On July 18, 1955, in sunny Southern California an icon was born when Walt Disney opened the gates to his vision of an amusement park for all ages—Disneyland. Some will remember that in those early days of Disneyland, visitors needed tickets to experience the various rides and attractions. The more subdued rides might call for an “A” or “B” ticket, but the most thrilling rides—the ones everyone wanted to experience—required the best and most valuable ticket—an E-ticket. While Disney created the notion of an “E-ticket ride,” by the end of the 1950s, halfway around the world in England, Sir William Lyons and his Jaguar Motor Car Company were laying on plans for their own “E” thrill ride.
The 1950s were halcyon days for Jaguar. With post-war demand for sports cars reaching record levels, Jaguar’s iconic XK120 two-seater quickly became a must-have amongst the American and European “sporty car” set. Alongside success in the showrooms, the ’50s also marked a period of near total domination by Jaguar in long distance racing, including 24 Hours of Le Mans victories in 1951, 1953, 1955, 1956 & 1957. However, by 1957 the Le Mans victories were getting harder to come by. Likewise, the XK120/140/150 line of sports cars was beginning to look dated and obsolete compared to the onslaught of exotic offerings from companies like Ferrari, Maserati, Porsche and Mercedes-Benz. Jaguar needed a new flagship sports car to carry it into the ’60s.
After the 1956 Le Mans victory, Jaguar removed itself from international competition as a manufacturer. In its stead, the racing department was given the project of developing a new road-going sports car based on the monocoque-style construction techniques used in the Le Mans-dominating D-types. This new project was code named the E-Type (carrying on from the racing C-Type and D-Types, which preceded it), with construction of the first prototype (E1A) beginning in November 1957. This aluminum prototype featured a monocoque center-section with a forward tube frame section carrying fully independent suspension and the 6-cylinder powertrain from the XK series. E1A served as a test bed for Jaguar engineers who literally drove the car into the ground at their MIRA test facilities in England.
The next significant development in the E-Type line was a purpose-built racecar designated E2A. This car was similar to E1A and the D-Type before it, in terms of its monocoque construction, but it was in E2A’s suspension where the future of the E-Type road car would be found. At the front was a fully independent arrangement with slender, forged wishbones sprung by longitudinally located torsion bars and an anti-roll bar connected to the lower wishbone. At the rear, E2A featured a rigidly mounted differential unit with inboard disc brakes, with large fabricated steel wishbones connecting to cast alloy hubs. E2A’s power came from a 2,997-cc, inline 6-cylinder engine (ala the XK) but with an aluminum block that saved some 80-lbs of weight off the front end of the car.
Jaguar used E2A and an all steel version of E1A for extensive testing right up through 1960. Though the factory never actually raced E2A, American racer Briggs Cunningham convinced the factory to let him race the car at Le Mans in 1960, when he saw the car forlornly sitting in a corner of the Jaguar factory. While E2A was one of the fastest cars at Le Mans that year, troubles with its Lucas fuel injection eventually forced it to retire.
Production Begins
The Jaguar E-Type, as a production car, made its world debut at the Geneva Motor Show, in March of 1961. Initially released only for export, the first E-Types (known as Series 1) were offered in either fixed head coupe (FHC) or open two-seater format. With a sexy, curvaceous body penned by designer Malcolm Sayer and constructed from 20-gauge steel, the striking package reputedly inspired Enzo Ferrari to proclaim it, “The most beautiful car ever made.”
In its finished production form, the Series 1 E-Type featured a 3.8-liter, 6-cylinder engine sourced from the XK 150S, breathing through triple SU HD8 2” carburetors. Suspension was as developed on the E2 prototypes with independent coil spring rear suspension, torsion bar front suspension and disc brakes on a all four corners (a standard feature pioneered by Jaguar in 1958 on the XK150). While the interiors of the early Series 1 cars were beautifully trimmed out with leather bucket seats and trim, the interior did come in for early criticism for a relatively uncomfortable driving position and lack of seat adjustability for tall drivers.
However, whatever criticisms may have been laid against the interior were soon forgotten once reviewers began driving the E-Type. With light and responsive rack and pinion steering, and the ability to accelerate from 0-60 mph in under 7 seconds with a top speed of 150 mph, the new E-Type was nothing short of a revelation. According to one of the very first reviews of the E-Type, in The Motor, “The sheer elegance of line which Jaguar seem able to produce by total disregard for fashion trends is allied to a combination of performance, handling and refinement that has never been equaled at the price, and we would think, very seldom surpassed at any price.” Road & Track summed up the E-Types future in the U.S. when it wrote in September of 1961, “If a new car ever created greater excitement around our office than the new Jaguar XKE, we can’t remember it.” Amazingly, this new sports car came at price of just $5,800, by comparison the Ferrari 250 GTO which came out a year later had a price tag of $23,000.
Needless to say the Series 1 XKE did brisk business with 15,498 examples being sold from 1961 to late in 1964. In October of 1964, Jaguar began offering the XKE with an enlarged 4.2-liter engine. Over the next two years, 16,195 examples of this larger displacement variant were sold.
