The new Jaguar lightweights

[DonkeyApple]

RYH64E said:

DonkeyApple said:

Personally, I don't think Jaguar are expecting these new cars to go racing which is why they are crafting matching luggage sets. They would just like the ability for them to do so as it will underpin the value. But most importantly, Jaguar need to ensure the cars are accepted in the paddock so that they can sell them in the first instance as most will be buying them for the purpose of club debentures.

I'm sure i read somewhere that the cars aren't even road legal? So if they can't be driven on the roads, aren't eligible for the likes of Goodwood, and the new owners don't want to race them, what's the point in owning one?

If that's true then the bespoke luggage is odd. People who own a Manor House and weekend at their gate house is a pretty niche market.

[RYH64E]

DonkeyApple said:

RYH64E said:

DonkeyApple said:

Personally, I don't think Jaguar are expecting these new cars to go racing which is why they are crafting matching luggage sets. They would just like the ability for them to do so as it will underpin the value. But most importantly, Jaguar need to ensure the cars are accepted in the paddock so that they can sell them in the first instance as most will be buying them for the purpose of club debentures.

I'm sure i read somewhere that the cars aren't even road legal? So if they can't be driven on the roads, aren't eligible for the likes of Goodwood, and the new owners don't want to race them, what's the point in owning one?

If that's true then the bespoke luggage is odd. People who own a Manor House and weekend at their gate house is a pretty niche market.

Seems that way...

http://www.coventrytelegraph.net/news/business/man...

article said:

The cars may be beautiful but they are not entirely practical. The lack of modern safety features means the new cars are not road legal.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2724038/Jaguar-unveil-revived-E-Type-1960s.html

Mail said:

The cars, which won't be road legal, will be hand-crafted at the original home of the E-type, Jaguar's Browns Lane plant in Coventry, England, as part of Jaguar Heritage's first recreation project.

[Roy C]

Anyone know where they were actually built? Browns Lane has been a housing estate for a while.

[The Surveyor]

DonkeyApple said:

RYH64E said:

DonkeyApple said:

Personally, I don't think Jaguar are expecting these new cars to go racing which is why they are crafting matching luggage sets. They would just like the ability for them to do so as it will underpin the value. But most importantly, Jaguar need to ensure the cars are accepted in the paddock so that they can sell them in the first instance as most will be buying them for the purpose of club debentures.

I'm sure i read somewhere that the cars aren't even road legal? So if they can't be driven on the roads, aren't eligible for the likes of Goodwood, and the new owners don't want to race them, what's the point in owning one?

If that's true then the bespoke luggage is odd. People who own a Manor House and weekend at their gate house is a pretty niche market.

The suitcase provision is a throw-back to the old Le Mans rules which dictated that all cars needed to take an FIA suitcase to be eligible. Even the GT40's had to have special aluminium boxes at the back for them:-



More marketing chuff, but there is a genuine reason for them!

[clarki]

I think the presenter summed it up about right - JLR are trying to get a slice of the super-rich's money.

Who can blame them, they run a business at the end of the day. If the past helps feed the future, go for it. Bet there's a lot of other manufacturers wishing they could do the same.

I loved the whole thing, car, watch, luggage...just not the price, lol

[DonkeyApple]

The Surveyor said:

The suitcase provision is a throw-back to the old Le Mans rules which dictated that all cars needed to take an FIA suitcase to be eligible. Even the GT40's had to have special aluminium boxes at the back for them:-



More marketing chuff, but there is a genuine reason for them!

Thanks. I never knew about the luggage element.

[a8hex]

DonkeyApple said:

The Surveyor said:

The suitcase provision is a throw-back to the old Le Mans rules which dictated that all cars needed to take an FIA suitcase to be eligible. Even the GT40's had to have special aluminium boxes at the back for them:-



More marketing chuff, but there is a genuine reason for them!

Thanks. I never knew about the luggage element.

It was mentioned on the program.

[DonkeyApple]

a8hex said:

DonkeyApple said:

The Surveyor said:

The suitcase provision is a throw-back to the old Le Mans rules which dictated that all cars needed to take an FIA suitcase to be eligible. Even the GT40's had to have special aluminium boxes at the back for them:-



More marketing chuff, but there is a genuine reason for them!

Thanks. I never knew about the luggage element.

It was mentioned on the program.

I've been drunk in Devon for the last week. Aiming to watch it tonight if it's on the 4OD thingy.

[lowdrag]

The luggage rule was introduced under the Le Mans regulations for 1960. I have photos of a D-type rear end modified to take a "suitcase". But that misses the point of the E-type, which always had a boot and so could carry luggage anyway. I can get an ordinar (Jaguar) suitcase in the boot and two squash bags, and if you want fitted luggage it can be found here:-

http://www.retroclassiccarparts.com/fitted-luggage...

No, that suitcase provided with the car, like the watch, is all about marketing and soothing the ego of the buyer as he writes out his seven-figure cheque. It is rather too small to be the right size for an E-type anyway.

