Can the Jaguar E-Type Actually Get Better?
Six new Lightweight prototypes, introduced today at Pebble Beach, make a solid case for supremacy.
Photos Courtesy of Jaguar
What’s almost as fantastic as a 1961 Series 1 Jaguar E-Type, the so-called “Most Beautiful Car of All Time”? Six new, hand-built Lightweight E-Types. The cars, showcased this week at the Concours d’Elegance confab in Pebble Beach, may not feature cutting-edge technology—in fact, they’re vintage by design—but they’re the closest thing we’re going to get to a brand new E-Type any time soon.
These six prototypes, crafted at Jaguar’s new Browns Lane factory in Coventry, are being billed as the “missing” chassis from a run of 18 racetrack-ready cars built in 1963. Only 12 made it off the line before production was shut down.
So what will power these willowy, silver knockouts? Like the original racing E-Type, they boast the 4.0 6-cylinder XK engine first introduced in 1948. They also have unibody aluminum frames and weigh in at 250 pounds less than their ancestors. But if the new cars are lighter, they’re also burdened with the weight of an spit shined legacy. Thing is, the guys at Jaguar Land Rover Special Operations know what they’re doing. These beauties have the power to outrace even expectation.
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