Starting in 1966, a 9” elongated 2+2 version of the XKE was offered, with small jump seats in the rear and the option of an automatic transmission. Rounding out production of the Series 1 cars, from 1967-1968, Jaguar was pressured to produce what came to be known as a “Series 1 ½” for the U.S. market, which visually looked similar to the Series 1, but now featured open headlights (instead of the Series 1’s covered headlights), different dash board switches and twin Zenith-Stromberg carburetors to satisfy new American laws on emission standards. In total, 6,726 “Series 1 ½” cars were sold, bringing the total production run of Series 1 cars up to an impressive 38,419 examples.
Series 2
From 1969-1971, the XKE adopted many of the attributes dictated by the American market and seen on the “Series 1 ½”. These included the removal of glass headlight covers, a wraparound rear bumper, larger front turn indicators, upgraded brakes and a larger mouth opening and supplemental fans to assist engine cooling. In the interior, redesigned seats and a change from toggle to rocker-style dash switches were made to improve ergonomics, while air conditioning and power steering became new factory options. Though regulations in the U.S. began to rob the XKE of some of its performance, sales were still brisk with as many as 18,809 examples being sold in just a three-year period.
Series 3—End of the Line
In 1971, the E-Type underwent its final transformation with the introduction of a new 5.3-liter V-12 powerplant. Offered in only convertible and 2+2 configurations, the now heavier E-Type required the increased horsepower from the new V-12 engine to offset the losses in performance by ever increasing governmental regulations and the increasing weight that these requirements brought with them. Despite no longer being a design on the forefront, 15,287 examples of the Series 3 XKE sold from 1971 until the model was finally discontinued in 1975.
Cat for the Track
While the XKE was never intended to be a racecar, with its racing pedigree and remarkable performance it didn’t but a few weeks for racers the world over to see the model’s potential in GT racing. While the E-Type was released in March of 1961, it made its first foray onto the racetrack just a few weeks later in April at England’s Oulton Park. Entered in the 25-lap GT Trophy race was Formula One star Graham Hill behind the wheel of the privately-entered Equipe Endeavour XKE, while Le Mans winner Roy Salvadori wheeled an XKE entered by John Coombs. Despite a field filled with Aston Martin DB4GTs and Ferrari 250 GTs, Graham Hill won the race with Salvadori finishing in third—thus handing the XKE its first victory on just its maiden outing.
The car that Salvadori raced (known then as BUY 1, from its license plate) would continue to be raced and developed in Europe, including in 1962, a rebodying of the car in lighter gauge steel and aluminum, essentially making it one of the first “Lightweight” racing E-Types, of which 12 examples wee built. Re-licensed as “4 WPD” this historic car went on to do battle with Ferrari’s new 250 GTO and Aston Martin’s lightweight Zagato-bodies DB4GT, all across the great tracks of Europe.
This car still exists today where it can be seen racing at such prestigious events as the Goodwood Revival’s RAC TT race for GT cars. While the E-Type struggled for overall victory in Europe, against Ferrari’s GTO onslaught, in places like Australia, Bob Jane was able to wheel the XKE to the 1963 Australian GT championship.
In the U.S., American sportsman Briggs Cunningham purchased another one of these lightweight E-Types, which he entered in the February 11, 1962, running of the Daytona Continental for Walt Hansgen who won the GT 4000 category and finished 17th overall. Later that year at the 12 Hours of Sebring, Cunningahm co-drove the car with John Fitch, resulting in the duo winning the GT category and finishing 14th overall. The next year Augie Pabst, driving Cunningham’s E-Type would repeat the previous year’s Daytona win, while another lightweight E-Type, entered by West Coast dealer Kjelle Qvale for Frank Morrill and Ed Leslie would again claim the GT honors at Sebring (and 7th overall) finishing just ahead of the Cunningham-entered XKE being driven by Bruce McLaren and Walt Hansgen.
After the Cunningham effort, racing successes for the E-Type in America became fewer and farther between. However, by 1975, British Leyland (which had taken Jaguar under its corporate umbrella) had hired Bob Tullius and his Group44 race team to field a Series 3 V-12 racecar in the SCCA’s B-Production championship. Competition for this well-prepared team came from a number of sources including a gaggle of race Corvettes and a competing XKE prepared by Northern California racer Joe Huffaker for driver Lee Muller.
While the racing was tight, Tullius and the Group44 team were able to snatch the championship win from a field of 14 Corvettes and a Porsche Carrera at the SCCA Run-Offs. While this might appear on the surface to have been the final chapter in the XKE’s American racing story, surprisingly, in 1980—nearly 20 years after it was introduced—The Gran-Turismo Jaguar team, from Cleveland, Ohio, fielded a 4.2-liter E-Type convertible for driver Freddie Baker who won that year’s SCCA C-Production championship at Road Atlanta.
Since then, E-Types have continued to see racing success in prestigious historic race meetings around the world.
With racing successes, critical acclaim and nearly 75,000 examples sold between 1961 and 1975, it is difficult to argue with the significant impact that the Jaguar E-Type had on the automotive world. Even today, 50 years after the car was first penned, there is something surprisingly timeless about the silhouette of an XKE. Perhaps more than any other car, Sir William Lyons’s creations was an E-ticket ride that even Walt Disney would have been envious of.
