Jaguar’s New Lightweight E-Type is a Beauty
Through the 14 years the E-Type was in production, Jaguar produced an astounding 72,500 cars total. That’s a heck of a lot of E-Types, something that most of us consider to be quite rare.
Now imagine when they were first being produced that Jaguar had wanted to a make a limited run of 18 lightweight versions of the E-Type? Well they did, sort of. They actually stopped production at 11 and never got the chance to build the last 7 cars. Now enter JLR’s Special Operations unit 50 years later.
The team is underway with building the last 7 Lightweight E-Types the company said it would 50 years ago. Using a 3D scanned 1963 example of the original Lightweight, and went over every single nut and bolt to create a plan for building the new old versions.
The completely stripped and rebuilt the original car just so they could be perfectly exact with every single thing they did creating the new one.
The cars use the same formula as the old ones, aluminum body, engine design from Jag’s LeMans winning D-Type, among other racing parts originally taken from the D-Type.
The car makes around 300 hp and 280 ft-lbs of torque. The car will also be fully certified by the FiA for historic racing, but honestly, the car is just a work of art.
Just look at it. Enzo Ferrari himself said it was the most beautiful car he had ever seen. I’m not saying it should be locked away somewhere never to be found or driven, even though that’s likely, no I’m saying this car should be shown to the world to bask in its glory.
This car needs to be driven, needs to be taken out of the garage or paddock, everyone should get a chance in their lives to see one of these magnificent cars. It would be a crime not to.
The first one completed will be displayed at this year’s Pebble Beach alongside the Jaguar Project 7, and the Range Rover SVR.