The Jaguar E-type is 50 years old this year.

Marking the occasion, Jaguar will be celebrating at high-profile motoring events throughout 2011, including the Geneva motor show, Goodwood’s Revival and Festival of Speed, the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance, the Nürburgring Old Timer Grand Prix and a host of Jaguar customer, dealer and lifestyle events worldwide.

Eagle will of course, be part of the celebrations and we start by joining, and co-sponsoring, the commemorative rally to Geneva. Henry will be driving his personal Series 1 roadster, in which he won the 1989 Pirelli Classic Marathon, alongside 50 other E-Types including Martin Brundle in his Eagle supplied V12 Roadster. We will also be involved with several other events including the Silverstone celebratory meeting at which over 1000 Jaguar E-Types are expected to attend from around the world.

We are all well versed with the sensation generated at the launch in 1961 and since then the stature of the E-type has grown and grown. There is a permanent exhibit in New York’s Museum of Modern Art convincingly demonstrating how E-Type’s are recognized artwork and far more than just a car. 

The now iconic E-type set new standards in automotive design and performance when it was launched in 1961 and its influence is still apparent in Jaguar’s modern range. However, technical standards and expectations have moved forwards by five decades, of course, and so we at Eagle provide the option of adding modern day usability, practicality, durability and performance, when it is desired, making the E-Type more than just a visually beautiful work of art.

Past E-type owners included celebrities such as George Best, Brigitte Bardot, Tony Curtis and Steve McQueen and it became as synonymous with the Swinging Sixties as the Beatles and the mini skirt.

The anniversary is expected to create a surge of new owners worldwide for the model making those examples manufactured in 1961 particularly desirable and fabulously collectable.

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“Half a century of progress has not diminished the significance of the E-type, it was a sensation when it was launched and remains Jaguar’s most enduring and iconic symbol. The E-type is simply one of the most exciting cars ever created and a legacy to the genius of Jaguar’s founder, Sir William Lyons.”

Mike O’Driscoll, managing director Jaguar Cars and chairman Jaguar Heritage

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“It is impossible to overstate the impact the E-type had when it was unveiled in 1961. Here was a car that encapsulated the spirit of the revolutionary era it came to symbolise. The E-type is a design that even today continues to inform the work we do in styling the Jaguars of the future.”

Ian Callum, Jaguar Design Director

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