Unique Jaguar E-type is a customised Jubilee showcase

by Jon Burgess

9 June 2022 2 min read

Jaguar Land Rover Classic pulled out all the stops to show what it could do with the iconic E-type – parading the finished car along The Mall during the Platinum Jubilee Pageant on June 5, together with 25 other significant cars from the marque.

Classic Works found, restored and built an E-type to the customer’s exact specification. The client wanted a car from the year they were born, and its experts located a car built two days shy of the customer’s birthday.

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It previously made E-type headlines when it revealed the battery powered Concept Zero, another car with a Royal connection, since Harry and Meghan drove it away from their wedding in 2018. Jaguar Classic has also customised Jaguars for celebrities – in the same year, Iron Maiden drummer, Nicko McBrain, ordered a special Series III.

The team, based in Canley, West Midlands, already restores E-types under the Reborn programme to factory specifications – but the enthusiast behind the Jubilee car wanted more than just a pristine, ‘as new’ E-type, so Classic’s Bespoke team got involved. The car that resulted paid homage to British iconography and the Union flag, but was closer in spirit to Classic’s mechanically uprated E-type 60 collection cars or Eagle’s Speedster.

A one-off, the finished 1965 E-type Series 1 roadster uses an uprated 4.7-litre engine, a five-speed gearbox, and features better brakes and revised suspension.

The work took 12 months, with the E-type’s colour scheme inspired by the blue of the Union flag for the body and the red of pillar boxes for its seats and trim. Former soloist of the Royal Ballet, Eric Underwood, joined the E-type’s owner his car as the convoy took part in the Jubilee celebrations.

Bespoke Lead Engineer, Jaguar Classic, Stephen Hollis, said: “Being able to bring a customer’s vision for their dream E-type to life is hugely rewarding. The result is a complete one-off that showcases the full breadth of capabilities provided by the team at Jaguar Classic.”