Showing posts with label E-Type. Show all posts
Showing posts with label E-Type. Show all posts

12 Nov 2013

Stretched E-Type even has a trailer for added convenience.


  • The E-Type that Jaguar Cars should have built
  • Unique trailer built to complement the car

The world’s first stretched E-Type has been unveiled and will go on show in London later this week at a major automotive awards ceremony.

Built in 1968, the left hand drive Jaguar E-Type series 1 4.2 roadster has been stretched by four and a half inches during a major restoration carried out by Classic Motor Cars Limited of Bridgnorth (CMC).


Nick Goldthorp, Managing Director of CMC, said: “The car is phenomenal to drive. This is the E-Type that Jaguar Cars should have built. The extra space makes all the difference and actually alters the whole attitude of the car.”

During the rebuild the owner, a client in the United States who intends to travel widely in country, requested a trailer to be built. CMC built this from two E-Type rear ends joined together.

The trailer is ingeniously connected to the car via a removable tow hitch, which locks into position through the revering light aperture. The reversing light hides the hitch mechanism when the trailer is not in use. This is another first for CMC and the world of Jaguar.


The E-Type has been named “the Kaizen” by Paul Branstad, the owner, and takes its name from one of Toyota’s founding principles, Kaizen, which means “understand the imperative to make continuous improvements and then get to work.”

Paul Branstad said that he had named the E-Type in this way because he thought that the original Jaguar designer, Malcolm Sayer, would have approved of what he wanted to do to the car while preserving its essence.

He added: “The stretched E-Type I have conceived sits between the Series I and the subsequent vehicles produced after the merger and formation of British Leyland, when the design of the cars underwent several transformations as a consequence of cuts in production costs and the need for more space that resulted in the Series II 2+2 and Series III V12.”

Nick Goldthorpadded: “This is something that we have never done before. Our client wanted the interior leg room of a Series 3 V12 E-Type but the aesthetics of a Series 1 car.”

“We have added four and a half inches to the floor pan, which will give the leg room of the V12 plus an additional one inch if required. The V12 was actually nine inches longer than a Series I but a lot of the additional room was behind the seats as storage and was not required on our project.”


Nicksaid: “By adding four and a half inches to the length of the car we were able to retain the overall look of the Series 1 and also turn this E-Type into a unique car.”

Along with these radical developments, the roof line has been raised by 1.25 inches above the drivers head and the boot floor lowered and reshaped to build in a 20 gallon fuel tank and to allow a wider spare wheel as the car was fitted with 16” diameter wire wheels shod with lower profile radial tyres.

The car has also been built with a host of CMC’s upgrades that range from air conditioning to power steering, upgraded brakes, five-speed gearbox, suspension and handling upgrades, amongst others.

Paul Branstad said: “As an idea, the Kaizen E-Type was a conceit of the imagination but the car itself has now become a reality by taking advantage of modern material and component technologies provided by CMC."

“With nine inches more wheelbase, the 2+2 was too long to be beautiful, but the four and a half inches added to the Kaizen E-type could make the car even more beautiful than the original Series I edition.”

He added: “Perhaps this car would have represented the very last chance for Malcolm Sayer to apply his ideas for the E-Type.”

31 Oct 2013

Rare and lost E-Type found in barn find, located in Le Mans, France, its now back home in the UK.

A rare and exclusive 1961 E Type Jaguar missing for decades recently went under the auctioneers hammer. Purchased by an anonymous buyer for a sum of £88,000 to add to his private collection, the car in question had been missing for many years and was lying in a forsaken farm in Le Mans, France.

Jaguar_E_Type (2)

Surfacing last month, the E Type gained international interest and was put up for auction by Ascot based Coys auction house.
Rush Lane

Earlier estimates had put the value of the car at £20,000 to £40,000 though auctioneers stated that its knock down price could reach upto £100,000. The buyer is from South of England and purchased the car on Saturday afternoon for a total amount of £88,040.

