Jaguar World Magazine E-type 50th Anniversary Feb 2011 Vorige editie

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…