Showpiece of the Week: Jaguar E-Type Low-Drag
Expensive, beautiful road cars are all well and good, but expensive and beautiful race cars are definitely better...
You have the Classic and Sports Car show to blame for this one. That's because, even at a Bicester Heritage site teaming with stunning old cars, there's still nothing quite like an E-Type to spend a few minutes ogling in the sun. Whether it's Roadster or fixed head, for road or for track, the old Jag still has the ability to attract attention nearly 60 years after launch. Indeed there can't be much else on four wheels that is still received so positively and is still so perfectly suited to making an entrance - 'icon' is an overused automotive term, but the Jaguar deserves nothing less.
So with something special required from the classifieds for this Monday lunchtime, it had to be an E-Type. Not just any E-Type either, but a motorsport car, because the only thing cooler than a classic car is a classic racing car. Especially when it's green with gold stripes.
With Goodwood Revival and similar events more popular than ever, there's been a renewed interest in racing Jaguars in the past few years, encouraged of course by the company's continuation Lightweights. Much like many other legendary sportscars - the Ford GT40, AC Cobra and various Ferraris spring to mind - period E-Types are now so valuable as to be almost unobtainable, making recreation cars all the more appealing.
Recreation cars rather like this one, a 1963 US market E-Type Series 1 FHC; having been imported to Sweden by a Mr H E Johansson, work began in 1989 to build a homage to the Low-Drag E-Types. The ad states that every unstressed part of the car is now aluminium, including the windscreen and window surrounds which are now fashioned from a single piece of aluminium each.
Of course, race specification extends to much more than shedding some weight. A "labour intensive, precise" rebuild of the 3.8-litre XK (to make nearly 330hp at 6,500rpm), Koni adjustable dampers, Sparco seats, bigger brakes, a roll cage and more mean it's a bonafide race car, not just a fancy livery, and that's what makes it desirable.
Because you'll want to race your classic race car, right? Fortunately this one comes with an FIA Historic Technical Passport, valid until the USA, Mexico and Canada host the World Cup after next. A long way off, basically. It's also described as "highly competitive and ready for racing", which means your racing driver excuses can hopefully be left in the book. Moreover, it's suggested that the original build was designed with road use in mind too - imagine if it could still be used on the public highway...
What more do you need to know? It's as gorgeous as any 60s E-Type, but with the running gear and equipment to make it enjoyable to drive today. It's not an original, but it does have the paperwork to ensure it's eligible for historic competition. And while cars to this sort of spec are never going to be bargains - 'Price on Application' would imply that, too - the relative availability of E-Types means it surely won't be quite as crazily priced as certain Astons and Ferraris.
Picture it now: straight-six howling, sun (hopefully) shining and tyres squealing in one of the prettiest race cars ever built. The hard work has been undertaken by someone else and clearly to a very high standard, with the car ready to be raced and enjoyed by its next owner. Why on earth would a Lotto win be spent on a new racing car when you could have an old one as lovely as this?
See the original advert here.
have a drool here
http://classic-jaguar-racing.co.uk/
I sat in the white low drag couple with the blue stripes, very nice place to be and near the top of my lottery list :-)
Fantastic show btw if anyone's interested for next year.
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