The 1961 E Type Jaguar was the 40th right hand drive coupe produced from the company plant in Coventry in 1961. It was purchased by the selling vendor in 1969 and taken to France in 1974 where it has been since. The car needs some restoration but according to auctioneers is still in very good condition.

REPORT HERE

13 Sept 2013

Jaguar turns up in force at the Goodwood revival 2013


  • More than 30 competition Jaguar and Jaguar-powered racers set to compete at Goodwod Revival (13-15 September)
  • The popular St Mary’s Trophy race dedicated to the memory of Jaguar racer, dealer and team manager John Coombs
  • New film by renowned British model David Gandy driving iconic Jaguar sports cars and new F-TYPE convertible available for public viewing at Jaguar stand in ‘Earls Court Motor Show’ exhibition at Goodwood Revival
  • Current Jaguar models to join recognised classic models in Earl’s Court Motor Show’ exhibition

Jaguar will have a huge presence at the 2013 Goodwood Revival, which opens its gates tomorrow to a sell-out crowd of keen and enthusiastic historic motor racing fans.

Over 30 historic Jaguar and Jaguar-powered race cars will be competing wheel-to-wheel at the unspoiled Goodwood Motor Circuit over the Revival weekend, with racing C-types, D-types, E-types and Mark II saloons out in force, often leading the grid, including a number of very famous, priceless and notable examples of the marque.

Expect to see Jaguar C-types leading the charge in Friday evening’s 90-minute Freddie March Memorial Trophy race into the dark, marking the 60th anniversary of the Goodwood Nine Hour races that occasionally ran in the mid-1950s.  Jaguar Heritage Racing driver Alex Buncombe won this race in 2012 behind the wheel of a stunning C-type once owned by Formula 1 legend Juan Manuel Fangio.

Jaguar XK140s promise exciting racing in the Fordwater Trophy for production-based sports cars of a type that raced between 1955 and 1960, and a number of D-types will be vying for victory in the Sussex Trophy, competing against contemporary sports cars from Ferrari, Maserati and Aston Martin.  Over a dozen E-types and E-type lightweights will compete in the hard-fought two-driver Royal Automobile Club TT Celebration race for closed-cockpit GT cars.

The popular St Mary’s Trophy for 1960s saloon cars will have a special poignancy this year as the race is dedicated to the memory of the great driver, racing team manager and renowned Guildford Jaguar dealer John Coombs.  Coombs achieved fame with his racing Jaguar Mark II saloons, with the distinctive registration plates BUY 1 and BUY 2, as often driven by such motor racing greats as Graham Hill.  Appropriately ex-Coombs Jaguar Mark IIs will be completing in the St Mary’s Trophy over the Revival weekend.

Away from the excitement of the on-track racing, numerous historic Jaguar models will be present at Goodwood, with team support cars dotted around the scenic paddocks, and examples of almost every classic Jaguar model parked-up in the huge Revival Car Show car park for pre-1966 vehicles, based just over the road opposite the main Goodwood circuit entrance.

The new Jaguar F-TYPE will be on display on the exhibition stand inside the nostalgic Earls Court Motor Show, where the brand’s lineage can be clearly seen, contrasting the stunning F-TYPE with two classic E-type sports cars.

The famous British model David Gandy will premiere his new short film, Escapism, on the Jaguar stand in Earls Court. This film features David driving some of the most famous sports cars ever produced, and celebrates the latest addition to Jaguar’s iconic sporting bloodline, the new F-TYPE convertible.

In the film Gandy gives us insight into his life as he invites us on a road trip that starts at dusk as he escapes ‘the craziness of London’.  It features the style icon driving his favourite British heritage cars from the C-Type, E-Type and XKSS, through to the very latest F-TYPE.

Gandy discusses his passion for driving; “that feeling of freedom, just you and the car” and how driving is his ‘meditation’. Throughout, he wears the same Persol sunglasses as one of his icons, Steve McQueen, who famously owned a Jaguar XKSS that he affectionately called the "Green Rat".