyond emphatic. Ferrari certainly thought so; depending on whose version of history you believe, the 250 GTO was ushered in as a direct response to the perceived threat from Coventry.

Jack Brabham raved about the E-type after testing ‘77RW’ – the car that Dewis drove out to Geneva – in Motor Racing magazine. Then merely a two-time F1 World Champion, the Australian gushed: ‘The performance really is fantastic… All in all, this is a car for superlatives.’ Not that the E-type was ever a dedicated competition tool – the dozen ‘Lightweights’ aside – it was intended as a road car, pure and simple. And, just as night follows day, the beautiful people flocked to the newcomer. Jaguar struggled to accommodate them even then, but Frank Sinatra was one of the few who got one during the early production run.

The first personal sale, though, was to French actor, Jacques Charrier, the then-husband of the original ‘sex kitten’, Brigitte Bardot. Not that Coventry’s finest appeared particularly bothered by celebrity endorsements; the producers of The

Saint famously requested a Series 1 for the Roger Moore vehicle and even offered to buy one, only to be rebuffed. Instead, they went with a Volvo P1800 and the Gothenburg marque surfed a global publicity tidal wave off the back of the famous association.

The Stateside market was particularly important to Jaguar, Road & Track reporting in September 1961: ‘…to sum up this car in the third sentence of a report may be unusual, but for us it is easy to do. The car comes up to, and exceeds, all our greatest expectations.’

In a subsequent, more in-depth test, this influential title stated it: ‘…offers the ultimate in performance matched by superb road-holding and braking, at a remarkably low price.’ It also famously labelled the XK-E (as it was known in North America): ‘The greatest crumpet collector known to man.’

IMPROVING THE BREED

For all the positive ink in period, the E-type wasn’t without its flaws. The seats in the early

‘flat floor’ cars were less than supportive, and the brake servo wasn’t up to much, but improvements were soon made. Those in the know reckon that the 4.2-litre variant is the best all-rounder of the Series 1 cars. Though ostensibly no more powerful than the original 3.8-litre straight-six – 265bhp ( gross) at 5500rpm – the larger displacement unit, introduced in 1964, had more torque – 283lb ft of the good stuff (up from 260). It also came with an all-synchro gearbox, the early Moss ’box being a bit cumbersome. And it was the USA that demanded more space and greater practicality, hence the compromised proportions of the 2+2 coupé that arrived in 1966.

Subsequent E-types never quite lived up to the billing, but are not without their fans. However, it was the Series 1 that ignited a revolution, broke moulds and pushed envelopes. That any number of hot hatches can beat up on one crosscountry these days is no great shock, but it’s the way an E-types feels at speed – that, and the choral bliss that accompanies it – which makes driving one so compelling.

Autosport’s John Bolster described reaching 60mph in 6.8 seconds as being ‘almost incredible’ back in 1961, which, for a car of this vintage, is still germane. But this is so much more than just a car – the E-type is a thoroughly British cultural touchstone from end to end.

’It didn’t matter that the shape wasn’t that efficient because it looked sensational.’