Jaguar raids heritage for most expensive E-Type ever

Jaguar has relaunched the original E-Type sports car for a modern-day revival, albeit in the most limited way possible. Back in the 1960s, Jag developed a lighter, leaner racing version of the E-Type to try and put it on level pegging on track with the Ferrari 250GTO.

While the attempt to take on Ferrari was only partially successful, the lightweight E became a star just for its looks and handling alone and went on to become an icon of the Jaguar range. However, of the 18 cars originally scheduled to be built, only 12 were completed.

So here is the first all-new E-Type to have been built since 1975, a perfect, bolt-for-bolt recreation of the original lightweight E, made using the original blueprints in Jaguar’s old Coventry headquarters. The car is such a perfect recreation of the original that it even qualifies for historic racing papers under the FIA’s current regulations.

The price has been set at £1 million for each one. That seems a rather over-inflated price, given that an original lightweight E recently sold at auction for just $214,000.

Power comes from a 3.8-litre straight-six engine with 335hp, closely related to the engine which powered the D-Type Le Mans winners of the 1950s.