Over the many years Jaguar have created some of the most beautiful cars in the world and designed some of the smoothest running engines, the XJ220, the XK8, the X Type and the new XF all of which are among the finest ever cars to be produced by Jaguar, however without a shadow of doubt my favorite Jaguar has to be the heart stopping, stylish, and beautiful XK-E, which is more commonly known as the E-Type.

In March 1961 the Jaguar XK-E was unveiled at Geneva, Switzerland with enthusiastic reaction from the public. Not long after Jaguar started the production of the E-Type in Coventry, England. The design of the E-Type revolutionized sports car design with performance bought about by the 3.8liter, DOHC in line 6 cylinder engine that produced a top speed of 150 mph from its 265bhp, along with the stunning curves, long sloping bonnet and the protective covers over the headlights on the series 1, and an astonishingly quick 0-60 time of 7 seconds. Even by today's standards that is still rapid!, in fact it is easy to understand why Enzo Ferrari called it the 'most beautiful car ever made'.

The handling of the car was improved by included independent rear suspension, torsion bar front ends and not to mention the power assisted disk breaks as standard. Jaguar was the first manufacturer to have this level of specification as standard on all E-Types. The purchase price of 2,000 on the road was also competitive in cars of the same class.

You can pick one of these pedigree cats up from as little as 20,000 (around $30,000) up to 60,000 (around $90,000) depending on what you are looking for, an example of the most expensive will be one the first 500 cars built which had flat floors and external hood latches. These cars are rare and therefore in the higher price bracket. After that, the floors were dished to provide more leg room and the twin hood latches moved inside the car.

In 1966 Jaguar upgraded the engine to a 4.2, 6 cylinder engine. Even though the top speed did not increase the low end torque was significantly improved. This engine was used up until 1971.

In 1969 Jaguar launched the series 2, 80% of which were exported to be sold in the American Market. Unfortunately before doing so Jaguar had to reduce horse power of the car to 171, and limit the top speed to 125 mph, in order to comply with American safety and emissions laws.

A 5.3 V12 engine was included in the series 3 from 1971, and continued until the end of production in 1974, ever increasing fuel prices over here in the UK meant that Jaguar had to change directions, and in doing so produced the XJS to replace the E-Type. During the 14 yeas the car was in production, Jaguar sold over 70,000 E-Types.

For me the Jaguar E-Type is just one of the most beautiful cars that has ever been produced in automotive history with such a high specification as standard and knowing that you can trust and have the reliability brought about by a well established workforce of an English car company. If you ever look at pictures of the car you can understand why it makes me feel proud to be English, if you are lucky enough to see one which is in mint condition, you can guarantee you will feel your heart miss a beat.

Learn more about this author, Richard Mcquilton-Morgan.
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