Background
Whether Enzo Ferrari actually called the Jaguar E Type ‘the most beautiful car in the world’ or not, there’s no denying its almost unmatched visual allure. The sinuous William Lyons/Malcolm Sayer design provided what was a glorious start to the swinging sixties.
Toss in a 150mph top speed, scorching straight-line performance and a reasonable price tag that just crept over the $5k mark, and Jaguar had a veritable world-beater on its hands. In both soft and hard top forms, it was the quintessential British sports car.
The Series 1 E Types were glorious things, but early cars’ flat floors saw access and egress made difficult for those of longer limbs and the Moss gearbox had a fairly recalcitrant nature.
Cue the 4.2, with bored out engine and an all-synchromesh Jaguar ‘box for an altogether more satisfactory experience. Production of this flavor S1 didn’t last long before the S2 superseded it, so they’re relatively rare.
Whether you go down the Roadster, Fixed-Head Coupe or 2+2 route history, heritage, glamour, performance, kudos, and elegance await – I could go on and extinguish my list of adjectives, and still not get close to doing the E Type justice… especially, this particular example.
