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As a glance at the cover and contents page will have told you, this special 148-page issue – our first on sale in 2011 – is celebrating the 50th anniversary of a rather special car, the E-type. In truth, it’s impossible to celebrate everything the E-type represents about Jaguar in one issue – it would be difficult to achieve that even in a book – but nevertheless its 50th milestone is one certainly worth marking. After all, what’s indisputable today is that the E-type is still the Jaguar that everybody, car enthusiast or not, has heard of, and its popularity shows no sign of waning. Think of a cliché regarding automotive design perfection and the chances are it will have been applied to the E-type many times over – and probably will be again in the coming year – but the fact remains that it is a car worthy of the attention lavished upon it, simply because of the way it makes people feel. And it makes people feel good. Just how good was demonstrated to me in September of last year when I was fortunate enough to take part in the Coventry to Goodwood 75th Jaguar anniversary drive alongside Kent Nicholls in his E-type 2+2 fixed-head (a story you’ll read in full in a future issue). The last few miles of the first day’s drive took us right into central London… and all too predictable nose-to-tail traffic. But while it meant slow progress for us, the traffic gave plenty of onlookers the opportunity to gawp at the E-type – and gawp, take pictures, wave and smile they did too. The collective feeling of positivity they showed was summed up by one black cab driver who leant out his window, pointed at the E-type and bellowed: “Hey mate, if I won the lottery you can keep your Lamborghinis, that’s what I’d be buying!” And that’s the great thing about an E-type; you don’t even have to own one to enjoy it…