[Jagmanv12]

Roy C said:

Anyone know where they were actually built? Browns Lane has been a housing estate for a while.

Jaguar Heritage website states "The Heritage Workshop is situated at the historic Browns Lane site in Coventry, UK and was first opened to build the new Lightweight E-type – the first recreation to come from Jaguar Heritage – less than a hundred yards from where the original cars were assembled in 1963."

From memory it's on the eastern side of the site near the Coundon Wedge Road entrance. I think the wood department is still in the same area of the old factory.

[The Surveyor]

The FIA suitcase size was 600 x 400 x 200mm and the E Type (like any other car over 2 litres) would have to carry 2 of them.

I'm surprised nobody has mentioned the chassis plate being housed under the painted sculpture of the E Type, with rivets so the first owner gets the pleasure of riveting it on and effectively 'finishing' his car. More marketing fluffiness lol.

[thegreenhell]

RYH64E said:

DonkeyApple said:

Personally, I don't think Jaguar are expecting these new cars to go racing which is why they are crafting matching luggage sets. They would just like the ability for them to do so as it will underpin the value. But most importantly, Jaguar need to ensure the cars are accepted in the paddock so that they can sell them in the first instance as most will be buying them for the purpose of club debentures.

I'm sure i read somewhere that the cars aren't even road legal? So if they can't be driven on the roads, aren't eligible for the likes of Goodwood, and the new owners don't want to race them, what's the point in owning one?

I'm sure that if anybody expected these cars to go anywhere near a race track then they wouldn't have bothered putting so much heavy filler and so many layers of perfect paint on top of the 'lightweight' body.

[RYH64E]

clarki said:

I think the presenter summed it up about right - JLR are trying to get a slice of the super-rich's money.

I can't see that being the case, 6 cars even at £1m-ish each is a drop in hte ocean for a company the size of Jaguar, plus the costs of setting up a bespoke manufacturing operation can't have been cheap. It only really makes sense for the publicity it generates for their run of the mill cars.

[The Surveyor]

RYH64E said:

I can't see that being the case, 6 cars even at £1m-ish each is a drop in hte ocean for a company the size of Jaguar, plus the costs of setting up a bespoke manufacturing operation can't have been cheap. It only really makes sense for the publicity it generates for their run of the mill cars.

I'm sure the timing of this to coincide with the launch of their new 'E' type, the XE saloon isn't coincidental.

[lowdrag]

No one has yet mentioned either that the first new lightweight was not built by Jaguar but by RS Panels of Nuneaton. They have built a clone copy of the Lindner/Nocker, they have built many replica shells including the correct and original Lumsden/Sargent coupé and so on. James will, when he has time, also be building E1A from the original parts found in the scrapyard. But this first of the few E-types was the prototype, body by RS Panels, engine by Crosthwaite and Gardner. Jaguar then had six "real" cars built to the specification of the RS Panels shell. C & G of course built every engine. A truly in-house job.

[thegreenhell]

lowdrag said:

No one has yet mentioned either that the first new lightweight was not built by Jaguar but by RS Panels of Nuneaton. They have built a clone copy of the Lindner/Nocker, they have built many replica shells including the correct and original Lumsden/Sargent coupé and so on. James will, when he has time, also be building E1A from the original parts found in the scrapyard. But this first of the few E-types was the prototype, body by RS Panels, engine by Crosthwaite and Gardner. Jaguar then had six "real" cars built to the specification of the RS Panels shell. C & G of course built every engine. A truly in-house job.

And I bet if you went to RS Panels and C&G and bought the same parts and had them assembled somewhere like CKL, it wouldn't cost you £1.2M that Jaguar were charging.

[lowdrag]

Ah, but you wouldn't have the - unattached - chassis plate (is that legal by the way?) nor the watch to prove its identity. Nor the framed cheque stub. But yes, to all intents and purposes a "real" car.

[Yertis]

I was planning to watch this documentary but having read about all the marketing bks I won't bother.

[RYH64E]

lowdrag said:

Ah, but you wouldn't have the - unattached - chassis plate (is that legal by the way?) nor the watch to prove its identity. Nor the framed cheque stub. But yes, to all intents and purposes a "real" car.

Reports suggest that the cars aren't road legal anyway, if true it wouldn't matter if the chassis plate is fitted or not.

[a8hex]

lowdrag said:

No one has yet mentioned either that the first new lightweight was not built by Jaguar but by RS Panels of Nuneaton. They have built a clone copy of the Lindner/Nocker, they have built many replica shells including the correct and original Lumsden/Sargent coupé and so on. James will, when he has time, also be building E1A from the original parts found in the scrapyard. But this first of the few E-types was the prototype, body by RS Panels, engine by Crosthwaite and Gardner. Jaguar then had six "real" cars built to the specification of the RS Panels shell. C & G of course built every engine. A truly in-house job.

Now that Jaguar have had the press moulds for the bonnet resurrected I wonder whether they'll become easier to obtain.