THE JAGUAR E-TYPE, A CLASSIC MOTOR CAR
It was March, of 1961 that the E-Type made its first public showing at the GenevaMotor Show. The impact on the Motoring Press was about the same as that in October 1948 when the XK 120 was first shown. The E-Types basic premise was much closer to that of the XK 120, a fast, sleek sports car for two people. To achieve this, it lost some of the roominess of the preceding XK 150, and was considerably lighter.
Using the same 3.8 liter engine of the XK 150-S, the E-Type had 265 BHP at 5,500 RPM and 260 ft/lb fo Torque at 4,000RPM. Performance was quite good with a top speed of about 150 MPH with the 6.50X15 racing Dunlop tires, some testers actually exceeded that speed by reving the engine to 6,300 RPM. Standing start acceleration was very good, considering the narrow tires. The typical 0 to 60 MPH taking between 6.9 seconds and 7.4 seconds, the latter figure from Road & Track, with two people and some 125 lbs of test equipment.
The 1961 E-Type owes much of its design to the justly famous D~Type, which ~On the 24 Hours Of Le Mans in 1955,56,& 57. The Jaguar Motor Car company has always ‘called the car theE-Type, not “XKE” as referred to in the U.S., even though the E has the well known XK engine. The three basic E-Types are refened to as Series I, Series II, and Series III, ·the latter being the V-12 engine fitted to the longer wheel base of the Series II 2+2 but in both roadster and coupe form. All three series had a monocoque chassis-body with a separate sub-frame bolted to the body in front. All
of these components were of steel with the exception of some special cars built for racing, even some of these using both steel and aluminum body parts
The E-Type was the first production Jaguar sports car with a fully independent rear suspension, using four coil springs and shocks, with the half-shafts serving as the upper arm and a large tubular lower arm. Fore and aft movement was controlled by radius arms on either side going forward and linking to the body. Torque movement at the hub is controlled by the design of the lower arm, its pivot points widely spaced to either side of the hub assembly. A very good design that features inboar~ brakes which are a bit difficult to change pads on. Naturally the car has four wheel disc brakes like those of the XK 150, but improved several times, as the first E-Types could get brake fade from the small pads fitted.
The 1961-64 E-Type coupe has been named the most outstanding and bea~ful auto design of all times by a distinguished panel of auto
designers; there must be much concurence amoung other automobile manufacturers when you notice the copies of the Jaguar design. The 275 GTB Ferrari is the most obvious but the famed GTO Ferrari racing coupes are also close. The Toyota GT 2000, the Nissan 240Z, the Mazda RZ 7 are some examples.
In late 1964, Jaguar introduced a 4.2 liter version of the XK engine which still produced 265 BHP, at 5,400 RPM, but torque was up to 283 lb/ft at 4,000 RPM. The red-line on this engine begining at 5,000RPM instead of the 3.8L’s 5,500 RPM. Performance was just about the same even though the weight was up by about 110 pounds. With more torque, the English versions of the E-Type were usually fitted with a 3.07 to 1 rear a~ gears instead of the later 3.81 cars 3.54 to 1 gears, so this acounts for the top speed being about the same but at a slower engine speed in the 4.2.
The E-Types forte is its top gear acceleration, from 50 to 70 taking only 5.3 seconds in a 3.8 roadster (really a convertible), and 5.4 in a 3.8 coupe while a 4.2 coupe took 6.0 seconds. A 12 cylinder roadster covering the same speed range in 5.6 seconds. It is interesting to note the coupes more streamlined shape coming into play as these 20MPH increments used by British car magazine testers move up to higher speeds. The 90 to 110 taking 6.3 for the coupe versus the roadsters 6.6 seconds, and the 110 to 130 MPH difference is 8.5 to 10.4 seconds. Even the V-12 roadster was not as quick ast the 3.8 coupe, taking 10.2 for the 100 to 120MPH run, while the 3.8 coupe covered that in 7.2 seconds and the 4.2 coupe taking 7.8 for the same speed range.
The fastest 0 to 60 standing start goes to the English version of the Series III roadster, this was 6.4 seconds, but the car has bigger tires and more weight on the back wheels (this is why a Porsche 911 gets off the line so well), but the U.S. version could only record 7.4 when tested by Road & Track. One well known U.S. automotive magazine allways publishes a top gear acceleration from 30 to 50 and 50 to 70MPH, they would get some slow times for five speed manual shift cars but very good figures for automatic transmission that naturally downshift when you mash the gas pedal. Their best time for all stick shift car announced a year or so ago, was the Porsche 928 covering the 50 to 70 mph in 7.0 seconds (but a road test in the same issue,of the 88 Corvette, gave 5.6 seconds), quite a bit slower than the E-Type.
One ofthe nicest features of the new 4.2L version of the Series I E-Type was the new fully syncronized four speed transmission, replacing th~ old Moss box used in the XK series up through the XK 150. The overdrive feature availablei- in the XK 150 and the XK 140, was not availablee in the E-Type except that a few were installed in the longer wheelbase 2+2 coupes (most of these came with automatics). Besides being able to shift down into first gear smoothly, the other difference was the location
of reverse gear. The Series I cars ran the afoul of the U.S. emissions laws. by 1967, so in 1968 we received the Series II cars, with only two carburetors.; Strombergs, instead of three S.U.s, and uncovered headlights and side and tail lamps below the bumber. The main plus of the Series II is the cooling system was much better, two fans and. a larger air inlet meant a cooler rurning car. Also, I think the two carb version
ruq$ smoother around town, but of course is not as fast as the earlier cars. The BHP figure dropping to 240, also most Series II cars sent to the U.S. had 3.54 gears in the differential instead of the 3.07 or 3.31 gears in the Series I cars. Top speed ina Road & Track road test was only 119MPH, not as fast as a standard 160BHP XK120, although I believe a well tuned version should top 122-124 if you edged it over 5000 RPM. I briefly had a 1970 roadster that had 9 to 1 compression pistons and a 3.31 rear axel gears. The c~r had been sitting for three years non-running, so I bought
it and fixed up to sell – should have kept it and sold my coupe. When driving through
Orange County at 4PM rush hour, the car delivered over 22 MPG which I think was quite good, and never over heated. By 1971, the Series III with the new V-12 engine of S.3L was intrudoced. The English version had 272BHP (net) at 5850 RPM and 304 lb/ft (net) of torque at 3600RPM. Some of the early versions actually put out 314BHP, but the U.S version had 250 BHP in 1972, and 241 in 1974 with the torque figures being 288 and 285 ft/lb. The Series III could be had with manual shift or automatic, and with wire wheels of disc, and in two passenger roadster or a 2+2 coupe. The last E-type was made in February, 1975, falling victim to the increasing U.S. Regulations for smog and saity as this country was the main market. The Series III had grown lard rubber bumper extensions, but Jaguar thought the basic design not adaptable to the raised heights required in the States. There was a total of 72,507 E-Types made between 1961
and 1975 when production stopped. Now I said the E-Type is a Classic, some of my friends in the Classic Car Club of America say no way but what do those ~keys folks know, they don’t even consider an XK 120 a Classic. Just look up in Webster’s the definition of “classic” and the E-Type, as well as the XK’s, fit that definition.
