Jaguar Unveils Stunning E-Type Restoration During Platinum Jubilee Pageant
This one-off creation highlights the kind of wild things Jaguar Classic can do for discerning customers.
Jaguar Classic is the corner of the British automaker focused on breathing new life into vintage Jaguars of all shapes and sizes. We've seen some impressive metal (panel-beaten, no less) leave its doors in the past five years, and its latest creation is no less a sight to behold.
Jaguar on Tuesday unveiled its latest Classic creation, a one-off 1965 Series 1 E-Type Roadster, as part of the Queen's Platinum Jubilee celebration. The owner who commissioned this car had some very specific requirements, and Jaguar knocked them out of the park.
First, the owner wanted the "new" car built from an E-Type Roadster from the year of his birth. Jaguar managed to find a donor E-Type built just two days after the owner was born. The vehicle was basically rebuilt from the ground up, and the bodywork was painted in a deep blue reminiscent of the Union Jack, while the bright red interior pays homage to the classic British pillar box, a kind of mailbox unique to the United Kingdom and overseas British territories.
Aesthetics were not the only thing Jaguar Classic focused on. The division also went to work on the powertrain, replacing the original 4.2-liter inline-6 gas engine with a beefier 4.7-liter unit. That mates to Jaguar Classic's custom five-speed manual transmission, which was built to slot into E-Types without chassis modifications. Jaguar further strengthened the car's handling with wider wheels and improved suspension components, while new headers and a new exhaust should have it sounding mighty fine.
Jaguar Classic made sure to throw some additional 21st-century love in the car's direction, too. LED lighting will make the car much easier to spot from a distance. Inside, the automaker installed its Classic Infotainment upgrade, which places a small telematics display in the old radio slot, giving the car navigation and Bluetooth capabilities.
We have seen many wild creations from Jaguar Classic in the past. In 2016, the automaker announced that it would build 9 XKSS models to 1957 specifications, each fetching a price tag around $1.5 million. In 2018, we saw the company's modernized take on the D-Type, followed by the all-electric E-Type Zero.