With an eye toward competition success, Jaguar embarked on a program to leggera-fy its relatively new E-type early in 1963. Intending to build eighteen such "Special GT E-type cars," in the space of a year, the company instead turned out just twelve of the Lightweight models. And that was that. The six chassis numbers set aside for the cars never constructed lay dormant for the next five decades—until now.
Apparently flush with sporting pride after the successful launch of the F-type roadster and coupe, Jag's going back to the long-hood, short-deck sports-car well and is finally building those final six Lightweight E-types. And why not? If Carroll Shelby shilled his continuation Cobras to good effect, who's to deny Jag the chance at earning megaducats for officially-sanctioned examples of one of its most storied specials?
The original Lightweights featured all-aluminum monocoque construction, with an aluminum hardtop bolted to the roadster body. Other mods included an aluminum block in place of the Series 1 E-type's cast-iron unit, dry sump lubrication, a D-type cylinder head, mechanical fuel injection, and a five-speed transmission from ZF swapped in for the regular production model's Moss unit. While Jaguar officially claims the Lightweights saved 250 pounds over the regular production cars, the savings have been rumored to be greater than that.
The now Indian-owned automaker claims that new Lightweight cars will be built according to the exact specs of the '60s models, right down to the 3.8-liter straight-six engine. We're curious to see just how exact the machines will be, since there was a lot of fiddly-widdly expedient engineering in the '60s. Lessons learned on one special vehicle were applied to the next car built, and besides, these are British rides we're talking about.
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Regardless, we're excited, and not just because a modern E-type redux holds the promise (chance, hope, or prayer) of starting every time the ignition is keyed. Even though it's likely we'll only ever have a chance to encounter these brand-new classics in places like Goodwood or Monterey—given that Jaguar's giving sales preference to established collectors of the marque—who could be opposed to six more E-types in the world?
from Car and Driver Blog http://ift.tt/nSHy27
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