Jaguar goes retro with £1m E-Type
It is still considered the most beautiful car ever made, and now it's back – but the Jaguar E-Type will cost a cool £1 million.
Luxury car maker Jaguar Land Rover says its latest model, Car Zero, will be a retro lightweight E-Type, hand-built by West Midlands craftsmen.
It is the first car to come from Jaguar Heritage, part of JLR's new Special Operations division, based out of a new facility at Jaguar's traditional home in Browns Lane, Coventry. And it is part of a project to finish building a series of Lightweight E-Types that was started 50 years ago.
Only 12 of the 18 planned cars was ever built, so six more Lightweight E-types will be built – each given one of the remaining chassis numbers originally allocated in 1963 to the Special GT E-type project.
Combing classic E-Type style with the latest technology, the car has been built with an light aluminium bodyshell, while under the bonnet a six-cylinder XK engine mirrors the original power units.
The first completed E-Type, dubbed Car Zero, is being shown off at the opening reception to the Pebble Beach Automotive weekend in the USA, which is considered the world's most prestigious classic car event. John Edwards, managing director of JLR's Special Operations team, said: "The E-type is an iconic car, and the Lightweight E-type the most desirable of all."
